I spotted a bunch of starlings darting around through the wild barley in the open space near an odd street intersection.
Problem: The barley is taller than the starlings. Most of my photos look kind of like this.
#fotofails #birds #nature #barley
Tag: Photo Only on Social
It’s been a while since I saw a plume moth
It’s been a while since I saw a plume moth, at least that I could recognize. This one followed me inside and immediately alighted on a stand lamp. And after I went to turn out the rest of the lights to lure it back outside, it had already flown off.
Possibly a goldfinch
And another bird, possibly a goldfinch, that took off as soon as I snapped the shutter.
Hey, at least you can tell it’s a gull
I haven’t been able to get out anywhere that seagulls land or perch in a while (except, now that I think about it, the grocery store a few weeks ago where I saw two gulls fighting over some trash in the parking lot), so I’ve only seen the gulls flying overhead, where they’re hard to capture on camera.
I finally did! Sort of.
(Hey, at least you can tell it’s a gull.)
*sigh*
Indian Hawthorn flowers in bloom
Indian Hawthorn flowers in bloom. The empty lot is the greenbelt under a set of transmission wires. Hawthorns will grow as bushes, and make up a *lot* of hedges around here, but they can also be trained to grow upward and pruned into trees. There are several spaced along this block at the same stage of growth.
American Pipit
There were at least two, possibly three or four of these birds hopping around the grass next to a bike path. They weren’t easy to spot at a distance.
This bird’s new to me: apparently it’s an American pipit, also known as a buff-bellied pipit, a small ground-nesting insectivore. I spotted several of them walking around in the grass next to a bike path that’s just been closed down, though I could see them from the sidewalk with a zoom lens.
Some more house finches and a hummingbird.
Some more house finches and a hummingbird. Hummingbirds always look weird to me when they’re perched.
#photo #birds #finch #HouseFinch #hummingbird #nature
On Photog.Social
Finch (in grass) on Flickr
I must have seen over a dozen house finches on a very short walk today. I assume there’s a nest or several in the area.
Hummingbird on iNaturalist
Finch (on wire) on iNaturalist
Finch (in grass) on iNaturalist
Fluffy birb. (A sparrow spotted on top of a light pole)
Fluffy #birb.
(A #sparrow spotted on top of a light pole. I could *hear* it easily enough, but it took a while to spot it – and once I did, I was glad I had the zoom camera with me.)
On the lookout
Discarded
Discarded
I found this monarch flitting from bush to bush along the street.
I haven’t seen many #butterflies at all since winter hit, and figured the #monarch migration had long since passed further south, but I found this one flitting from bush to bush along the street.
Lemon after the rain.
Lemon after the rain.
I need to get back to following astronomy again. I was surprised to see the Moon and Venus so close to each other, and only had my phone with me. #stargazing #moon #venus #conjunction #NightSky #tree
I need to get back to following astronomy again. I was surprised to see the Moon and Venus so close to each other, and only had my phone with me.
Alc mention, bears, probably not what you think.
Duolingo, teaching you the important phrases.
(I do remember a story a while back about a bear somewhere in the Pacific Northwest that broke into a campsite cooler, drank a bunch of beer and passed out. The best part is it apparently preferred the craft beer.)
Fox Squirrel (vs. dog)
I saw this squirrel climb down a tree in a city park and start running across the ground. As I was getting my camera out, a dog spotted it, got away from its owner, ran after the squirrel and pounced. The squirrel jumped up onto this tree just in time and scurried up. The dog's owner called it back. And then the squirrel slowly climbed back down to this point (still higher than the dog's jump, just in case it came back) and paused to look around to make sure it was safe again.
Oh no, Desmond wasn’t able to enter the numbers in time!
Yep. a tumbleweed (sorry, a Russian Thistle) bigger than my car.
Yep. a #tumbleweed (sorry, a Russian Thistle) bigger than my car.
Does anyone know whether the PlantsVsZombies sunflower was inspired by the Sunflora Pokemon?
Does anyone know whether the #PlantsVsZombies #sunflower was inspired by the Sunflora #Pokemon?
#FotoFails I saw a gorgeous Marine Blue butterfly that actually paused long enough for me …
#FotoFails I saw a gorgeous Marine Blue #butterfly that actually paused long enough for me to take a picture…with its wings open, even! But my camera kept insisting on focusing on the leaves behind it. 🙄
@SolanumGF Yeah. Sometimes it’s like…can I have manual focus back, PLEASE?
My 1000th observation posted to iNaturalist!
My 1000th observation posted to #iNaturalist!
Normally I have to take photos of doves with a zoom lens, but this one was just calmly sitting in a tree, making its “Ooh-Ooh” call. It didn’t even fly off when I walked around the tree to get a better angle with my phone.
Most likely a Eurasian Collared Dove, one of several types I’ve seen around the Los Angeles area.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32186561
…I’ve kind of slowed down a bit since I’ve identified all the weeds and butterflies and birds in this part of the city, so I have to go farther out to find something new. But I’m also still going through my backlog of old photos.