Poppy Flowers In The Garden

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Poppy Flowers In The Garden




Meet the Poppy Flower! Or the salt and pepper shaker flower. One thing all Poppy flowers have in common is the seed pod. When dried they are like salt and pepper shakers! Many of us have learned this from childhood and it is a good way of remembering them!

Above photograph is a open flower and a flower bud of the Poppy Flower.



I have grown the Poppies for a while for I just love the flowers! They came in all sizes, shapes, and colors!



The poppy do hate to have their peddles wet so I try not to over head water. Ask Guy not to over head water either, though sometimes needing to over head water for one drop of water can kill such things as aphids.

Thank you for coming by and looking at this short series of photographs of my poppy flowers taken in June 2014 in my garden.

Hoverfly a Beneficial Insect

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Hoverfly a Beneficial Insect



Meet the Hoverfly! In the last four years of writing about my photography you may have seen several posts about the Hoverfly? The family of the Hoverfly is a pretty large family. I welcome the Hoverfly to our garden at least this species ( Scaeva pyrastri (?) to be technical), they are a beneficial insect and one who I feel the general public needs to know about. I make it no secrete I am a seed freak, to obtain seeds from any plant it is nice to have help.



Photographing the Hoverfly can be a little tricky , since after all they do "Hover", however when they land they give you a few seconds to get a couple shots.

You may think the photograph above and the photograph below are exactly the same, look again! If you push on the photograph the photograph will come up bigger if you need the photo to?



The plant this Hoverfly just happened to be photographed on is a Columbine. I have been asked about lenses, no special lens. Just my all around lens. I look over my photography, keep what comes out and delete what does not. Name the usable files. That is typically it. You can do this too! Just takes some time and effort!

It helps to have insects the Hoverfly feeds on as well! Good for such things as the benefitial insects, no so good if you want a perfect winning flower and if you use chemicals to achieve this. Kill the bad bugs, you also kill the good bugs. Just the way chemicals work.



Back to doing what the Hoverfly does, Hover!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photography of the Hoverfly!

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!

Spent Some Time With The Yellow-Bellied Marmot

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Spent Some Time With The Yellow-Bellied Marmot



Meet the Yellow-Bellied Marmot AKA Rock Chuck. This colony lives on a farm and is protected by the farmer. Speaking with the farmer he told me the colony is out and about and where to find them.

Off I went and made me a nice spot to sit down and just watch. Did not take long for the "barking", to start. However after a short time curiosity took over the warning barks!





Other then the obvious barking Yellow-Bellied Marmots came movement as to what all the fuss was about!



Soon more then one started appearing ! As I was going through these photographs I even noticed more of them then I did when I was photographing them!



The pups started appearing in doubles or triplets. Sticking real close to each other, but wanting to see what I was too!



They weigh more then some cats do at ten to eleven pounds. Males being the biggest and he takes on more then one female. What up to four females that he has in his family and defends his wifes and kids. The colony seamed to have a population of ten or more. They were running and hiding then popping out to see what was going on! Their burrows are deep too! The hibernation chambers are supposed to be deeper then just the ones they use to hide in.



The only reason I got these photographs like I did is because I found a place to sit and chill out. These Yellow-Bellied Marmot are protected. I know the farmer and his crew do a good job of checking out who is on their property for I had the boss man and his hand come to me! Of course a phone call was made and the permission I had gotten was verified!

I think some day I will drop off a framed piece at the main farm home for him and his family? I do not know the farmer real well however the brief interaction with him told me he likes the wildlife that is on his land! I do get some very nice photographs and experiences on this farm.





This Yellow-Bellied Marmot seamed to me to be the biggest I photographed? I say "he", for he looked like he has been in a scrap or two!! These Yellow-Bellied Marmots can live up to fifteen years! Though it is said the pups have a hard time making it to a year old.



This photograph for me was fun! There are two Yellow-Bellied Marmots in the above shot. Can you find the second one? Not going to tell you where it is, this is a example of how well they blend in!! I finally showed Guy for he looked and looked. After you see something it is hard to unsee whatever ha Heck there could be more then two...... I just see two.

This spot seamed to be a good spot for some were running into the rocks from other places. So I figured the males must be around here and where I got what I thought was the biggest Yellow-Bellied Marmot on this day. Of course by this time I was gone from the house for gosh three hours? I was getting tired but waited in this spot.



Another popped out! Right now there are three checking me out!



Now there is four! The barking by now has stopped. I could not get my lens out far enough for more of the rocky area to be photographed without giving away the location. I promised the farmer I would not allow anything in the photographs to give a location. This of course protects the animals I photograph.

Sorry to say these animals are one of the critters that are slaughtered in our area for just being there. They do eat plants up! Though on the flip side the also eat insects!! However it is their burrows that cause problems. They are not small animals! I have said it once I will say it again, farmers in our area pay people to pick up rock! This is a job and duty of farm workers. Something needs to be done with these rocks, this farmers put the rock here. Perfect location for the Yellow-Bellied Marmot.

Their territory consists of what five acres give or take.... we do have a railroad line that comes through, though if you give a creature like this a good place to live without threat this means all these that are living in this rock that nothing is done with, the Yellow-Bellied Marmots are not burrowing under the railroad tracks...... this is my theory anyhoo.





We are up to five now!! All checking me out! The eldest one is the one who is being very still, and until you see it..... The way the others look, and are acting I feel those are pups ie young.





Here all five of them again, you can see the two on the top left a little better? Guy claims if I had bread they would probably had came right up to me haha. Guy gets to see first hand my interaction with the wildlife and he is always shacking his head haha

I did not use all the photographs I uploaded to this album, you are more then welcome to check out all the photographs. Make them bigger , you can view them in a gallery, share them and embed them. Some other options.

Thank you for coming by and checking out my time with the Yellow-Bellied Marmot!

Views in Culver Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Views in Culver Oregon




Welcome to Culver Oregon! There is so much to see and do here in Jefferson County, Lake Billy Chinook is the most popular place people come to enjoy our county. You can see why right?



This is one of my most favorite spots we live near! This whole area ! When we have to go into Madras for whatever reason sometimes Guy will drive me to the Canyon just to see what is going on. We take the scenic loop trail back to our town.



All thee photographs are from the one day. For the occasional clouds that rolled in , then back out everything was pretty nice! The mirror effect of the blue sky and the water makes nice reflections!



To get to the other side there are several bridges you have to cross. They are not the widest bridges you have ever been on! This one is the one who have to stop and wait if anyone else is on it , or closer then you are to going on it.

It gets real busy come spring and summer!



I do not do to much people photography, however when I do the canyon there in Culver is a great place for such things!



The background makes for a great backdrop!



As I said on twitter guy is my biggest muse for people photography. The kids of course must be my second? Since the kids are all adults I can post their photographs ha!



This has been one of my favorite photographs of our friend we lost contact with. Just looks like he is thinking way to hard!! The canyon wall and the water is the background. If the sun was shining more I think the water would have looked nicer? Whatcha do when the clouds roll in.....

I do have MANY photographs of this days photographs. I uploaded more then I used for this blog post and you can see the others I uploaded to this album here . You should be able to just click on whatever photograph and it takes you to the album. From there options to see them in a gallery, share, on and on can be found. Actually all my albums are set up this way.

Thank you for coming by and seeing my photography taken in Culver Oregon on this day!

Wild Field Mouse Eating

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Wild Field Mouse Eating




Meet the little wild field mouse I came across on one of my hikes. The little mouse did not even notice I was watching him!





When I set out I typically go by myself so I can control how noisy or quiet I am. Though I did not know I was being this quiet!

Now you know why the birds of prey follow me around, though this mouse was not exactly all that scared just sitting there eating.



Just so long as this little mouse is out here on this farm I go on and not here at the house everything is dandy about having a mouse around. The mouse is kind of cute dont you think?



Finally the little wild mouse seen me!! We are so used to seeing house mice running about I wonder if we stop and think the mice do have life's outside of peoples homes?



Off the little mouse goes, climbing up and out of the ditch I found the little guy in!



I am sure the mouse is going to his home which is more then likely hidden around this spot somewhere?? Typically I see the mouse diving into their burrows in the middle of the dirt roads the farmer uses to get around on.

Thank you for coming by and checking out the photographs of this little wild mouse!

Junco Bird in White

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Junco Bird in White




Meet the Junco Bird who spends time here at the house. This one I thought was special due to the white feathers on the back and....





A lot of white on the tail feathers, and.....



The white chin feathers! We have many Junco Birds here though this one stood out due to the white feathers!



Never know what nature has in store ?





This Junco Bird with the white was just fun to watch and photograph and wanted to share with you!

Thank you for coming by , checking out my photography!