Tag Archives: wildlife photography

Creating artwork

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I ordered a canvas print of Red to fill in the space to the right of our fireplace. A neighbor who is an artist and an expert at hanging paintings helped me with it. There used to be a Remington statue on this cabinet. But she moved it to the other side of the fireplace and placed this plant under Red. i’m excited with how it looks!

I was so excited with the canvas print I ordered of Red that I ordered one of the sea glass photo above. I’m not sure where it will go. Maybe in the casita. I’m having fun creating art with my photography. It’s a new way for me to enjoy it!

Finally, I ordered a third print of a pen and ink drawing of mine. This is the house I lived in from second grade until I went off to college. While I was in college my mom had to sell our home after divorcing dad. She couldn’t afford the upkeep, electric and gas. It was sad to lose our beautiful home, but she ended up leaving Snohomish and moving to Olympia. She married someone she knew from her high school days who lived there.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a Bird Buddy video of the star of my show, Red. There’s a smudge on the lens that you may notice. I’m thinking that mean old thrasher did that! But it was easily cleaned.

What’s on your agenda for this week?

The Final Month of Reading

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This is an iphone photo I took of our front yard yesterday when we returned from our morning walk. With everything in bloom you can barely see our house. I love this time of year with palo verde wearing yellow flowers.

I’ve reached the last two pages of my DIL’s syllabus for her AP English Class. I will confess that as the literature moved back decades in time, my reading fell off. I did a bit, but not all. I wonder if her students had a difficult time with these last few months of readings, too? I posted the syllabus at the beginning of each month if you want to take a look.

April Reading List

I’ve been more focused on photography than reading and writing. Here are a few photos from the past week:

A beavertail cactus in bloom with two flowers. There are more buds so more flowers to come!

Red hanging out under the birdbath.

I ordered a large canvas print of Red for our living room. For the five years we’ve been in this house, there is a blank spot to the right of our fireplace. I’ve been looking for art for that space, but never found anything I was crazy about. Red will go nicely there! A neighbor is coming over Friday to help me hang the print. She’s an artist who paints large canvases and an expert at hanging art.

What does April have in store for you?

Happy April First!

Mulies All Around

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If it wasn’t for Amazon, I wouldn’t have seen the Mulies in our front yard. Mulies is a nickname for Mule Deer, which are the most common species of deer in Arizona.

I was walking by our front windows, when I spotted a package outside our front gate. I opened the front door and walked outside. That’s when I saw three mule deer. I went back inside to grab my camera. But I had the wrong lens, my macro lens, on the camera body. I watched as the deer left the front yard and meandered along the side of our house, outside the fence. They reached the backyard, and were munching away on jojoba. I realized they were content and not going anywhere, so I had time to change lenses.

They were also snacking on Palo Verde trees, which are in full bloom now with yellow flowers.

At first, I didn’t get any good shots of the Mulies, because of brush and bushes blocking my view. I watched as seven deer crossed our backyard behind our fence to the side yard. That’s when I started taking more photos.

Eventually they made it to the front yard and were walking across our driveway.

One Mulie thought the Bottlebrush bush looked tasty.

The deer didn’t do too much damage to the Bottlebrush.

Here are several deer in our front yard.

Eventually they all crossed the street to continue their neighborhood stroll. I watched as they disappeared in the brush.

Do you have a favorite Mule Deer photo?

What are your weekend plans?

My Bird Buddies

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A quail took over the Bird Buddy feeder to enjoy the birdseed.

A quail looking for birdseed that fell to the ground.

A quail walking among the backyard plants.

Mourning doves cooling off at the birdbath. I find it funny they often stand with their tails in water.

A Curved-Bill Thrasher on a bench. He’s the bully bird of the backyard.

This video shows the Curved-billed thrasher in action!

How is your week going so far?

It’s Wild Out Here!

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All my backyard birds flew away when Mr. Cooper’s Hawk landed in our tree and then moved to the fence. There was a noise like “wooosh” when the quail took off. They sound like jets. I haven’t had many hawk sightings, which is fine with me. I think they are beautiful and the huge Harris Hawks I used to get look so regal. But they prey on doves and quail which I don’t like.

While my husband was out of town on business, this lone javelina stuck his snout through the fence under our bird feeder. I got pretty close to him, since I felt safe on the other side of the fence from him.

Next thing I knew, more javelina came out of the woodwork! In the end I counted seven. It was surprising that so many were hiding out in the brush behind our house.

Eventually they all walked away. You can watch this video and see how javelina seem to use their sense of smell more than their eyesight. That snout is busy moving and smelling me!

I was outside the other evening talking on the phone with a friend who lives close by. I spotted the biggest coyote I’d ever seen. I was sure it was a wolf, but my husband said we don’t have wolves here. I tried to get a photo of him, but he heard me and hid behind a shrub. I was looking for him through the fence and then decided I really should go inside the house and shut the door! What would I do if I found him? What if he could jump over our fence. I’ve seen coyote jump over the wall behind our house onto the golf course next door like it’s nothing. That wall is six feet tall.

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my wildlife. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have baby quail photos to share!

UPDATE: I googled it. There are wolves out here. Hubby is wrong. That was definitely a wolf I saw. It was twice the size of any coyote and a different shape. Didn’t look anything like a coyote. UGH.

How’s your week going? Do you have anything exciting going on?

Look for Joy

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Red sightings do give me joy. Always.

For Lent this year I am doing Pray40, which is on the Hallow app. On Sundays, Father Mike Schmitz gives a Bible reading and homily. Yesterday, the theme was “Looking for Joy.” Father Mike mentioned the following quote:

“Suspicion often creates what it suspects.” C.S. Lewis from the “Screwtape Letters.”

My major takeaway was that if we often find what we’re looking for. If we’re looking to be disappointed, most likely we will be. Distrust can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I realized that life truly is what we make of it. It’s was a reminder that our attitudes can be our destiny. If we look for joy, we can find it.

I’m sharing some bits of joy I had this week, birdwatching at home:

The joyful couple together at the Bird Buddy AI feeder.

I watched as Red fed Mrs. and then gave her a turn at the feeder, but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera to capture it. It was heartwarming though!

Quail Egg Update:

I’ve only peeked a couple times on our quail nest. Last week I said we had four eggs. We’re now up to a dozen! I wrote about our quail nest HERE.

Where do you look for joy?

We’ve got eggs!

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I walked by a planter growing an Elephant Feed plant. Two quail wooshed out like jets taking off. I scared them away. This planter has been home to a nest before and there were a dozen quail eggs in it two years ago. I peeked in the planter and saw two eggs. Later in the day, I had to take another look and there were four quail eggs!

The main issue is to not make the parents uncomfortable. That means I must stay away as much as possible. But the location of the planter is an issue.

This planter is in front of the gate to our garbage and recycling bins. If you want to read more about me getting written up and pink-slipped over recycling, you can find that post HERE.

I stressed out momma and papa quail a few times because I had to take out trash and recycling. I noticed the egg count has stopped at four. I decided to move my recycling into the garage. With a steady flow of Amazon packages coming daily, I tend to recycle a lot! But I talked over the garbage bin with hubby and we decided to leave it where it is. It’s going to be hotter than 90 degrees this weekend and that could end up being a smelly problem to have inside our garage. With our HOA, it’s not like I can move the trash to a new location without getting a fine.

So here’s to me not needing to use the garbage bin more than a few times a week.

UPDATE: Now we have five eggs!

We’re hoping the eggs will turn into these guys:

I remember telling a good friend that I had a dozen quail eggs in a nest two years ago. She asked me when I was going to harvest and eat them!

Have a great weekend!

What plans do you have for this beautiful March weekend?