garden – Wandering Dawgs

Sunday Stills: Insects in the Garden

September 1, 2024Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, WildlifeTagged Bugs, Creepy Crawly Insects, garden, Insects, Sunday Stills23 Comments

I often see insects on garden flowers but it is a challenge to get them to stay still long enough for a photo. Here are a few insects I managed to capture through the years.

Shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge Insects

Exploring Nature’s Golden Yellows with Gardens, Flowers, and Butterflies

August 14, 2024August 14, 2024Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, PhotographyTagged garden, Lens-Artists, natures golden yellows, Sunday Stills, What's In a Garden, Yellow35 Comments

Terri’s Sunday Stills challenge is Nature’s Golden Yellows. The Lens-Artists challenge from Ann-Christine is What’s in a Garden? Both these challenge have flowers and nature in common so combining them into one post made perfect sense to me.

I’ve discovered many golden yellow flowers and butterflies during walks in nature and when visiting gardens. The following images are a few of my favorites.

I’ll finish with a gallery of yellow flowers

Many thanks to Ann-Christine for her Lens-Artists Challenge #311 What’s In a Garden?

Many thanks to Terri for her Sunday Stills challenge Nature’s Golden Yellows

Lens Artists Photo Challenge # 210 – Picking Favorites

August 3, 2022Posted in Birds, Flowers, Nature, PhotographyTagged coneflowers, garden, Lens-Artists, Orcas, Photo Challenge, Picking Favorites, ruby throated hummingbird24 Comments

In this challenge guest host Sarah asks us to pick three favorite photos and describe why they are favorites. I had a difficult time coming up with just three images but here they are.

My first image is one one I took earlier this summer while I was sitting in my back yard. I was hoping to capture birds at the feeder or butterflies on the flowers. The birds and butterflies didn’t cooperate so instead I took a few shots of the coneflowers using my telephoto lens. I’m happy with the effect and like the purplecone flower in the background.

I couldn’t pick three favorites without including a bird image. This next image is my favorite hummingbird image. I captured him from above as I was sitting on my deck above the flowers.

My final image is of two Orcas I captured on a wildlife cruise from Valdez, Alaska. Valdez was near the end of our nearly two months of traveling by RV through Alaska. We saw plenty of humpback whales on two other wildlife cruises but we had not yet seen any Orcas. This wildlife cruise would be our last chance to see them before we headed south for home. I was thrilled when a pod surfaced close to our boat and I was finally able to capture a few shots. This one is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez

Many thanks to guest host Sarah for this Lens-Artists Challenge #210 – Picking Favorites

Backyard Bees, Butterflies and Birds

July 15, 2021Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Nature, PhotographyTagged Bee, birdweekly, garden, Gulf Fritillary, hummingbird, Northern Cardinal, Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, summer, summer garden18 Comments

We’ve had lots of activity in our backyard these first two weeks of July. Bees and Butterflies are frequent visitors to the butterfly garden.

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds and Northern Cardinals are two of the birds we see every summer around our back yard. Snow Egrets are frequent summer visitors to the salt water creek. Roseate Spoonbills first started coming to our area a few years ago. I’ve seen them two years in a row now so hopefully they will keep returning each summer.