suntan

I was looking for a snake to photograph in some bushes when I came upon this bug. As you can see, it's got a white belly and as far as I can figure--it's lying on its back trying to get a tan. Not very smart but Hell, most of the college students at UNC do the same thing.

bad kitty

I was reading on my deck the other day, quiet and still, and look what wandered onto the deck with me. It's the neighbor's cat that likes to eat birds!

As you can probably tell from his expression and posture, the cat hadn't noticed me at first. When the flash went off on the camera he was startled. He left soon after, no doubt annoyed that his anticipated meal had to be canceled.

purty vine

I love the way the blooms from this vine look. That's probably why I keep taking pictures of them. This one was taken last week when this side of my birdfeeder, which gets more sun, was at its lushest point. The other side hasn't quite gotten to that point yet.
I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet but I'm hoping to get some pictures of them soon.

wildflowers

I took this picture on Thursday just minutes before a rainstorm hit. I like the small touch of purple down in the corner. Wildflowers, while often unruly and of mixed appearance, have such a charming homey quality to them.

duckies

I took the picture over there to the right a few weeks ago. I wanted to capture the excitement of the kids seeing the ducks in the water, chasing after pieces of bread. And the way that the parents beamed at the antics of their kids.

Unfortunately this scene of casual eating and cavorting was sullied by one bad seed. He first came to my notice when he emerged from the lake and preened by some cypress knees--as you can see in the photo below.


Unfortunately the preening was just a front for more selfish desires. He wanted to be fed--but I had no bread. I was there just to take pictures.

This attitude on my part wasn't welcome, no not at all. As you can see in the bottom picture--this duck gave me the evil eye!

a lot of seed

I took this picture a few days ago. The bird looks like it's daring me to take its seed away from it. Given his diminutive size, I doubt that it was a real dare--but he sure looks like he's willing to take me on.

The picture below is a closeup of the seed in his mouth. It's just a regular sunflower seed but it looks pretty big in his small beak.

I thought I saw a bunny wabbit

The picture above is from the back section of my backyard, near a garden shed. I let the grass grow long back there to encourage wildlife to wander in so I can take pictures. I noticed this fellow while mowing the grass in another part of the yard. He's pretty well camoflauged up there, isn't he?

After a little subtle creeping up, I was able to get close enough to get the picture below. I hope the fellow stays around for a while. Bunnies are so cute. (as long as you're not growing veggies, at least)

flower in rain

I took this picture during a brief pause in the rain a few days ago. It seemed like it was never going to stop--but it did, and this picture was the result. It seems that even though I didn't like having it rain, flowers like this loved it.

yellow and black

This bird kinda looks like a very large version of that yellowjacket hornet I posted a picture of last week. This one is bigger though and makes a different kind of noise--and it's a lot louder. Very pretty though.

I captured this one with my zoom out all the way since he was across a field from me. I didn't think he'd welcome a closer approach. It seems the birds with a lot of color are very skittish.

ugly and pretty

Scenes like this, where nature is crossed by manmade artifacts like this sewer pipe are certainly instructive. While we certainly need the sewer pipes, they're not pretty. It's cute that plants are trying to live on it though.

invasion

The picture above can be viewed at a pretty picture of a blossom just beginning to open. For the more imaginative--and slightly sick--it'll look like some alien plant being that has as it's only reason for being to devour and savor human flesh.

Too many late night science fiction movies, you say? Well I say they're out there and the only reason we don't hear about those nasty plant pods is that they leave no survivors. And look below! (if you dare) There's a lot more pods waiting to hatch!

(no real plants were harmed in the making of this informercial)

blues

I took this picture while walking around the UNC campus at lunchtime. There's lots of pretty displays of flowers here and there on campus. These happened to be near the School of Public Health.


This picture is just detail from the picture above. My new Panasonic camera is 6MP so I can do a lot more enlarging than I could with my old Olympus.

I love the colors here. There's something about blues and light purple that just seems quite soothing.

Give the pictures a click to see them larger. Anything colorful should be seen large as life!

carnivore

Mine, you ask? No, this isn't my cat. It's a cat that roams the neighborhood I live in. Well, used to roam, I should say. He's been hanging around my house quite a bit lately.

Now don't get those warm and fuzzy feelings, folks. He's here simply because he views the bird feeders around my deck as CAT FEEDERS! Thus the title carnivore. Damn cat's already gotten at least 3 birds and the birds are being a lot more careful these days. Fortunately both Cardinals have managed to stay out of his claws.

I must admit I admire the cat's audacity to a degree, and he's quite good at the hunting biz... but I do wish he'd leave the birds alone!

What do you think of this fellow?

He was roaming between my legs as I was outside reading a book on my deck. He didn't seem interested in stinging me--but I finally gave ground and went inside to read. I didn't want to take any chances with the tender flesh of my thighs--a sting there would hurt for days!

The metal he's standing on is one of my patio chairs. I was sitting on it at the time and you can just barely see the outline of my jeans on the right side of the picture. I took the picture wide open at f3.2 so everything out of the focal plane is quite blurred.

yellow rose of NC

I took this picture after work on Monday. It's the only rosebush I have and it's out back against my storage shed. The bloom is flying solo at this point. The only rose that has bloomed so far--but it's a very pretty one so I don't mind.

All I've been posting lately is flowers and birds. I need to increase my variety a little. Any suggestions?

A pair of Cardinals

The other day Grins inquired about the female Cardinal. Here's the pair of them. I've got about 15 or 20 pictures of the male but only 2 of the female. She's exceedingly uncooperative when it comes to being photographed and rarely stays in one place for more than 4 or 5 seconds. By the time I've focused in on her, she's taking off.