After seeing the sights today in Rockport, we got ready to leave and decided we weren’t ready to go home. So, we headed a bit farther south to Port Aransas and checked into a little hotel that we stayed at once about 10 years ago.
We spent the day fishing on the jetty. We fed a lot of fish, saw a lot of sea birds and ships coming in and out of the bay.
We stayed til after sunset when the mosquito hoardes drove even the hardiest of fishermen away.
We had a visitor on the sliding glass door late last night. He was attracted to the light I suppose.
After seeing this picture, I think it’s time to call the window cleaners again 🙂
We’re birdsitting for two weeks for friends Doray and Tom, who are off on a cycling trip in France. His name is Mr. Echo, and he’s a red-bellied parrot.
It’s been a while since we’ve had bird noises in the house.
We got an early start on a much needed deep clean of the house today. Later in the morning Monte was outside sweeping the patio when he told me that there was a praying mantis on one of the patio chairs. I grabbed my camera and started taking a bunch of closeups. The contrast is a bit poor because this bug was pretty much the same color as the chair.
This shot was taken a couple of seconds before he (she?) lept the few inches of space between it and the camera and hung on to the lens. It’s a good thing this Canon D10 is shock-proof as well as waterproof because I proceeded to scream and drop the camera.
Nothing like a close encounter with an insect to get the blood flowing…
Yes, it’s another shot at the hummingbird feeder. This time it’s a pair of house finches. They hung out for quite a while today, while the usually territorial hummingbirds kept their distance.
A bunch of A, B and E dockers descended on Shades this afternoon for drinks. We met up with Ace, Teri, Michelle, Tony, Lori, Joe, Wally, Rob and Jen.
Had a great sail up to Bee creek, and an aborted Sturgeon Moon raft-up. Very sorry to miss iPod wars and all the carrying-on.
This is a shot of a Blue Heron that had parked itself at the end of a ramp on one of the docks in Bee creek. He sat there for at least 30 minutes. I wasn’t sure if it was real until we buzzed by a second time. He was just hanging out in a bit of shade on another 100+ degree day.
We spent the afternoon cutting and bundling up dead branches from several trees in the yard. Hard work on a hot day. This dragonfly kept landing on this same little twig on one of the cut branches. The detail on his wings reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright window/glass design.
We are rafting up tonight with friends in one of the Arkansas Bend coves. We always see these little dragonflies about. This one let me get pretty close.
Went for a walk after dinner tonight. These are the neighborhood goats that live at the end of the street. Always happy to greet the people walking by in case they’ve brought goodies to eat. Check out their eyes — they have rectangular irises.
Long day. I walked around out back, after the rain had stopped coming down. We’re having a very different kind of summer than last year. It’s the end of July, it hasn’t hit 100 yet, and the rain has been frequent enough to not have to water the lawn much. Nice.
I took this shot of some of the Penta blooms in the garden. I didn’t notice the little spider until I uploaded them to view.
About a month ago I put up a finch feeder with some nyjer seed in it because we had seen some finches trying to feed on the hummingbird feeder.
The other day we saw a bird on it for the first time, but I was not able to get a photo. I had my camera out today when I saw a couple taking turns on the feeder. The finch feeder has openings for seed below each perch. So, when the birds want to eat they hang from the perch upside down and pick seeds out of the openings. This photo isn’t great. You may not be able to make out much. But it’s the one I’ll use because it made my day.
I looked it up in our bird book and online and I believe this is a black-capped chickadee.
I have been working on my stealth technique for stalking hummingbirds. I bought a mini-tripod. I’ve even read the manual. I learned about fixing the auto focus. I learned how to reduce degradation of the image when I go past the 3x optical zoom max. This is the best shot I’ve gotten so far. I’d like to learn how to modify the contrast when taking the picture. The oak tree behind the feeder and the light at this time of day makes it difficult to have the image in the foreground pop. But I’m pleased with the result so far. I guess I can give the little birdies a rest, for now.
I’m host tonight for a book club / girls night out that I’ve been involved with for a while. So, I went out back to cut some flowers to bring inside and saw this really pretty butterfly. When he flew by I didn’t think he was all that interesting because all I could see was beige. It was starting to rain while I was outside, so he seemed happy to stay on this piece of siding to get out of the rain. When I got closer I saw the detail on his wings and his faint greyish blue body. I’m amazed at all the unique beautiful things out there.
Pretty cool, I think.
It was about a month ago that I put out the hummingbird feeders. Three in the backyard, and a new one in the front — right outside the kitchen window.
I haven’t seen any in the backyard yet, but the feeder in the front is very popular with the little birdies.
I’ve been trying for almost a week to get a picture of one of them. They’re funny birds. The problem with having the feeder right outside the window is that they have a better view of me than I do of them. Whenever I try to creep up with the camera they fly away. As a result, I’ve gotten several hundred shots of the empty feeder.
Yesterday I tried modifying my stalking approach. I put the camera on continuous shoot mode and closed the blinds as low as I could, yet still be able to see if they’re there.
This little guy would take a sip, then fly off and look for me. Then take a sip and fly off and hover again. This went on for about a minute today. This shot isn’t great, but it’s the best of the bunch. If I’m able to improve my stealth technique and it yields a spectacular shot, you’ll be sure to see it here in a future post.
By the way, here’s the recipe I use to fill the feeders:
Hummingbird Nectar
1 part sugar : 4 parts H2O
Bring to a boil for several minutes.
Let cool completely.
Probably shouldn’t leave in the feeder for more than a week or so.
Sheila365 