Flight of The Bumble Bee

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Flight of The Bumble Bee




Meet one of my visitors! I have shown other photographs gotten of what I call a bumblebee.

This little series of shots taken in June of 2014 are on one of my many Lupine Flowers.



My observation of everything around me began as a child as many peoples had. I just never stopped. Many things I find interesting still today. Insects who visit my garden are some of the things I find interesting.



These days I have time to observe what I like too. Be it a small insect or a large mammal. As I had said before when this species showed up it was aggressive towards me After getting used to my routine , and if it wanted to work here in my garden, we were going to have to get along. After a couple days no more challenging me by flying into my face. Along with this behavior, others who showed up after the first one never showed this behavior to me. I found this interesting. As if in some way communication between the bees had happened without inviting me.



After everyone learned to get along taking photographs of this rather large insect got easier as far as being comfortable around each other.

Round and round the bee would go, doing it's work around the Lupine Flower. Starting at the bottom of the flower blooms and working it's way up until no more peddles were open.

Thank you for stopping by and see my photographs! Trying to show as many of my photographs as I can until the busy time of the year will start up for me, this will be spring, however the way the weather has been lately this might be earlier then I even thought?

Flying Western Meadowlark

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Flying Western Meadowlark




Meet the Western Meadowlark. Oregon state bird and one we have here in our area of the high desert of Oregon!

On my walks I take around my town the Western Meadowlarks are a constant companion. Singing, flying by. We are a area the Western Meadowlarks dose not appear to be having survival issues.



Flying by me pretty quickly, but I got the photograph! You can see the farm houses blurred in the back ground.

Thank you for coming by and seeing my Western Meadowlark bird flying photographs!

Sunflowers From My Garden

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Sunflowers From My Garden



On this day in September of 2014 the day was cloudy. I still got some photographs.

The sunflower is a yearly flower we grow for the beauty and for the birds. The colorful sunflower above has the tiny black sunflower seeds that contain oils that the big seeds contain, though not as much as the small black seeds.



With the white of the clouds this beauty still has a way of getting attention with its flashy colors!



Of course no garden is complete without the yellow sunflowers!







As you can see I do not cut off the new buds that start growing so the stalks do get top heavy with blooms.



You can click on whatever photograph to make it bigger.

The Sunflowers are a huge attraction for the birds! We do like them to grow along the 6' fence so the Sunflowers when (not if but when), the stalk get to heavy they have a place to lean or we can tie the stalks up to the fence.

2014 was a strange year for weather. The seeds were gobbled up quicker then previous years. We do leave the stalks up all winter long for the birds to use as perches, bedding or to find something usable on them. Then comes the time in springish to start putting the stalks in the mulch machine to add to the soil.



The Sunflower stalks also do well for keeping up the other flowers we grow here. Many flowers in our garden grow tall and get top heavy. The stalks are growing poles for the other flowers to use. Talking about attracting bee's!! All kinds of bee's love the Sunflower! In other posts I write about the BUZZZZZZZ that goes on here during peak growing times!

These are the photographs from this september cloudy day. Someone asked that their be more color, well my flower album is full of color and I have so many more floral photography to show..... I am getting through the 2014 photographs as I can. I do photograph every day. Winter is my slow time. Lets face it , winter time is COLD hahahahaha

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photography!

Hanging Out With A Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Hanging Out With A Ruby-crowned Kinglet







This is the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Very small and quick bird!





I do get a good archive of photographs going of one species of wildlife. This Ruby-crowned Kinglet is no different.





Na you can not tell he knows I am here photographing him in this shot! HA



I named the shot below "flying", however he was just getting his balance more then actually "flying".





Here he is flashing his color!







This next shot is one of my favorites. He is just kicking back and showing his color!







This last one he just hops off to somewhere else!







The shot I had to add in here, it is the last useable shot I got of this day of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet AND the closest this Ruby-crowned Kinglet or any of the Kinglets ever came this close to me and my camera. I actually was somewhat shocked for I make it no secrete to the birds, wildlife or anything that I am right here.... with my camera in hand!





My other Ruby-crowned Kinglet post can be seen and read here Thank you for coming by and Hanging out with this Ruby-crowned Kinglet bird!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet Washing Himself

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Ruby-crowned Kinglet Washing Himself



Folks who keep up with my photography know home is where the heart is and I spend a lot of my time just watching the visitors show up.
This day was no different. Watching the common birds here and there and taking my photographs, though just watching and listening I can do this for hours waiting for a bird to impress me. Well this little man impressed me!
One of the small birds who have been here before showed up, the only difference this time is..... the little bird perched not far from me!



Quick little birds! So when he was in range and not way up on top of the tree I was pretty happy. He did threaten to fly off, but felt he needed to wash himself off. This is the series of shots I photographed. This Ruby-crowned Kinglet washing himself.


I do not hide when I am photographing the birds here at home, they know I am here.


When this Ruby-crowned Kinglet flashed his color all this was happening so fast I thought his color was a leaf or something else in the December, winter tree. When in the photography "zone", I dont stop to see what photograph I have when photographing such a quick little bird as the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is!


When I read these Ruby-crowned Kinglet can actually starve to death in one hour, due to how much energy they spend just living. I thought you know, capturing one of these birds would be most cruel! How someone would capture one was my next thought ha! This is due to my research seeing someone holding one of these birds in a photo.
Typically seeing these birds in the apple tree, way on top of the apple tree! Fluttering around up there grabbing bugs is what it looks like to me what they are doing? I have observed quite a few at the apple tree, at that time I just figured there had to be a nest somewhere? Though this series of photographs was taken just a couple weeks ago and only this one was seen.


This Ruby-crowned Kinglet was cute to watch him clean himself. Someone told me they have dozens of these at their house and this is cool!! I do disagree with the things I have heard and read about the Ruby-crowned Kinglet only showing color during breeding season and/or at times of aggression.
From my observations of this little man cleaning himself, he felt secure on the little limbs he was on and it may have felt good having a good clean? I do also believe it when I read these are the smallest songbirds in North America! They really are small birds!








Keep in mind these photographs and this Ruby-crowned Kinglet came, cleaned himself and went within... 5 minutes?? I am sure he took off to find something to eat after he left this spot?
I do have some links for you to check out if you wish?
Wikipedia is always a nice place to check out! Make sure to read all the links! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinglet
Without fail I always check out the State of Oregon site ; http://www.dfw.state.or.us/species/birds/wrens_kinglets.asp Which lead me to this link to hear the Ruby-crowned Kinglet http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/136164/play

Spent Some time with this hummingbird

Coralie aka Mrsroadrunner | Spent Some time with this hummingbird

Thought I would spend a little time with this hummingbird on this day.

Showing up with his/her click click lets me know this one or the others are around. Typically in the apple tree and coming out during the day. Fortunately for me, they all get hungry about the time I am outside doing my chores then doing my photography!

I personally think this is a young hummingbird of the rufous species.... possibly a adult female... however just the way it behaves I really think it is a juvenile??

This species is rather aggressive and new I was there. These hummers appear to think my camera is perhaps one of them?? Hovering in front of me as if checking me out as if making sure I am not going to be stealing anything from their territory? At times hovering in front of me so close that a photograph was imposable to get with the lens I have on my camera for these shots.

Well lets get on with the photographs shall we??

What I did was, I stood in one spot for 45 minutes to a hour and just waited. At times finding things to photograph just so my camera would make the click click noise! That is all it took as I stood near our patch of zinnia flowers! Yes I have a tripod, the question is, do I use my tripod? The answer is no. Not my style, and frankly this lens just is not big enough to need it on a tripod. It extends a foot, 12"?

The shot above he took notice of where the noise of my camera was coming from. There was oh three sessions with this little one. In the middle of the sessions the hummingbird would go and rest. Which of course would give me a chance to rest.

The photo above just makes me laugh when I look at it! Birds are not stupid, and it just appears to me as I was working on getting these photographs, that this little one was trying to play peekaboo with me. The clicking of my camera stopped when the hummingbird was low on those flowers, however when feeding on the top zinnia flowers the clicking of my camera commenced!

I personally like the hummer on the red zinnias, the color is darker and makes the color of the hummer POP. However this is just my opinion. Our worst critiques after all is ourselves!

What I like about this shot above is, this hummingbird is flying backwards. I am a avid bird watcher. With this said, never had I seen another species of bird do this, nor have I photographed any other bird doing this! At the time of going backwards, this hummingbird is also "talking".

Ok, I am trying not to bombard you with to many photographs. I will show two more and if you want to see all of the photographs they are in my birds,seed and insect eaters album.

This shot this hummingbird was happily talking.

This shot was just colorful! We have had a pretty good patch of zinnias in this spot this year which surprised us since we had someones pets here destroying parts of the garden. Anyone can clearly see the damage done by these pests called pets. We do not condone folks allowing their pets to destroy other people property. To bad others do not feel this way.

Thank you for coming by my yard, seeing my photography!

Thread Wasted (waisted) Wasp

Coralie aka Mrsroadrunner | Thread Wasted Wasp

Thread Waisted Wasp

This little guy showed up here at the house. Well, females have more color then the males and I did not see another one thus it is hard to say if this is a male or female. Pretty colorful and if we just went on that I would say female?

Busy with the work that needed to be done. I have not seen this particular species here at the house before. Typically only seen them in the many canyons we have here in our part of the high desert. Though we have several canyons near by and can only assume this one came from one of them? Or heck, perhaps we now have these on the property raising young? Never felt threatened by this species so, let it be.

You can see this one was feeding on many of our flowers,going here and there. Playing with wasps is fine, I just keep in mind they can sting.... if they are going to or not is another story. I have photographed bumble bee's who acted more aggressive then this species.

I watched as this one got irritated with all the pollen and wiped the pollen from its facial area. I am sure this wasp new I was there watching it, but did not seam to mind or care?

The yellow in this marigold flower brings out the color of this thread waisted wasp.

Wasps are wasps. These are considered solitary wasps, however for being solitary I have a photographs around here of several of them together at the canyon. I will find that photograph to show you.

This photograph was actually my first experience "playing", with this wasp. Guy is my other half for you who are new to my posts. He maps out where we are going to go and has kept me from doing some pretty stupid things!! Needless to say Guy was not impressed with whom I chose to "play", with on this hike to the canyon rim when I got this shot.

Back to another one of our flowers this one went! Lets be honest, most people kill such things when they see them. I got a pretty simple rule here at the house, you dont hurt me and I wont hurt you. You hurt me and I will destroy you, your colony, your children your childrens children haha. Half way joking here but.... I do remember the stings from doing nothing more then walking into the garden from the other stinging "guests", we have here. This is unacceptable behavior in my eyes from these creatures we welcome into our garden.

This is a mud dauber flying off. This is also a thread waisted wasp. The species has several wasps within it. These mud daubers have never acted aggressive with me either, thus the photographs. I see them at the base of one of our ponds, they do not seam to like the other little pond we have for some reason?

Now this is this thread waisted wasp flying off.

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs of the thread waisted wasp. My conclusion from observing and photographing this species is, they are a pretty docile wasp....