Bumble Bee in the High Desert of Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Bumble Bee in the High Desert of Oregon




Meet this rather large Bumble Bee! I have spoken before of the bee's who spend time with us here at home, this is one pollinator who helps us in our garden. This series of photographs was captured on the soft pink multi peddled hollyhock flowers.





When this species first showed up in 2014, it was fist checking out place out. Was not so nice with trying to intimidate me with checking me out real close. Darting back and forth, just being a pain!! After some time and the others showed up then is when I was allowed these closer shots. I believe the bee's like anything else, gets used to a person. Plus there is no need to fight over anything here, we put in quite a few flowers.







I like all the bee's myself! Curtain times you can hear all the buzzing going on!! Specially when all the Lilacs start to bloom!!



I did try to get shots of "his", face. Sometimes you get what you can get and this bee was not going to allow me to many photographs of "his", face. I figure, "if I cant see you, you cant see me" is being applied?







I think this is a pretty bee myself.....

Below you will find the series of photographs of this Bumble Bee in video format if you would like to see all of them rather quickly. Or you can click on the photograph to see the whole series of still photography one at a time!





Thank you for coming by and checking out my photography I got in my garden! My other insect photography can be found in my insect photo album if you like to check those out.

Sweat Bee and the Wild Strawberry

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Sweat Bee and the Wild Strawberry




Meet the Sweat Bee. Rather pretty in color with the fluorescent green dont you think? The flower the Sweat Bee is feeding on is a wild Strawberry plant that just started growing on it's own. No doubt the seeds coming from the birds?



I dont mean to photographs these Sweat Bee's on yellow flowers, they just seam to like them or being the color they are they catch my eye better on the yellow?

My other post I written up on this species of Sweat Bee is Sweat Bee On A Ozark Sundrop Flower if you want to check it out!

 

I actually forgot all about the wild Strawberry I had growing out there! The wild Strawberry flowered like no bodies business though when no berries were produced and no longer attracting the pollinators I pulled it out as to not have this plant spread all over town and to other peoples gardens. One attribute I quickly noticed about this plant!! The wild strawberry wanted to take over the world and the big farmers I felt did not need this taking over there crops! Like I said I think the birds brought in the seed from who knows where? Some of the migrating birds come from far away!







I do want to thank my son publicly, (I must have thanked him ten times here at home this morning), for helping his mother with technical issues I was having!



Thank you for coming by and checking out this series of Photographs from July of 2014 in my garden here in our part of the High Desert of Oregon!

Honey Bee Coming In For A Landing

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Honey Bee Coming In For A Landing




Hope your weekend was a good one?! Meet the Honey Bee. Many people know the Honey Bee!! The flower of this series is the Poppy Flower. The Honey Bee's do like the Poppy, specially the red Poppy!! Or the salt and pepper shaker flower!

The Honey Bee for being the size it is, does the work of several humans just buzzing around doing their thing! If it were not for the Honey Bee in part (pollinators in general), I would not have the seeds nor the food we grow here!



These photographs were taken in my garden on 8/10/2014. I have had conversations in the real world and on the computer, and phone with Honey Bee keepers, scientists ie with the professional Honey Bee keepers. Picked up a little information of this incredible insect!! Found out from those I will call them "die hards", the Honey Bee Keepers really are fond of their Honey Bee colonies ie hives as we our say as fond of our cats and dogs!

One thing I learned pretty quickly from those who know so much more then I about the Honey Bee is? The word "Honey Bee", is a catch all phrase for a species of Bee who turns their hard work into Honey for themselves. As with any species some day I will dive into the names, characteristics of each sub species of Honey Bee. For now those that come to my garden and the other places I go to are in two categories, the wild Honey Bee and the Domesticated Honey Bee. I can only tell the difference from their behavior at this point.

I recall running into one of these Honey Bee keepers in Condon Oregon. I love talking about any creature! This man new so much about Honey Bee's and a pacific kind of Honey Bee he blew me away!! I can talk about most things, though I admit some folks talk way over my head, therefor I try and just listen. If say the person wants to talk about whatever, I am in heaven. Though sometimes the people too are trying to gather information. I felt rather badly for my information was rather limited compared to his!! Of course my Honey Bee photography started that whole conversation and this is a typical conversation starter in my world.



Our garden here is rather small compared to some gardens. Our place is not big!! So Guy is my other half, and he is the one who plans out what, mostly in his head. Pretty much every inch of our soil is used up! So to some folks this may seam like we have a big garden?? To others well.... we live in a area where there are farms and ranches. I had 20 acres which is considered a small area here. I was going to turn into a wildlife place. Unfortunately this economy hit us as it had done to millions of folks here in America. So, we talked it over and turned this place into a mini place!! We have so many Honey Bee's here at times it is interesting considering we are not a big place!!

In fact we have so many Honey Bee's and other types of insects who can sting I will ask parents of kids and the parents themselves if they come here if they are allergic to bee's! Insects who visit here get rather used to me, that is I do the same old, same old. Such things I feel can get used to us just like we get used to them. Here at the house I have been stung one time. That is pretty good odds considering I get right up and close into their business!! We also do not allow them to set up shop here! That is make nests. As if I would know if the smaller species have nests here for instance, the ground nests.....Strangers I notice get checked out by the bee's. The bee's even the Honey Bee's check out the visitors that are with me on our place. Perhaps this is due to the perfumes, soap,chemicals the person is wearing?? That whole topic of chemicals people wear and what it does to big and little things like insects is another topic haha!

We do have new neighbors who have kids , they seam to be respectful of my garden. Lets hope it stays that way? Another neighbor is not so respectful!! I had to go to her son (who btw I think is older then I am haha), and ask him to please talk to his mother about just walking onto our place like she does cutting my flowers and peaking through windows, the dog fence etc.. She wont listen to me I informed him. You got to love small , rural towns hahahaha



With all that said, and my rambling added in..... the Honey Bee is a pretty docile Bee. The domesticated ones who show up by the thousands by train to our area (I was told they come here from California), they are the most docile away from their hives. Dont go walking up to their hives while they are awake and you are not prepared haha, I know I found out hahahahaha!

The wild Honey Bee are a little more..... on edge is a good way of saying it ? We have a "bug dog", here. He has to be told not to go after the Honey Bee. Otherwise ...... I have turned his attention to the ants which he can get all he wants to!!

We do have the domesticated Honey Bee show up here who are sick. They fall to the ground in mid flight. They will fall over, sometimes going into circles before falling over. We ONLY water with fresh water! I tried watering with our ag. water we pay for however, even though I am on the list of people to call when chemicals are applied (the water lines get clogged etc.. and they put chemicals in it to clear out the clogs, clean the lines) ... I am not a big phone answering person. So this is my fault, so I just assume not use that water, which is not for flowers, ponds, food gardens etc. anyways. I feel that water is for grass. Facts are much of the water in the USA is used for plan old grass ie lawns. I hate lawns for this fact. Folks like that green lawn..... dose not produce flowers or food, but it does keep down the dust , soil erosion. Leave that with something positive.....





I recall as a child (oh 6yrs old??), I came up with this brilliant idea.... and of course my younger sibling followed right along! We were going to catch the Honey Bee's and drown them!! Gosh we were both real little ! So we were doing our thing, I dropped the lid of the jar into the bucket of water! Well, I did not know any better and reached in and grabbed the lid, along with oh half dozen Honey Bees? Ya I got stung A LOT!!

Couple things I learned, one the Honey Bee is a bee who will die if it stings. So the Honey Bee is not going to sting for nothing!! Two, that was a pretty crummy and stupid thing to do!! Three, I was not allergic to Honey Bee's. My father after this went and got some honey from somewhere? All us kids got to have some , and I learned about the Honey Bee first "hand"!

Thank you for coming by , hope you liked my photography! I have more photographs and more to come! I have this in the insect album if you want to take a peak?

Hope your monday has started off well? We woke up to snow, which is not all that surprising haha! I will be over in twitter here soon enough,stop by and say Hi if you got the time! If I am still there live and kicking I respond rather quickly :)

Cosmos Flower Blooms in the High Desert

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Cosmos Flower Blooms in the High Desert




Meet the Cosmos Flower. Many colors to choose from! Here in the high desert, with good soil and lots of water the Cosmos do great!! Actually, I think they would do ok if I did not water so much?





We did throw down seed in places that other plants had a hard time in. Well, lets face it we throw down the seed everywhere in 2014 just to see where it liked it the most. Since nothing else grew in a couple locations we just figured the cosmos would not grow there either, surprise!



Everyday I would go and clip off the ones that were going to seed. In this shot above you can see those going to seed. I see two species of Cosmos flowers above. No there are three species above I see.

In 2014 this was the first year for the Cosmos , and I know now where they will grow and where they like what spot the best.



I even thinned some of these out and gave them to the neighbors who are not real gardeners and were having issues of finding something that would grow at their home. The reports I got were good! Hopefully they saved some seeds for the Cosmos Flowers are annuals. They bloom, seed and that is that. They seed very well!!



Lets face it, I am a seed fanatic. I have a hard time not collecting seeds!! Most of my flowers I collect the seeds, I am now putting some food quality powder on those in paper bags drying that the grain farmers put on the grain so the bugs do not eat up my seeds. I can never remember the name of this stuff for the name is a foot long haha!!

I am a organic gardener and freezing the seed pods do not even help with those dang insects!! So I just went out and got some of that food grade powder.



I try not to over head water. Some flowers do not like this, iris, poppy for example. Guy overhead waters more then I do, and his reasoning is - to wash off the bad insects. Can not argue with that logic!

Issues I ran into with overhead watering. When the flower blooms were forming I noticed they were black. Upon further investigation, this black mass around the forming flower buds were in fact earwigs! Earwigs love moisture!!

In spring and summer here in the high desert of Oregon we have to make our own moisture. A day without watering could mean death to anything relying on water! This earwig situation problem was not completely solved however everyday, two times a day on most days I simply squeezed the tops. Not enough to hurt the forming buds just enough to kill the earwigs or at least make them fall to the ground where as most folks who keep up with my photography,twitter,blogs know the frogs help around here eating such things as earwigs!!

Of course the birds help with this insect situation, and of course other insects all these help keep the bad insect population down. I just refuse to use bought chemicals! Even being told one of these chemicals is "good", to use (any chemical that dries up a plant. That is takes the moisture out of a plant, will do that to a insect, birds,cats, people. I have photographs of some of the honey bees this stuff kills)....  I dont even put down that food grade quality powder outside due to all the creatures I have here who help me keep the bad bugs in check. Examples of the bad insects is seen on the top photograph.





Each flower bloom has its own personality. I really like this for photography! Unless there is some reason to photograph spent, tired flowers, I stay away from them. Some folks have no issues with photographing such things and this is each their own situation. When photographing with natural light, off the camera morning and late afternoons are best. Though who am I kidding, I see something I photograph it haha!



I also pay attention to the background. Shade does wonders for a photograph!

Some of these Cosmos plants, more then not got oh they were over our 6' dog fence ie kennel! Some plants were so heavy they fell. No real big deal when they fell just so long as they did not take out other plants. The plants that fell were just to heavy, growing new stems up to the sunlight giving off lots more flowers! We plant thick, we plant oh some folks may call it the "natural", look. Meaning we have the iris patch,the lily patch, zinnia patch however some plants you will notice do real well next to each other. One plant may attract this kind of insect, the other plant repels such insect. Throw some seeds down near each other and walla! The flower that you want the most, plant a flower near it that you do not care so much about and the insects typically will go to that one leaving the one you want alone. This is the philosophy we go by. Knowing which flowering plant the scientists are making insecticides from can help. Though like the chrysanthemum or just mum, once these smart folks condense the properties of the plant to make their commercial , mass produced product putting it on the shelf as "all natural", is it all natural at that point??

My hands are not the biggest however some of these blooms were about as big as my hand. Which for some folks is not saying much ?



Some of the species of Cosmos did not appreciate our dry intense heat! You can see this in the shot above. The more colorful species the less heat tolerance I observed anyhoo..... all these Cosmos were in the ground. We do have some pots for some flowers do better with the root ball in a pot. For instance the Snapdragon does better in a confined space here in the High Desert. If I remember correctly we are supposed to be zone 5 for you interested. Though our area is so messed up when it comes to zones......

I can only assume the zone thing is messed up here in our area so badly is because of our canyons, mountains?? One direction we have the Cascade Mountains, look the other direction and we have the Ochoco Mountains, then canyons everywhere! Well that might be a little exaggeration..... however if you have ever been to our area you may understand what I am saying. We have a lot of canyons haha! Anyhoo as a elderly man and I were talking one day who lives down the road from us, he says his lilacs and roses have issues when ours are doing fine, or his family member lived several blocks down the road and she would get freezing temps and his place was fine. People have a tendency to stop me while I am outside caring for and photographing my flowers. When that is they see me out there haha! Some folks just do not see me and I hear lots of things hahahahaha!

Hearing folks talk who do not see me. One instance , there has been many!! A couple were talking and what they were talking about really was none of my business, no ones business!! So I casually made a couple steps and the women jumped and laughed, said I did not see you there haha!! I just smiled at them and they stopped what they were saying of course...... hopefully learning not to talk about such things in public, who knows who is hearing them talk? This town is a gossip column I swear!! I learn many things about the town (and our family that I never new we did, or whatever), this way.





The shot above if you notice is the same flower as the first shot. I am sure you noticed this. I have so many shots of the Cosmos I will stop this now and leave the other photographs for another post to ramble about haha! Not sure these are in my flower album? You are more then welcome to look at it if you wish!

Hope you enjoyed the photographs! Thank you for coming by and spending time with me in my garden!

European Starling of the High Desert

Mrsroadrunner Photography | European Starling of the High Desert




Meet one of the most hated birds in our area, the European Starling, or just plain old Common Starling.

Some report that Shakespeare himself brought it here, then others claim a Shakespeare fan brought them here to America. I personally think a fan brought them here, this is nothing more then my thoughts. Nothing backs up this thought of mine that I am aware of.

The European Starling has been here in America longer then some people have been. Unlike other birds that have been brought to America, the Starling has done remarkably well!! They can be quite aggressive, they will nest in any crack one has in their roofs, and being farm country as we are....... They kill off native species by eating everything in site, leaving nothing for the native species.





With all that nasty stuff out of the way, aren't they pretty birds?! Yes some bird folks will not be happy by me saying I just can not see any bird drowning in our pond so yes, I have doctored fledgelings back to health. Amazing how many critters here in America are not supposed to be here, but they are.



You got to give some credit to this species. All the birds we see today have been born here in the USA. Unlike the barn owl , the state has yet to issue a state wide slaughter on this song bird species.



If the European Starling was not so darn pretty of a bird...... the Starling is so noisy in flocks I feel it brings in less common birds to our home. Winter and Summer! I seen just the other day a European Starling taking on a Flicker Woodpecker! The woodpecker being bigger of course! Not sure who won? The two took it to the air and by the time I moved to see the happening they were both out of my site. The Flicker Woodpecker still comes around!!



The European Starling is full aware of the rules here at my home about photographs. This one allowed me these photographs which are not cropped or nothing only because of the hanger it is perched on. I made that out of baling twine. When we had the horses we had so much of it around that I took it and made such things with it for the twine lasts a long time out in the nasty weather!! Bailing twine also comes in a few colors, but the orange is most common.



We have had more European Starlings this fall/winter then in the past. I feel it is only because they set up shop in a nearby rental and with this crazy weather we have been having I am feeding a little more with the sunflowers and other flowers from the garden being eaten up rather early due to the weather confusing all of us!! As I mentioned in Twitter to someone, I have flowering plants in the garden still green looking like they are confused as to grow or not to grow?



At this time there was snow on the ground, this is what is making up the background. Lets face it, background in a photo is just as important as the subject.....





I am a firm believer that the common birds tell the uncommon birds where a good spot to be is. So like I said I can not be to harsh on the European Starling. I think they are very pretty birds! Last year it was the House Sparrows we had so many of, this year 2014,  it looks like the Starlings will be the dominant species? Time will tell.....

Thank you for coming by and checking out my series of photographs of the European Starling I got on this day in the high desert of Oregon!

Local Owl Resident in the High Desert of Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Local Owl Resident in the High Desert of Oregon




Meet one of our local owls on my walk here in our town!

Quite interesting how I ran across this owl. This owl is a larger species of owl and a smaller bird had gotten my attention for the smaller bird was just throwing a fit. I just figured the small bird did not appreciate my presents? This spot I have had a lot of action take place, from coyotes,to hearing and seeing the ZIP of a duck attempting to land before it saw me, walking up to a pheasant I did not see, mule deer,racoons,all kinds of big and little birds... on and on.





I found out what the little bird was freaking out about! Perhaps the little bird felt this was his territory and the owl was not supposed to be there? I took a couple more steps looked eye level into the tree and BAM! There is this owl !

The owl really did not act like it was in any stress even though I was within gosh ten feet? I really think I was closer !





The owl was not high up in this tree at all. The bigger birds of prey regardless of what you think, they are to heavy to be perched on a small branch you find at the top of trees. I have photographs around here of a young red tail who was trying to land on the top of a tree, and these birds are just to heavy!!

This is why when I see photoshopped images of a larger bird who is somewhere where such a bird just can not be I shake my head.....

This owl was oh in the middle of this tree perched within the tree where the tree could handle his weight. Though I am saying him just because......could be a female.





We do have the long eared owl here, I have a series of shots of the long eared owl. Though because of the size of this owl I think it is a Great Horned Owl . We have all kinds of Birds of Prey here and this one seamed bigger and heavier then the long eared owls that I photographed. I could be wrong?





I turned my camera only because I felt I could! I was after all very close to this owl and had to pull back my lens and step back!

As you can see the owl is checking out the grove of the same species of tree's on the other side of the pond. At the time of course I did not know what the owl was looking at or for.





This shot is when it was evident the bird had enough. The above photographs you see a more relaxed bird. Now you see the bird tensing , the ear feathers back, wings going up, the owls pupils bigger. The eyes are fixed on where the owl is going to go.

At this time I had to think quick if I wanted to follow the bird? Or do I have enough photographs? Sometimes these birds of prey allow me more photographs when I follow them giving them their space, while at other times they no longer want anything to do with me. It is a toss up.

Guy firmly believes that the critters I photograph know I do not get around so good. Guy claims the critters know I am harmless. Not so sure I am on board with this. Observing say caged birds and wild birds is not so different. The wild birds are wild. If this bird just came down from oh , say the Cascade Mountains from a remote location I doubt this owl would have put up with me for so long? Since this owl is basically in our town it sees people. It hears people. Heck for all I know this is one of the owls that hangs out in our tree's?? This owl could have seen me around ?

I am also all by myself when I go for my walks. No dogs, no one else walks with me. The critters only have to put up with me. This is so much different then two or more people!! I do not wear stinky perfume, this way I do not insult the air. I move with intent, not just willy nilly. I do not have music playing, or a phone ringing. I feel this makes more sense then Guys theory.





This is my favorite shot of this bird I got. I do have a photograph I did not upload of this bird flying off. I just had the wrong lens on and could not get all of the owl into the frame. When I say we were close to each other I am not making that up! I was just at the right place at the right time.

The owl flew to a tree of the same species over the pond where I have been before, and I could have walked over there..... I just felt I took enough of this owls time. I am sure it watched me do my thing until I left the area?

Thank you for coming by and checking out my experience with a Wild Oregon Owl . These photographs are uploaded to my Bird of Prey photograph album if you want to see a couple more shots of this owl and the others I have uploaded so far. I have accepted the fact I will always be behind uploading my photographs.

Cheerful Sunflowers

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Cheerful Sunflowers




The cold weather is upon us and I need some color!! Being avid gardeners I thought I would share some color of the Sunflowers from our 2014 garden.

Along with all the plants we grow we have many visitors show up on our small plot of land to share the bounty, thank goodness for the honey bee and all the other pollinators! Without them hand pollinating would be the other choice and well, that is a lot of work!

These photographs were taken on Sept. 8 of 2014. Not so long ago however looking outside it is like this was a life time ago!





I started this post at 3 something am thinking I was going to do a post about some male doves fighting for whatever reason male doves fight for?? Then I ran upon all my colorful flower photography and well...... I was going to wait a little longer to start my flower series, no time like the present!



We put in the Sunflowers in for several reasons, one I like them! Two, insects to birds like them as well!

Lets get real though, some of the sunflowers the birds tend to plant all by themselves!! Looking around at the neighbors unused space or even the empty plots of land we have here you may just find Sunflowers growing in spots the birds dropped the seeds. Of course it has to be somewhere water can get to! We are the high desert after all!



Since my photography is off the camera you can be sure the colors are what they are and I like our blue skies! Make for great background!









I did find a tid bit this morning as I was flipping through channels (btw this drives Guy batty when I do this), Prince William spoke of poachers of wildlife that caught my attention. Why did this catch my attention? Perhaps with all the things I would think a Prince has to do I just thought it was rather neat that such a issue crossed the mind of a Prince. If it was just to gain the attention of people like me and you or not......

Guy just left for work and I thought he had time to hang out with me longer. Need to tell those bosses of his he should be allowed to come in when ever he wants to haha. If only that would be how the world worked right??



Have you ever noticed the temperature difference inside of a flower? Any flower? I wonder if this honey bee has the thought process to complain about the every day work issues of a insect? Or are humans the only ones cursed with such a thought pattern? Now you know what crosses my mind as I am out and about observing what I photograph haha!



Stepped outside for a couple minutes. I love the quiet mornings here. Anyone at this time of the morning who is out on the old hwy is usually going to work where Guy works at. The quietness at the to quiet thing going on. The owls even went quiet! It is rather warm out there!! Guessing in the 40 f. range? The cattle are not even awake haha!



These flashy sunflowers produce the small oily seeds. Sunflower seeds have a addictive quality to them, everyone knows who likes sunflower seeds how addictive they really are! Sunflowers seeds are so addictive that birds will pass up other foods to eat only them. Why it is not such a great idea if you keep birds to give them a seed blend that has a high content of Sunflower seeds, if you watch them the birds will go to the sunflower seeds ignoring the other seeds they need for a balanced diet. This is true for other critters as well.

I hope you like the Sunflower photographs of this day not long ago! I will add in other flower posts to put a tad bit of color into our world.