Saturday, July 24, 2010

Critters

It's been a busy week.  I spent a couple mornings going to the Special Olympics National Games, since they were in our city.  I don't think they got any national news coverage, though.  It seems like the networks cover fewer and fewer stories, and run some they have into the ground.  CNN was blaming the news people "on the right" and the Department of Agriculture for not getting all the facts before airing or making a judgement, but CNN was reporting Ms. Sherrod's comments out of context before they found out they were.  They are just as guilty as anyone for the problems that ensued for her.  (I don't think I've ever vented on this kind of thing, so please bear with me.  I could go on about some complaints I have about the news networks, but won't.  Yet, I do watch some news every day.)

Anyway, I took my camera the second day of the Special Olympics, but remembered the batteries were low, so left it in the car.  When I returned, I saw a butterfly on some bushes, and remembered my camera.  There was enough power left to take a few photos of what I believe is a question mark butterfly.  I think it was Iowa Gardening Woman who showed one last week.  I'm not sure what kinds of bushes these are, but there are a lot of them around the parking lot.






I found some more photos from the week for Misty Dawn's Camera Critters.  The link is in the sidebar.

I don't often get photos of monarchs with their wings open.  It took lots of tries to get this one.


When I opened the front door to check the mail a few days ago, this squirrel was eating perched on the hook.  I took a few photos from the closed screen door, then opened it and took some.

The squirrel wasn't aware of my presence yet, here.  I'll write a little commentary of what the squirrel may have been thinking.  I wonder what it really was thinking.


"Oh, it's you again!"


"OK, I'll look cute for you while I get another bite."


"OK, you've taken a bunch of photos, don't you have anything else to do?"


"Oh, good here comes another squirrel for you to pester."


"Have you noticed I've been eating across the street more, and not in your garden?"  (Yeah, well I don't trust that you'll stay away for long.)


The grackles have been singing from high places.  This one was there for awhile calling out with a loud voice.


I had the previous photos loaded and waiting for me to write about, but went outside to do a little gardening before the arrival of our grandson.  Well, look what caught my eye, and sent me in to get my camera!  It was so big, I thought it might be a giant swallowtail, but after referring to a book, those are darker colored.  This appears to be a male Eastern swallowtail.  I got lots of poses of it.








I found a different kind of wasp on the short toothed mountain mint.  I can't remember if I've seen this kind or not, but this is the first one I've seen this year.


This isn't the clearest photo of the other black wasp we have, but I like to show more than one insect near each other on plants.  Is that a lightning bug?


I took lots of photos because the wasps were moving around a lot.  I kind of like this one, even though it was a total accident that I captured this angle.


As I was taking the above photos, I heard neighbor dogs barking and looked up.  Heidi is such a good girl most of the time.  She was very calm, but looking at something in the street.  Can you guess what it was?


Look at that silly squirrel!  It seemed like it wanted her to chase it.


It ran into the yard across the street, and looked to see if Heidi was looking at it, and then, looked to see if I was.  Do squirrels crave attention?


Heidi must have decided she's not as interested in squirrels as she used to be.  She stayed in her spot and continued to watch the world.


As we were about to go in, I saw a grackle getting a drink in the bird bath.  I took a quick photo as the water was going down, then it turned and flew away.


I hope your weekend is going well, and your encounters with critters are good ones.

15 comments:

  1. Enjoyed the series today. That squirrel sure has personality! Your butterfly photos were amazing!

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  2. What fun it is to go around the garden to get critter pics. Just imagine if you did not have that garden, most of those butterflies, etc. would not even be there. Another plus to having a flower garden!

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  3. And we all trust the media...
    What a mess they made of everything.
    I know squirrels can be troublesome...but your pics are too darn funny.
    PS...great shots !

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  4. Lucky for us you had enough power in your camera to get a picture of the Question Mark butterfly....although I think it might me a Comma butterfly. Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny. The QM doesn't have black on the wings like the one in the photo, but the Comma does. Hey, I could be wrong. Most of the time I am. lol

    donna

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  5. Hi, Sue!
    Oh, these are are great. Such nice captures! That squirrel is a little dickens. So cute that Heidi just ignored his play for attention. I wish we had squirrels. But, then I also wish we had trees...

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  6. Beautiful shots! Your photo of the question mark butterfly is much better than mine, and the swallowtail butterfly is gorgeous, also the birds and the squirrel. Your garden looks like it is doing wonderful, mine is a bit of mess, having had company for 2 weeks, a flooded basement and other issues going on, the weeds have gotten away from me but there is still lots to enjoy.

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  7. PS: I like the green background with the birds, it is new isn't it?

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  8. Sue the photos of the Butterflies are so AWESOME! they are very, very pretty! and your garden is lovely as well...

    Yeah! those squirrels are crazy and I do believe they like to be chased...

    I've seen them harassing a couple of Cats and dogs in the neighborhood for several minutes or more until the dog or cat would give chase!

    Beautiful pictures of critters as usual... have a wonderful day..

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  9. Glad to hear you went to the Senior olympics. I participated in ours last and this year. It's really a great thing to do for older people.

    Love your pics. Those squirrels are so funny!

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  10. Love the squirrel, what a character! i read your comment somewhere about changing the size of the side bars. I too didn't know you could do that and would love to hear how. Come visit and clue me in.

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  11. Oh I love all your critter photos! The Question Mark butterfly - nice, I've been hoping to see one in my yard. Also that wasp you saw. I saw one of them last year and if I recall correctly, it was called a Thread-Waist wasp (or something close to that). As much as I don't really care for squirrels (they're always messing with things in my yard), I love the photos you've got of them. Good eye.

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  12. You got some great butterfly and insect photos. The commentary with the squirels is too cute.

    I noticed your note in the side column--lawn is way overrated. Go for more flower beds!

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  13. Hi Sue! Your photos were Great! Your gardens are looking beautiful. :-)

    I'd played with all the new "stuff" on Blogger. My problem with stretching the outer borders involve my long blog title. ha. But, you can get into all the advanced settings and change colors, etc. (Which is what I did!) Great helps, though.

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  14. Hiya Sue,
    What a lovely post and such wonderfully sharp pictures. That Squirrel hanging about is such fun.

    BTW, you said you wanted a third column. Seeing that the bottom slider goes to the right way beyond what is needed, and the area at the far right is empty, you could put a column there, couldn't you?
    I like the subtle greens you picked.

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