Seeing spots

Winter is the time when ladybugs congregate around the house. Found a pile of them on the porch — each with a unique pattern of spots and shade of orange.

Morning meditation

Bluebird seems to staring out over the south valley from the branch of a bare hickory tree.

 

 

Hummingbird moth

I love seeing these clearwing, or hummingbird moths, partly because they don’t come around that often and because of their relatively large-bodied fuzziness. Caught this one on a dark overcast day in the office garden. (Sorry about the too-hot flash.)

Silent Sunday

Memphis curves

This week’s photo challenge is all about curves.  There’s rarely a bad angle when trying to grab a picture of the “M” bridge that carries Interstate 40 over the Mississippi to connect Arkansas and Tennessee. The image below is in downtown Memphis looking west.

Birds of a feather

Two bluebirds among a flock feeding on sumac growing around the house.

Living color

Tonight’s sunset was quite a contrast to last week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, which had “monochromatic” as its theme.

RED AT NIGHT — Setting sun’s red light sprays the bottoms of cloud deck as it sinks behind the Arkansas Ouachitas.

Grounded

This red-spotted purple probably escaped a predator at the cost of a wing and the ability to escape again. Though grounded, he continued to spread his wings in the sunshine.

STILL BEAUTIFUL – Red-spotted purple butterfly warms himself on the roadway.

Jelly fungus

Climbing a ridge off the beaten path, I was struck by the glow as the noontime sun backlit an orange jelly fungus growing through a slit in the bark of a dead tree. Seems that no matter how many times we traipse the ancient woods, there is always something new.

Jelly fungus oozes from the bark of a dead tree.

Like some orange quartz crystal jutting from a stone, this jelly fungus bursts from a slit in the tree bark.

In this image, you can see where the fungus is emerging from a slit in the bark.

Birdland

Been a while since we posted. We had a couple rounds of heavy winter weather and being trapped away from home for days at a time. Nice to be back home. Between bouts of wintry mix, the birds came out and did what birds do.

One of several bluebirds availing themselves of sumac seeds.

Red-tailed hawk takes flight over the office parking lot.

Tufted titmouse in tree with open hickory nut. He flew the half-nut into the tree and spent a few minutes brunching on it before knocking it to the ground and flying away.

Sparrow on his takeoff roll.

Yellow shafted Flicker in the sumac.