Groundhog Visitor

This little guy has been hanging around our back yard and sunning on the lower back deck. He's (or she) is fairly small so I'm thinking he just recently left momma groundhog to be on his own. We were seeing him every day, but after an afternoon of target shooting we seem to have scared him off, which probably isn't a bad thing. It was neat seeing him up so close - cute personality in these little guys!

Today's Visitor

Today as I was getting out of the truck from my trip to Costco, the dogs were more than usually excited for me to come home.  I stepped around the truck to greet them and spied this opossum sitting about 6 feet away from the dog yard under our maple tree.  I'm not sure what s/he was doing out during the day - blind as a bat - but s/he allowed me to get photos { I didn't get that close - I was working with my 200mm lens }.  Once we got the dogs and groceries inside the opossum when along its merry way.

This also gave me the opportunity to really try out my new Samsung NX300 with the new 200mm lens.  I'm highly impressed with the sharpness of the photos due to the distance I was from the bird and the opossum. I don't think my Nikon was quite that sharp with my 200mm lens on it.  Makes me happy!

Here is another view of the opossum and one of the tit mouse.

I <3 Hummingbirds

Today I was finally able to capture hummingbird photos without them being on the feeder - something I've been trying to accomplish for quite some time. When Ike came through Kentucky last weekend our screen got torn off the side of the deck where the feeder usually hangs. Without the screen there the hummingbirds kept getting caught inside the porch. For fear of them not finding their way out, being hit by a ceiling fan or eaten by a dog we decided it would be best to move the feeder to the evergreen tree in the backyard until we get the screen fixed. Had I known that was all it would take I'd have tried this a year ago! Now when the hummingbirds decide to take a rest from eating or want to check things out before they approach the feeder they perch in the branches of the evergreen - perfect photo op!

(Click for a larger view)

Pure Luck - Hummingbird Moth

Yesterday as Jason was casually looking out the front door he started all of a sudden flipping out yelling, "Camera! Quick! Hummingbird Moth! Hummingbird Moth!". After realizing what he was saying I snatched up my camera and ran to the front porch where we have a small barrel of flowers in full bloom. Sure enough, hovering over the flowers was a hummingbird moth! I've seen photos of these before but have never seen on in person and it was so cool! It was much smaller than I expected it to be. In the haste to get a good photo I switched the camera to auto mode, and glad I did because I only got four shots before it flew away. This is the only shot that turned out worth a darn. Jason has some more on his Flickr page.

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

Cicada City!

Apparently it is the time of year for cicadas to hatch, or whatever it is they do.  We have 3 trees in the back yard filled with moulted cicada shells.   It really is quite an eerie site when standing under the trees and looking up (see photo below).  All of the lower branches look like this from the underside of the leaves.  And the ground around the trees is littered with shells as well.  We are now starting to hear them sing when sitting outside...summer is here!

Though not all of the cicadas are singing their song.  It turns out that dogs seem to have a craving for cicadas...and what we have is a free-for-all cicada buffet.  Blue doesn't care for them too much, but I'd be willing to bet that Lois Lane and Hardy have eaten three days worth of meals in cicadas alone.  It's a miracle there are any left to sing between them and the squirrels munching away.  *gag*    So if the cicadas go extinct this year, I'm pretty sure I know why.  

One of the survivors:

View from under the tree:

The ground around the trees:

Squirrel Logic

If I get the angle just right....

Photography Hobby = Blogs of Photos

So now that the weather is trying to get nice it's high time to break out the camera for some wildlife shots.  I've been capturing photos of our backyard habitat critters for the last year or so and finally decided it was high time to get a good wildlife lens to really do the job up right.  So after much research, off to Murphy's Camera I went to purchase a new Nikon 80-400mm VR lens.  Since I've had it it's rained, rained and rained some more...go figure.  But I did manage to get a little juvenile woodpecker to look half-way decent and in focus...but I have lots of practicing to do.

Speaking of practice, now I have a partner in crime!  Jason decided he'd like to join me in my wildlife jaunts around the yard, local parks, zoo's, camping trips, etc and decided to bite the bullet and buy him a camera as well.  So he is now the proud owner of a Nikon D80 (better than mine!  *sob*) and a nice 200-500mm Tamron lens!  So this weekend we're off to the Louisville Zoo to test out our new goods!