Saturday Photos

Palm frond in the sunshine.

Looking up into the palm trees.

Gloriosa lily buds.

The curl at the tip of a gloriosa lily leaf. The tip curls around whatever it touches, clinging as the plant grows taller. This leaf has a thread of something attached to it–maybe part of a tiny spider web.

One of my favorite warm weather sights–a tiny baby anole. I’ve only seen a few babies so far this year. This little anole had its eyes shut as I took the photo.

Baby anole climbing on the fence.

 

Friday Sunset

A fiery sky at sunset this evening.

Palm trees on the right, in front of the streaks of red/orange.

Tall pine trees silhouetted against the sunset sky.

 

Anoles and More on Wednesday

Big guy on the fence, bobbing his head and displaying his dewlap.

Over on the side fence I saw a few more anoles. This one held still for just one photo before running off.

Another big male turned up on the top of the side fence, looking down at me.

He put on a dewlap display too.

Watching me as I left.

Mockingbird on the fence, wet from today’s rain showers.

Max’s new fascination is watching the squirrels climbing around in the palm trees. He circles the trees, staring up above. Sometimes he’ll take a flying leap straight up into the air, but he never comes close to any squirrels.

One more of Max.

 

 

Sunday Photos

At the community college where I’ve been taking Max for walks. The baseball field (where osprey nest 2 is located) is in the distance on the right, where a bit of the score board is visible.

This little bird is a juvenile bluebird–it’s mostly brown now, with a little blue on its tail and back.

Flowering bush that Max and I pass on our walks.

This one looks like the juvenile starling that was harassing its parents for food in our yard. I recognize that wide-open mouth.

Kingbird sitting in the middle of a maze of branches.

And a couple of osprey shots, of course.

One more with wings spread wide.

After the Rain on Wednesday

More rain today, very heavy at times, but we do need it. After it stopped I went out with Max and the camera, and the first thing I spotted was this Mourning Dove up in a tree. It seemed to be grooming itself after the storm.

Mourning Dove, looking a little better.

One more of the dove.

Nearby a squirrel was running up a tree branch, but it froze when it saw me.

It was motionless for a couple of minutes.

And then it turned to look around before going on up the branch.

Raindrops on branches and vines.

Raindrops on a leaf.

Saturday in the Backyard

Plenty of little tomatoes ripening on our tomato plant.

And more little green tomatoes coming along.

One of our two new parsley plants.

A tree branch from a neighbor’s yard overhanging our back fence. The leaves really are as big as they look.

The leaves from that kind of tree come in three different shapes, all growing on the same tree. Here’s an example of the three shapes on a single branch. There’s an ordinary plain leaf on the left, one with two lobes that’s sort of mitten-shaped in the middle, and a three-lobed leaf on the right.

Max, faster than a speeding bullet! He loves to run really fast in big loops around the yard.

Last for today is the moon next to a dying pine tree.

Swallow-tailed Kite on Monday

My favorite bird turned up today–a Swallow-tailed Kite. This beautiful large black and white  bird of prey has a wingspan of about 4 feet. Some noisy mockingbirds chased this kite away from the tall pine trees across the street, where it was apparently hunting. The kite flew across the street and soared over my backyard for a few minutes before leaving.

Circling past some trees.

Imagine a small bird or animal seeing the kite swooping in.

Kite soaring over the yard.

Kite departing. It tilts its tail and wings as it swoops and soars.