It's Happy Woosday!!

Beautiful country Molly, Pikes Peak is a great place to visit!

Well I don't have country side pictures to share but I visited the hen house and I'll share that. Think I'll cook up some chicken tonight on the egg.










There was a feeding frenzy, reminds me of the eggfest I attended in Illinois last year. :ohmy:

I took a pic of this apple thief under my neighbor's apple tree at dust.

My Fennel plants were covered by these Black Swallowtail caterpillars. Really neat looking.



If you irriate them they shoot their osmeterium (yellow thing at top of their head) out and give off a funky odor. It's not really terrible but smells like glue or nail polish. Very interesting to think this keeps them from becoming dinner.

I am not a cat person, but this was a cute cat

I am not a leaf person, but again a cute leaf

Bread from México

my first bug photo, not so good, someday i need to learn how to use the functions on the camera other than micro and automatic :laugh: he was enjoying dinner on the boat gunnel, a nice big juicy greenhead

Thank God something eats Greenheads! Those things can inflict some pain

there doesnt seem to be as many around recently, i remember as a kid in biddefordpools floating out to sea on truck innertubes they would freaking swarm you, you couldnt kill them fast enough :laugh: :laugh: ill take one of those old innertubes anyday compared to all the fancy floats they make for kids now, those tubes lasted years

 
Great photos Chris, the Swallowtail caterpillars are amazing.

I was in Corkscrew Swamp one day and had spotted this Barred Owl late in the day. I returned the next morning to see if I could find it again. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and found him just as he caught his breakfast, a huge Swallowtail caterpillar. The Owl was as curious of me as I was of it and it flew with it's meal to a branch about 4 feet over my head and proceeded to eat it.



Blair

 

 
That's interesting, I wonder if they are treating/spraying the marshes to keep the numbers down? When I was growing up we spent our summers on the beaches of Duxbury and the S.O.B.'s could make your life miserable. I think when I moved down here I traded them in for the No See Um's, they can cover every inch of exposed skin and make it feel like it is on fire. LOL. We have Lee County Mosquito Control down here that has more aircraft then many third world countries. They don't use the chemicals that they used to. They used to fly formations of DC-3's at tree top level fogging the entire county. They would come roaring over the house a little after sun up so low you could see through both sets of windows and the pilots would wave, shaking all the dishes and windows, and a minute or two later you would be fogged in - white out. It was a heck of a way to wake up.

Blair

 

havent seen the white fog truck in maybe 25 years :laugh: the most ive seen done against the greenheads is the black trap boxes in the marshes. horseflies on the other hand are still out there in droves if your in the wrong place :laugh:

 
Hi BR

The hawk might be a Rough-Legged Hawk, the feathering all the way down the legs with the spots makes me suspicious. It's vey hard to tell with out seeing the rest of the bird. They are fairly common up north, your lucky to have it for a neighbor. They feed mostly on small rodents.

Great water drop shot, what is your set up for that? I have been meaning to give that a try.

Blair

 

Welcome to Texas. There was a conference on campus last week, and they brought in this Longhorn so that all of the "furriners" from other states could get a proper welcome. I told them to take the fertilizer with them when they were done.

LR

Thanks Blair,

I have been searching the net for the hawk but can't pinpoint it. I live in the South and in the city (Houston) so was a bit surprised when they nested across the street. Here is another shot:



The water shot was a red plastic bowl full of water sitting in the kitchen sink and a very slow drip from the faucet. I walked by and went, "wow, cool shot." I used a Sigma 105mm DG macro lens set on a tripod with a flash. When the drop fell I fired away. This one was f/2.8 at 1/60 sec with an ISO of 200 at 105mm. Although the Sigma is cheap, it has been a pretty decent macro lens...

Broccoli: