Froglet in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography

Froglet in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography




Meet the Froglet , or Baby Frog here in Our pond! This Froglet is the common frog we have. The Pacific Tree Frog has to have a place to lay eggs and for those eggs to grow into adult frogs. Of course the Pacific Tree Frog uses any source of water for this process, this pond of ours is one of those places.





At this stage of growth this Froglet is still not mature enough to leave the water for good. However at this stage the Froglets start coming out of the water checking out things.

The shot above there are at least one Froglet and a tadpole under the water. This small pond of ours is the one pond this species of Frog likes, the other pond has Toads that make the other pond theirs so this species is not to fond of that pond. Or if they are, I do not get the chance to observe them.





You can see from the above shot, the Tadpoles are of different sizes, we do have several different species of Frogs and Toads that show up here at home. So the two above may not even be the same species?? The eyes seam to be the same color, so I feel these two are the same species just different sizes and in different stages of growth. I am not expert, I just spend time with the Tadpoles, Froglets. Much like folks who spend time with their fish.....

This pond has Raspberries growing around it which brings in many creatures, plus the berries themselves have a way of dropping into the water. The wild birds also use this and the other pond. Because of all the life in the ponds we do add fresh water to the ponds at least two times a day. We were thinking of putting one of those waterfalls in the pond, however I like all the life in the ponds and do wonder if we did add such a feature would it do something to the life in the pond? Would the waterfall disturb the eggs??





The mature Frogs do branch out. Moving to where a food source is. Food sources being any creepy crawling thing they can find. I even watched a mature Pacific Tree Frog eat a dung beetle, which the mature Frog instantly spit out of his mouth. Not tasting to good perhaps? This of course made me laugh!

What I get a kick out of is when the neighborhood kids find a mature Frog!! The small kids get such a kid out of seeing them, and perhaps catching them? I asked a child of perhaps age 8 who was new to me, if he likes Frogs. Instantly telling me NO. So I do worry about our small friends who helps with our organic garden. However we do have a healthy population of these common frogs. I still hate to see them killed for nothing more then surviving to adulthood.

Since these are wild Frogs I can only hope they survive the cats, people, birds, snakes etc.. I do remove snakes when I smell or see them. I am not bad at catching what I want to catch. Then Guy and I drive them at least a mile away so we never see that particular snake again. Though snakes are pretty good about coming back......





I thought this shot of this Froglet swimming was a good shot to end this post with. I can spend a lot of time watching the Froglets! The birds who stop for a drink or a bath are so funny when they see the bigger Froglets! We get many fledglings here who have never yet seen a mature Frog or a Froglet! The first time seeing them is just a cute funny!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs of this day of photographing the life in the pond!

Mud Dauber Wasp in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography

Mud Dauber Wasp in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography




Meet the Mud Dauber Wasp that we have at our pond getting what else? Mud!





At this stage of the game these Mud Dauber Wasps have never given me any reason to think they are aggressive. They come for the mud provided by this small pond of ours. Never have seen them at the other pond.....





The Mud Dauber Wasps do what they do, then fly off. We are pretty good about checking for nests of any kind here. Never have seen a nest of these! Nor do I want to.





I am a sucker for shadows, I just like them and when I see a shadow like above I have been known to show the photograph! When the Mud Dauber Wasps are busy they do tend to turn their head and the activity away from me. I have noticed this behavior in other species as well.





Since the Mud Dauber Wasp has done nothing to make me think they are a pest, I just let them be. However to my understanding others do consider these Mud Dauber Wasps pests. I do make such things as nest building undesirable here, even though other species can make a nest rather quickly! Surprising the both of us as to how fast and where nest building happens. We do have to destroy some nests due to the stinging behavior of some of these species.

In this shot you can see where the stinger is, perhaps this is why the Mud Dauber Wasp turns it's head away from me? I have no intentions of taking the mud this Mud Dauber Wasp is working on, however the Mud Dauber Wasp does not know this right?





In the above shot, you can see the round ball of mud this Mud Dauber Wasp is working on. Seeing them fly with the mud is quite funny for take off is a tad bit hard. There has to be a thinking process?? These photographs I got right in there due to the Mud Dauber Wasp has never shown any aggression my way. Though I do not think I push the creature either. The Mud Dauber Wasp just does not act as if it wants to sting.

Thank you for coming by and checking out these new photographs I worked on yesterday however took these photographs back some time ago... just never got around to looking at.

Spadefoot Toad Back in Oregon

Spadefoot Toad Back in Oregon




Meet again the Spadefoot Toad that lives here at our property showing up once in a while in our pond.



Since our weather has been warm for this time of the year, I started watering. The next morning this Spadefoot Toad was in this fabricated pond. We placed these fabricated ponds into our natural ponds for water conservation. Our part of the High Desert has been getting drier then normal due to the limitation of water. We felt in 2014 that 2015 might be worse thus the prefabricated ponds.

As soon as we installed these two prefabricated ponds, this Spadefoot Toad showed up in this one. Last year the tadpoles hatched,grew and left the pond. This cycle looks as if it will continue in 2015. We have no clue how long this species of toad has lived here on our property? Since we have other species of frogs here, the singing of frogs and toads coming from our ponds goes on both days and nights. I try and photograph the visitors or the residence of wildlife we have here at home.



The photographs you see here are from two days. The first day this Spadefoot Toad wanted nothing to do with me, kept coming up in the shade mind you. As soon as the Spadefoot Toad noticed movement down it went into the dark depths of the pond!



The Spadefoot Toads head usually was in the shade. Might be to hot in the sun? Frogs and toads skin is very thin.....



I took several shots of the feet. Being diggers the feet of the Spadefoot Toad is different then water based creatures.



Since I do not pick up the toads or the frogs here without cause, such as death, this Spadefoot Toad is not touched by anyone! I do not allow us to pick  the Spadefoot Toad up by our hands. I just do not want to hurt them! So this Spadefoot Toad comes and goes as it wants to. Only seeing one adult stuck in the fabricated pond so far. Tadpoles are a different story and I have a net for these, again I just do not want to touch them.



You can see the side of the prefab pond in some of these shots. On day two the Spadefoot Toad seamed very.... it no longer was darting down under the water to the black depths of the pond. This concerned me due to the Spadefoot Toad behavior when it first was seen in the pond the day before. The question, what would happen to this Spadefoot Toad if it was unable to get out of the pond and go back into it's burrow went through my mind. I dont want to hurt the Spadefoot Toad by being ignorant!

I expressed my concerns to Guy when he got home from work and he seen the Spadefoot Toad was not expressing the liveliness of a creature who is doing well. So Guy placed a board in the pond, if the Spadefoot Toad wanted out, this could be a way it could get out. Since we have no idea how on earth the Spadefoot Toads even get into the pond? Assuming the need to breed is so great, getting into the prefab pond is easier then getting out for the creature.......



The next morning the Spadefoot Toad was gone. I like getting the photographs I do of the wild creature who show up here, but I am not going to go so far as stressing out the creatures who show up here. Stress is a killer of both small and large creatures. That to me is not a good host.

Who knows there might be Spadefoot Toad eggs again in 2015? It is still very early in the year..... We may just see this species in this pond again?? I have yet to see a grown Spadefoot Toad in the other pond. I did photograph several of the tadpoles last year in the other pond. Lets hope the snakes do not move in and wipe out our little ponds this year? I am on the watch for snakes, and the smell of such snakes!

Thank you for coming by and checking out these photographs that were taken ..... oh last week? A few days ago now.... If you would like to read the blog post of last year when I just learned what I have photographs of you can read that post here if you would like or copy and paste the url http://www.mrsroadrunner.com/blog/2014/6/spadefoot-toad .

Dragonfly of the High Desert of Oregon

Dragonfly of the High Desert of Oregon




Meet the Dragonfly of our home here in the High Desert of Oregon!

Hope you all had a good weekend? We got some things that needed done , done in the garden. Now it is time to start putting out the seeds for the future flowers and the visitors to our garden! Many of my photographs of 2014 did come from our own garden. These photographs of this Band-winged Meadowhawk is no different!

These photographs came from one of our ponds, and fruit trees that hang over that pond.



I do get really good questions asked of me! The questions that is on my mind this morning was if I just push a button and take many photographs of the subject? Well...... one thing that folks may not understand is, keeping that button pushed results in oh lets just say a lot of photographs!! So unless I want to go through what a thousand, two , five thousand photographs of the same exact subject the answer is no. I do not just keep the button pushed. If that was the case I would have so many photographs to go through!! OMG makes me wince at the thought!

Like many folks who have to have a lot of stimulation, one day I can have many photographs of many different things if that day has been a active day! This of course is out of my hands, wildlife is going to do what wildlife wants to do!

The photograph above is the first of these three photographs I took. I really do not know if the subject is going to stick around? So, first thing to do is get the subject used to the sounds of my camera, and to get whatever used to me per say. Walking slow, everything has to be done with purpose!! Taking a step, you better think about that step!

Adjust the lens, since I do not mess with my camera settings I do not have to worry about that. I do not use a tripod, typically. So I do not have to worry about a tripod scaring whatever wildlife. Take a shot, or a couple shots.



Step closer, depending on how the wild creature is behaving! This Meadowhawk or dragonfly was not showing signs of stress. Adjust the lens, take some photographs.

I personally refuse to put my lens on "auto". This is a lazy, bad habit when dealing with wildlife photography! Some lenses do not even have a auto feature! Get used to "manual", mode. Depend on your own ability to act quickly as well as the ability to read the creatures behavior. You know if a creature is ready to fly away! If you do not, practice, practice when you have practiced, practice some more! I also keep all my lenses on the "stabilizer", feature. If that lens has one?

When you do not use a tripod you have that chance of doing what everyone does, move. When dealing with such things as branch of a tree, and a creature, the branch moves, the leaves move and the creature will move on and on and on. This is just the way it is. You have to deal with this!



Depending on the creatures behavior, step closer. The shot above is the closest I felt I could get! I do not want to run off the creatures that visit our garden! These Band-winged Meadowhawks or dragonflies mate here in our garden. We also get other kinds of dragonflies here who will mate if they can find a mate! This took us years to build however a creature who can come and go as they please will not feel secure if they are constantly being threatened by people.

The background on these photographs is just the garden. Since this was August 1 of 2014 the garden was in full bloom. Seeing the leaves the Band-Winged Meadowhawk is on tells me this was our fruit tree that hangs over one of our small ponds. This tells me that the background on these shots is pointing out of the six foot dog fence, and that flower bed. Blurring out the fence, leaving the green and some other colors that are flowers!

Editing my photographs: These photographs had nothing done to them. I try to not do anything to them. I dont know photoshop and frankly neither does many of the people who think they know photoshop! Shutters at some of the photoshopped photographs I have seen .....

Just had a scare, news from Bend Oregon just said it was snowing! We have the door wide open and some of the windows, does not feel cold enough to snow!! It is not , raining here! We have flowers in bloom already! Others are getting ready to bloom with buds on them, like the lilacs! Last thing we need is snow or that horrible frost!! We even have some birds in nests here at home!!

Thank you for coming by and checking out these photographs of the Band-winged Meadowhawk from August 1, 2014!

Bird of Prey Visitor

Bird of Prey Visitor




Meet the Bird of Prey that showed up here to the house yesterday! I belive this to be a Coopers Hawk and not the Sharp Shinned Hawk.



I believe this is the hawk who shows up from time to time to hunt our small piece of property. Eating on the song birds who are so plentiful here at home. I did not add all the photographs I got of this bird here in this post, however you can go to the main page at mrsroadrunner.com where the album I put all the photographs of this bird of prey will be on the front until next week.



Typically I wait for at least a week before I put such things up. However since Guy is my biggest fan he recommended putting this series up anyways. This is my way of just thinking about things before I put it out in the public.



I thought it strange as I was working on what else, my photography when all the birds went quiet! So quiet you could hear a pin drop and this is not common. Sure the birds will go quiet when say someone is walking by, or a cat is on the hunt. Then when the danger has passed within several minutes the birds will start, "talking", again.

This did not happen yesterday. So, I investigated. This has been going on for years now, I will go to the front or back to see what is going on. Typically turning on the water hose to run off someones cat.

Not yesterday. First I thought well a dove is in the back, no big deal. We have large flocks of doves and they do hang out here regular. Though this dove just did not look right, so I grabbed my camera. That is when this bird of prey jumped on the rock you see there.



I am a tad bit "weird", about leaving such things as piles of branches and such around here and there until the Lilacs grow out, or the leaves grow on the trees etc. to give the song birds and other small birds places to hide. Of course we have such things as the raspberries which you see here in these photographs as well. It gives the birds and other wildlife a place to hide.

You can see the back gate in these photographs. To the left there is one of our small ponds. The rock in which this bird of prey is standing on, well their is frogs all over both these ponds, toads too! On occasion we will get the snakes moving in, however you can smell when a snake has moved in!!

I am sure there are other wildlife that I do not know about? It took me some time to even know we had night time toads here!



Since all the song birds, other small birds even the doves were hiding at this point, I am not sure if this bird of prey was here to get a drink? Or if this one seen some of the frogs jumping to hide? I am just not sure?



This shot I believe the bird of prey was checking out the cats! We do have a population of cats here like most communities in America we have folks who do have one or more cats.

Now the Copper's Hawk and the Sharp Shinned Hawks I have read, and been told they are "pests". Well all respects to those folks who are cat lovers and have one or a dozen cats, I put cats into the "pest", category as well. I tell everyone who has cats to get those bells and collars off their cat if they want their cat to live long. The birds of prey, (as well as a host of other wildlife we have here), hunt cats as well!

I believe the shot above the bird of prey was checking out the cat that was over that way. I did not see my sons cat and went looking. He was in the extra room sleeping.



We have had several birds of prey here on our property. The owls of course perch in the trees and rarely will be in the trees at this time of the day. Mornings are the time to see the Owls. The Harriers have been here checking out things, I even had that one dive at me and think that Harrier was young and thought my hat was something..... the Red Tailed Hawks, eagles, vultures stay up in the sky when checking the place out. The Ravens geesh they scream and yell so loud hard for them to sneak in without being heard! Then the Osprey, Heron, other birds just pass by to go where they are going.



The dogs were inside with me when this visitor showed up. I really doubt this bird would have been here as long as it was if the dogs were out there? The dogs have been trained, told to leave the birds alone!



By this time this bird of prey knows it is being watched. I tried to be quiet but we are not as quiet as we like to think we are! Then of course the click of the camera ..... You can see in these shots that I was shooting through the kennel fence. Blurring the fence out with my lens the best I could. Happenings like this you do not have time to set up the shots etc.. Wildlife just does not pose for the camera! You got to get the shots as the  operatunity arises.



The bird of prey got deeper into the raspberries I am thinking the bird did not go out the same way it went in because of where I was? It took off flying and went to the pine tree and to our front door. I made my way to the front, where the doves have already set up their nests. Again this bird of prey took off to another persons yard.

The song birds and other birds were rattled for a time, then everything went back to normal..... This Bird of Prey never did get anything to eat here at our house.

It is said if you have such birds hunting near bird feeders etc.. to take down the bird feeders for a while. Then put them back up. We have way to much going on here as far as the wildlife go for things to be that easy! I like the Birds of Prey! So I welcome them until the peace and harmony of my life gets disruptive..... as one frog is, "talking", at the moment, (there goes another frog, and another), and the birds are already wide awake  outside..... that is my que to finish this up!

Thank you for stopping by and check out all this series of photographs if you wish!

Oregon Red Admiral Butterfly

Oregon Red Admiral Butterfly





Meet the Red Admiral Butterfly. These photographs were taken right here at home on the Raspberry leaves on June 6 , 2014.



One thing to note, we grow the Raspberries around our small ponds where the Raspberries can get the water they need here in the High Desert of Oregon without having to pay attention to how much water such berries need. The roots of the berry plants at times are completely water bound.

The Raspberries attract so many creatures to them, the water of course is a huge attraction to the wildlife! The High Desert can be a dry place! Fearing 2015 will be another year of dry conditions, wildfires etc.. We will just see what visits us this year?

Along with the small ponds, the flowers, the Raspberries this is also a protected area from cats and people. Many folks if they can see in this area from outside (typically this area is not seen from the outside when everything is in bloom and/or growing), will catch me just kicking back with my camera with the dogs just waiting to see what creatures show up!



On this day in June this Red Admiral Butterfly showed up. Not a small butterfly, not the biggest butterfly that visits our home. One of the more colorful butterflies!



I have started putting the dates on my posts so I can write another post of series of shots that are taken on different days if I want to. Some days we get a lot of different visitors showing up here!! Some days I am constantly shooting different series of different visitors. Visitors are wildlife that shows up.

I was asked why I do not have photographs of "friends", referring to people. I do not know how to explain to such folks with this mentality, that wildlife is my friend. I enjoy such creatures more so then human contact in the real world. Some of you know exactly what I mean!

I bring up at times while on social media the little boy who road his bicycle and stopped in the road where he could see me in my chair with my camera and said to me his parents were both outside if I want to talk with them. I thanked him for the invite and said if I am out there talking to your folks, who will talk to the birds? Of course I got a strange look before the little boy went riding to tell his parents what I said.

I dont care to learn of the local gossip. Who is doing what. We make our home a place we want to be. If a matter comes up I feel I need to put my two cents in as far as this town goes, we have a mayor who is easy enough to call up on the phone. I am shy that way haha



Such things as this Red Admiral Butterfly is easy enough to photograph. I do my best to make this a safe place for such things and I think such creatures as this Red Admiral Butterfly knows this? I do not do anything special other then keeping up the ponds, flowers, Raspberries and spending time outside without distractions.

I do notice , people have a hard time just being these days. Everyone is trying to impress each other, outdo each other..... The curse of being a human right? I have plenty of time to just ponder everything as I wait to see what visitor shows up next!

On twitter the other day butterflies came up. The breeding of, setting "free", the domesticated wildlife. Bred in captivity I feel these "wild", creatures loose the benefit of the true wild creatures. Even something so minute as even the butterfly. For all I know this butterfly could have been from a wedding or even a classroom? All I know is, this Red Admiral Butterfly stopped by and I was more then happy to photograph it!



I do watch such things as this Red Admiral Butterfly more so then photograph. Photographing my subjects really does not take long at all in most cases! Someone mentioned how long I must have been out taken photographs of another insect, how do you tell such a person that it did not take but a little time without making it sound like they are wasting their time reading a book and trying to impress all the onlookers? Perhaps this is why I like doing photography alone. Without the distractions of other people?

If you want to read up about this beautiful Red Admiral Butterfly I recommend going to any state, government or university website for actual facts. My observations are mine and I really can ramble on and on, however I really do not know what you all want me to ramble on about haha!

Thank you for coming by and seeing my photography of this day of the Red Admiral Butterfly.

Wilson's Warbler Bird

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Wilson's Warbler Bird




Meet the male Wilson's Warbler !



This is one of our visitors to the garden and the small pond in 2014! Like a flash this man flew in to get a drink and perhaps something to eat.



Being a insect songbird this small bird darts here and there. Stopping for brief times.



The male Wilson's Warbler with his black cap stands out when he shows up!





If you are in Oregon keep your eyes open for this small bird!

Hope your weekend went well and thank you for coming by and seeing this small series of shots that was taken here at the house in the High Desert of Oregon!

Swimming Frog In Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Swimming Frog In Oregon




Meet one of our frogs that more then likely was born and raised here on our small piece of property!





We bought the prefabricated ponds placing them within the natural ponds to save on water. Drought conditions and all, and well we wondered if such things as the frogs would still be able to live here in the natural and prefabricated ponds. No worries the frogs made the best of both worlds!



The frogs showed up here some years ago as they tend to do to any place that has a water source. I like the frogs so did not run them off or kill them. I watch the frogs as some folks watch their fish. Only thing that is different is, one should not name the frogs or get to attached. They are wild, coming and going as they see fit, not as we see fit.



We also do not bring the frogs here to the house, they came on their own. We placed the ponds in at first for the dogs to have a place to cool off in on the hot days here in the high desert. Then when we noticed creatures such as this species of frog moved in, we just left them be. The dogs still get in the water btw to cool themselves off! Frogs do not seam to care!



We found out many things were drawn to the water! Such things as butterflies, birds, toads, frogs, many kinds of bee's, slugs / snails (yuk), on and on find the water source refreshing. They , the wildlife have set up their own ecosystem here at our ponds. Dragonflies show up to eat the mosquito's in turn lay their eggs and mate here. The bee's (wasps, hornets), come to drink or get mud and take it to where ever they live. The birds show up and eat what they like etc.. I do remove the snakes who come, they tend to wipe out everything!! Throwing the balance off. We also have to keep peoples pets out of here. Cats, chickens, ducks are the main things we have had issues with. Of course being within the dogs kennel helps, however you would be amazed how slick people pets can be ha!



As you can see the prefabricated ponds we have, have not run off the frogs! This is one of many frogs we have here of all stages of development. It can get rather noisy here at night time and the reports I have gotten from neighbors is that they like the sounds.... Day time of course I dont even know if the neighbors hear the frogs? We sure do !



We estimated we have saved, well Guy is out right laughing about how much water we have saved by putting in these fabricated ponds! By the way our water bill has gone down as well! So for the what $100 a piece on these (?), we paid the two ponds have paid for themselves several times over! We had even found out we had a night time toad living here we never new we had! Who knows what else we have here at night time ?

Thank you for coming by and checking out this frog swimming!!