§ Wild Thing...I Think I Love You

As I have been working at cleaning out my photo folders this week, I found that I was collecting Dragonfly Photos over many months' time...




linking to:  Camera Critters - Weekly Top Shot - Saturday Critters



This section is all about wildflowers and such today with mouse-over captions [scroll mouse over images for text --I don't think the mouseover works with the Lightbox Enlargement tho, just the blog post only]. Kinda an eclectic array of photos from the past several months as I continue to delete some from folders. From Springtime in and around the Coastal Bend, to the summer's Button Bush; found on the islands, in-town parks and so on. Mostly what Bud and I see when we go walking and birding. Other than birds.  My favorite here is the cat tail---

If you're reading the mouseover captions, the last image, the seaweed [sargassum]....it's a nasty time of year on the beaches! This happens yearly; seasonal. The seaweed is an unending nuisance for beach-goers. Several yards out to sea with the ocean currents, the water is a sickly brown-yellow with this weed washing in to shore. It smells like something from the sewer, and the odor really isn't pleasant to us humans...but boy, oh boy, the shore birds love it!! The two counties that cover my local area have heavy equipment on the beaches daily to scoop it up...but to no avail...new washes in as they work the area. Oh, and by the way, it's edible and supposedly a good dietary source...Bah!!! Stinky, nasty smelling, like limburger cheese...I don't eat either!!

Texas Seaweed Nutrition Facts

§ M-I-C-K-E-Y....

m-o-u-s-e....the most famous critter of all---



M I C....see you real soon
K E Y....why? 'cause we like you!

M O U S E....
MICKEY MOUSE.

Next door to us, a young gal celebrated her birthday last weekend, and when I left the garage, backing out with the car, Mickey was waving goodbye to me from her doorstep.

linking to:  Camera Critters - Weekly Top Shot - Saturday Critters


For fun today, I thought of participating in Saturday's Photo Hunt. At least 'til I went over to see the prompt for the week....'selfie'?!! Other than seeing our goofy leader and his insane antics with diplomats and the media covering his 'selfies', I thought I'd try my hand at catching the resident Mickey while hunting... and ask him to take a selfie since I don't do mine....He obliged!!

linking to:  Photo Hunt "Selfie"

§ Getting Hotter and Hotter....

I don't know how many times I walked along these without even thinking of getting photos?!! Hundreds of times...maybe a gazillion. LOL At a birding center on Mustang Island, there are a few fence sections to keep us humans from invading and tearing up the sanctuary and its environment. Carved 'warnings' in the wood and highlighted texting...

linking to Good Fences



...taken early one morning before the scorching sun rises---


The morning sky before sunrise with the planet Venus as the morning 'star'.


--by afternoon a sea breeze comes in and the palm trees in the downtown area sway gently in motion, reflecting on the bank building highrise...

linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections - Skywatch Friday

§ ...I Just Wannabe Your Teddy Bear

Fence and Rose Arbor at a Bed n Breakfast in town...

linking to Good Fences


Sunrise and a duck [this photo of the sunrise and lone duck was taken years ago on the beach off Zahn Road on Mustang Island - I also use it as my computer's wallpaper every once in a while]...


linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections - Skywatch Friday

...does anyone else see something in this tree? I outlined what I saw as a bear and changed the coloring in the inset. I like to find in nature shapes and figures of other things like what cloud formations can be, etc. This, when I walked past it, I saw the critter! See if you can see what I saw....like it was coming out from a long winter's hibernation in the hollow of the tree.

linking to:  Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ Here, There, All 'Round Town...

I haven't had much time lately to get any real super images of different fences, so this'll have to be it for this week. It's found behind the main library in the downtown area...

linking to Good Fences

...a few weeks past to get up close and personal to the Brown Booby Bird, I took this photo from the boat looking toward the high rise buildings and the painted sky along the seawall; reflecting off the mirror-like bay water.

linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections - Skywatch Friday

These are different squirrels, on different days while we're out birding. I loved watching the comical antics of the one in particular in the mulberry tree. Notice his stuffed cheeks in the larger image. And then, the notched ear in the very last image in the series of photos.

linking to:  Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ ...a pond, the sky, some sand...our world

Along Packery Channel, that separates Mustang Island from North Padre Island, we walked along the sand dunes on the barrier reef one day to check out the waterfowl. Seeing very few birds this time because of high winds, behind a hilly dune, I spied this.  It was protected from the full force of the wind.  Silently hidden,  moving gently as a soft breeze topped over the dune,  But long forgotten...

...temporary fencing used during construction or sometimes protecting property or a barrier of a hole dug during utility work. A couple years ago, along the channel, the county built a paved area with picnic tables. This, I'm sure, is part of the left-overs long since blown over the dunes.

linking to Good Fences

...looking toward the island and in the far distance, part of what is Ingleside, Texas, our bay's horizon is becoming congested with colossal oil/natural gas riggings. Spoiling a good view. But the exhaust flowing from the towering contrivances makes their own clouds.

linking to:  Skywatch Friday

...farther north from Packery Channel, on Mustang Island, a pond often used by feathered migrants and resident ducks, I spotted this Pied Billed Grebe. The lighting was perfect for a good reflection shot!!

linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ ...the reflections of

I think, beside the stone wall [or brick], this is my favorite kind of fencing!! It has such an 'old west' feel which I like. The split rail fence:

linking to Good Fences



- - -***- - -






...a new dawn, a new dayWe finally got a good rainstorm [great amount anyway] this week!! But, along with the rains came high winds and a lot of lightening. And with the lightening came a bit of drama on the freeway that heads out to the beach/or back into town depending on the direction driving of course...anyway, lightening struck a power pole and toppled it ---it fell--- right on the freeway [six lanes -3 each direction] and crossed onto the other side of the freeway, closing down the system for hours!!! What a chaotic traffic jam. Luckily the accident happened early in the morning hours BEFORE rush hour and as far as I know, no one was injured or worse. And my 'home' state of Colorado...one area was hit with 18" of snow over the past weekend. hehehehehe, I'm glad to not live there any more.




Often when walking in heavy, wooded, parks in town, I've noticed and tried chasing down this particular butterfly to get a photo of it without success. Until recently. After I did get a photo of it, I didn't know the species, so, had to do a Google Search, and came up with its kind. The blue and black wings always attracted me. Seldom do I see anything but the Queen monarch and the yellow tiger swallowtail. I also read that the blue segments/wings have orange dots on the underside. My photos that I took I purposely waited for the wings to be open fully, so that point isn't seen here. The body on this particular butterfly is two-toned as the wings!! You can read about them more, here. This, in all its glory, is the Pipeline Swallowtail:

...the small range map, at the beginning of my post section,  shows you where the Pipeline Swallowtail can be found.

From the park, in the nearby area, in a backyard of the conservatory, I spied a beautiful water lily in the koi pond. It was just beginning to open and the reflection of the blossom was seen faintly on the water --

linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Skywatch Friday - Weekend Reflections - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters - Photo Hunt "Water"

§ On the Wings of a Dove©

linking to Good Fences



Stealth, concealment; not a noise it made.
Through the looking glass spying; eying us.
Slowly, quietly, advancing upward
watching...
...making haste; withdrawing from harm's way.

Ultimately finding safety
still watching...
...with its wings, using current as aid,
hefting its weight through the air.
Thereupon, ceasing the day!!

On the Wings of a Dove
© 2014
by: Hootin' Anni

It's near another weekend that I'm sure all of you that work outside the home with a 2nd job/career [yes, 2nd job...'cause the 1st job is keeping a house a home] are looking forward to seeing it in reality! Right?

Okay, so that being said, I have some reflections and sky-watching to do/find...

When we came out of the park near our main library the other day, what did we spy on our back window? This. And it's reflected on the glass along with a palm tree from high above:

...it goes without saying, I'm sure you know what's coming next?!! Yep, by the time I slowly worked my way around the car to get it to jump [but it finally flew instead] off so as not to harm it ---the car needed a wash job!!! If you get my drift. The bird, a dove, was a young one. Still had some down on it in spots around the head and getting the adult plumage and colors in other areas.


Just a short distance from the park more reflections as I walked out on the jetty in the bay waters to turn around and face the seawall and one of the many gazebos that line the boulevard...
Linking to: Saturday Photo Hunt -"Streets"

linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Skywatch Friday - Weekend Reflections - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

§ ...all Well and GOOD

linking to Good Fences

The moody skies of the late afternoon threatens our sunny day. In hopes of some much needed rainfall, mother nature doesn't hear our calls! Tho, with the darkened clouds, heavy with moisture and thunder heard in the far reaches of the county and beyond...the roiling clouds do nothing for us! In no time, those mischief blankets of promises of moisture all too soon disappear and the heat is on!! Last month, with everything so pretty and green for the first of Spring I was hoping against hope that we may have a normal season. Doesn't look so now. Everything, once again as for the past 4-5 years, is drying up to a golden yellow and the earth is cracking with the lack of rain!! Still, it is mighty pretty...those clouds!

linking to:  Skywatch Friday

On another day, as we walked along listening to the bird calls and trying to identify them by sound only, one buzzed just near my ear!! I thought, by the whirring sound it may have been a small hummingbird. I searched and searched the thin tree branches nearby to no avail. No hummingbird. But!!! What caught my attention is the likes of something I've never seen before. And I was positive this is the little 'buzzer' that was so near my ear. It was really an odd one to say the least. I stood and watched it for some time as it made its way up the branch, and then did a 180 and crawled DOWN the branch. The more I watched it, the more focused I became on it and then, I noticed the big "EYES". I crept up through the wildflowers, closer, closer, and was able to set the camera on macro and did a quick click on the shutter button! Truly, this was some alien creature from Mars! It had to be...

...I guess Texas is a suburb of Mars then? Oh well, I was close!! In all actuality it is a member of the Click Beetle family. If truth be told, this species is the Eyed Click Beetle. The fake eyes on its pronotum [the dorsal plate, or the foremost area of the body's thorax] is the defining ID marking. And the behavior of being on its back and rolling out to full length, making a clicking sound...hence, the click beetles their name.

linking to: Camera Critters - Saturday Critters

Read more about the Click Beetle...

Moving to another area, leaving the beetle to its ways, I spotted this pretty scene. No, the photo is NOT upside down. It's the reflection of a young palm tree in the brook that meanders through the park...


linking to:  Weekly Top Shot - Weekend Reflections