David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of nature and the natural world. Plants, animals, and wildlife from around the world.
American Bittern Hunting at the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge in Early Spring. Image taken with a Nikon D300 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/1600 sec).
There are a number of new wildflowers showing up in my backyard. I am not sure of the identification of the yellow, orange, and blue ones. Any help with the ID is appreciated. They could be native weeds, or perennial ones from the wildflower mix that I planted last year. The flowers on the rhododendrons are also starting to bloom. Because of the deer, my rhododendron learned to grow tall — the only leaves and flowers are above where the deer could nibble last winter. I hope to see and photograph some hummingbird moths on the Rhododendrons again this year.
A Brown Marmorated stink bug climbing a cactus. The stink bugs are supposedly vegetarian. The cactus spines are making it difficult for the stink bug to get close enough to suck sap from the cactus. I have observed stink bugs on my cactus plants going back to 2007.
A cricket, spider, and mourning doves.
My house pet. I haven’t seen one of these for a long time. This one got caught in my bathtub and couldn’t get out. I’m told they eat other insects and spiders. After taking the picture, I let it go outside. Now that is starting to warm up outside, I am seeing a number of ants scouting the house for food. After my renovation and spring cleaning they are not finding much. Scutigera coleoptrata House Centipede (Not a Silverfish). Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/125 sec) and SB-910 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 10, Focus Magic, and Silver Efex Pro.
