Moments of beauty again!

Sunshine and flowers

Leaving a Garden Tour meeting the other night the sun had these iris backlit so beautifully I had to go and get my camera and come back to take photos.

Weather is fun and frustrating

We had another torrential downpour yesterday evening and rain last night and this morning - it looks now like the clouds are moving out and sun is coming to fill our lives - hopefully!
Some nice shots after the storm last night, some flower shots and of course one more bird!

More stuff

An early trip to Home Depot gave me this shot of Stansbury Island - and then the female Bullocks just stared me down!

More

The Bullocks Orioles have taken to our feeder and are there several times an hour during the day. Quick flashes of orange and yellow and then the chatter - they have arrived!
A walk around the gully yielded what seems to be a set of praying mantis eggs - will watch them.
Then a trip out to Stansbury Island  - what a weird wild place!

Males

Mantis egg sac?

Female Meadowlark with bug in mouth!

The road home - driving the dike headed south from Stansbury Island.

Moments of Beauty!

This is what I live for - these moments of beauty that are sometimes captured and sometimes not.

Female Bullocks Oriole in the crabapple tree out front.

Stormy weather

The stormy weather continues here in the desert reminding some of Oregon and Washington - a good rain this morning and more to come. Soggy earth and plants that love rain - except for the corn farmers have planted that has grown a few inches and then stopped - needs sun!
Storms bring interesting cloud formations and often rainbows - here's some from yesterday.

Whoooooooooooooo

Checked in on the owls yesterday - they seem well and are getting bigger!

Momma was stretching when I found her.

This one is getting BIG!

Camera Ready

We'd just left a meeting last night and were headed to get a bite to eat and here was the beautiful scene just waiting for a camera - which I had ready!  Always carry your camera with you.

Riders in the Sky

The weather has been a bit unsettled around here for the last week and looks to continue that way for several more days. Rain, hail, winds and sunshine all participate just not to our schedule!
This type of weather pattern brings many photographic opportunities
- here are a couple from our front porch the other day!

Travels

A short drive with a lot of things to see this afternoon.

The Three Stooges.

Small but ferocious!

She has dinner and he is very fierce about protecting her (and it)!

Horned Lark surrounded by the purple grasses of the desert.

Mama Owl and the babies!

Birds again

The Bullocks Oriole are back and sneaking around the feeders.  Got a couple of shots male and female. Incredibly striking male.

First a House Finch singing to his love!

Female Bullocks

Male Bullocks

Bird Head

My wife calls me a bird head 'cause I love taking photos of birds.  Yesterday was a wonderful bird day, starting with baby Killdeer and ending with babies in a nest at the nursery!  In between - Red-tailed Hawk, Black-chinned hummingbird, American Goldfinch, House finch, Great Horned Owl and baby, Cowbird, and Cormorants and Terns.
Enjoy!

On a back road to Home Depot in the morning

Beautifully intent.

A visiting Eastern cousin!

Ubiquitous but beautiful House Finch.

Hi Mom!

My what big eyes you have!

Female Brown Cowbird strutting her stuff.

The guys look like Mark Twain on a ramshackle raft floating down the river!

Babies hidden in a nest at the Tooele Valley Nursery - not sure what they are.

Windy Erda

The wind blows a lot in Tooele county and sometimes our new trees need some help!  Diana was holding this one until I could get there with a stake.

Murphy loves to just hang out - here he is in all his aging beauty!

Backyard Birds

I've rented a long lens to try out and a new camera that has twice the megapixels my old one does - all an experiment to see how good newer technology is. For practice I shot (and deleted) a bunch of bird photos in the back yard.
The lens quality is excellent at 600mm..love to look these birds in the eye without having to crop them.

House Finch showing us his colors that often don't get seen - the organgie-red strip up the back.

Similar to last year, this female Yellow-headed Blackbird and her friends are now taking over the feeders from the males. Early in the season they are probably on the nest since they do not show up at the feeder.

Beautiful and looking coy - the Mourning Doves keep us company.

On the road again.....

Diana and I traveled to Price Sunday morning so she could do the service at Ascension St. Matthews Church. Murph and I went looking for flowers and stuff.
At the start of the drive there was a bit of fog in the valleys below Stockton and over toward Eagle Mountain so shot a couple through the windshield just to see what came out. Then the desert flowers - always so amazing to see such beauty in such desolation.

The cactus flowers are so intense - only a few out that I could find.