David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of nature and the natural world. Plants, animals, and wildlife from around the world.
Images of Colorado wildflowers taken at Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. In Colorado this is still early spring with the snow only recently melting. I think that these are Prairie Crocus flowers (Pulsatilla Patens). Let me know if the identification is correct.
Ever since I got home and came in after taking the bee images, I kept feeling something crawling on me. I didn’t find anything and thought it was the ants that have invaded the house while I was on the Enrichment Voyage. Finally, I found a tick crawling on my shoulder. I think that it is a female dog tick and not a deer tick. I don’t like any type of ticks. I don’t know if this was the only one, but to make sure all of my cloths and bedding are now in the washing machine.
Images of Bumble and Carpenter Bees taken in my backyard this afternoon with a macro lens. The Bumble Bees were working the fast fading Rhododendron flowers for any remaining pollen. The male Carpenter Bees appeared to be flying stationary guarding territory — only moving when challenged by another male. The down side of the Carpenter Bees is the large holes that they drill into the wood around the house for their nests.
Western Meadowlark Singing. Late last night while not able to sleep after a loud spring thunderstorm, I started to read Moose Peterson’s book “CAPTURED — LESSONS from BEHIND the LENS of a LEGENDARY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER“. In the book I saw an image of a Western Meadowlark. This morning while driving to work I was listening to a chapter of the book “The Last Stand” on Sirrius/XM radio and heard that “Sitting Bull heard from a Meadowlark that he would be killed by a Lakota”. With two references to a Meadowlark, I remembered that I had taken an image of a similar bird while on my “Gone to See America 2009” road trip while in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. When I took the image, I didn’t know what type of bird it was, but was enchanted by its singing.
Macro images taken in my back yard of a white wildflower, bee in a Rhododendron flower and a newly opened Maple leaf. After a brief afternoon rain storm, I went out with the same kit as yesterday. I like looking close with a macro lens, especially in the spring when flowers are blooming and the bees are active. I think the white flower is an invasive “Star of Bethlehem” (Ornithogalium umbellatum)
