I like this photo where the sun filtering through the foliage looks like a spotlight on this Red Admiral. I like its mottled coloring underneath too.
Daily Butterflies Page 54
Georgeous pics Elphaba! You capture such great detail!
Thanks Sheila! This RA was pretty cooperative, so I tried to get artsy and take a pic from underneath. Might have been cute if I'd gotten more of the butterfly in the pic!
Elphaba, your pics are some of the best I've seen. Such clarity.
Martha
From Wed. Several of the "little guys" out today. They even sat still long enough for me to grab some shots!!
Another one,
and more
Great pictures of the wee skippers mj!!!
Talk about clarity! MJ, I love those pics especially the last one!
Martha, thank you! My camera takes good bug pics, but I struggle with everything else.
I had a longtailed skipper visit late yesterday afternoon, but he was very skiddish and refused to land on anything pretty!
I wouldn't care if it landed on a pile of poop; I want them at my house!!
hahaha Sheila, We have horses, and they(the butterflies) do land on piles of poop!!!
I'm amazed sometime how well the pics come out considering the camera I have is not really designed for this kind of photograpy. I like catching them up close to hopefully get details of the flowers too.
This message was edited Nov 30, 2008 11:20 AM
This message was edited Nov 30, 2008 11:22 AM
PHOTO NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!
Drove out to the ranch to look around for caterpillars and butterflies and ended up seeing this!!!
You can see the tail end of the indigo snake and part of the rattlesnake behind it.
I think the indigo snake was envisioning 'rattlesnake tastes like chicken' dinner but when I drove by I must've scared it. I was still able to get one photograph of the indigo moving away and the rattler it was after. I sat there for about five minutes hoping the indigo would come back to kill the rattler so I could take more photos but it never did. I thought the rattler was dead but it must've been trying to fake out the indigo because it started to move after about five minutes. Sorry folks...I killed it. I don't want any poisonous snake crawling around the places that I'm go butterflying. It was 6 feet 2 inches in length...eeeeeeeeeeeek!!!
The indigo was bigger - probably closer to 7 feet in length. Just look at how thick the back end showing is and image the first half of the snake :o)
~ Cat
This message was edited Nov 29, 2008 8:19 PM
Here's the rattlesnake sort of stretched out. We had some roofers working on the ranch house and they all freaked when I drove up in my golf cart from the back forty and tossed it out onto the driveway :o) Of course, the boss had to get out his tape measure and measure it...and yes, they all got out their cell phones and took photos of it. This photo is from my cell phone :o)
~ Cat
This message was edited Nov 29, 2008 8:23 PM
Wow!!!
Awesome, Cat! But what did you do? Shoot it? I can't see you just walking up to a rattler that size to do anything else!
Was actually going to catch it as my brother does taxidermy as a hobby and plans to do it full time when he retires. However, when I looked for the snake catcher that I thought was in the back of the golf cart it wasn't there. Didn't have anything to catch it with and much less anything to put it in so I shot it. I always carry my weapon when I'm out in the back fields. We get illegals and sometimes ne'er-do-wells that trespass - being out there alone I must take precautions.
Took the snake back to the ranch house and Dad skinned it. Dad tans the skins.
We all used to catch snakes a good ten years ago :o) there used to be a bio-chem company that would come by the ranch to purchase them for producing anti-venom and other snakey stuff. After picking up that dead snake and finding out just how heavy it was am not sure I would've been able to handle it alive with a little bitty ol' four foot snake catcher!!!
~ Cat
Wow again. It's such a different world down there!
Wow, Wow, Wow! Cat, you're quite a Texan and there's no sissy in you. I'm a little bit sissy but you know what? -- I'm envious of your lifestyle.
Elphaba, good looking longtailed skipper shot.
Mjsponies, love your little ones.
Hi Sheila, Linda, Marna!
Martha
Whoa, Cat, you are braver than I. I would have been at least a half mile away in about 10 secs. I don't do snakes at all. I have a couple of black snakes that love to scare me every now and then. Rattles my brain and races my heart. Nope, no snakes for me. : )
~Lucy
This thread is stuffed with posts! Let's continue our discussion of butterflies, caterpillars, and snakes (!) here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/928660/
Melanie
Cat.....DH said he doesn't see rattles on it in the pic; maybe you cut them off. How many did it have and did you save them?
Sheila....it didn't have very many rattles...you can barely see them behind the third black ring around the tail - they start where it looks like there is a forth dark rink - I counted only 7 - I think the others fell off during one of the molts or where it travels across the terrain. The ranch has lots of brush piles and hidey holes - might have gotten the tail end caught up in something that pulled the rattles off. Was a tad disappointed in seeing that partial rattle...considering the size of this bugger it should have had at least a dozen or more.
Too funny Lucy!!! The black snakes are the ones that scare the beanies out of me. Since we don't kill those it's more or less they move away or I do. I got bit by one as a teenager - simply because I caught it too far behind the head and it turned around and grabbed my hand. OWIE! They clamp down and maul/grind - have lots of little teeth curved backwards so they are hard to pull off (I found that out the hard way!) Heh heh. Good thing it was a small two footer :o)
~ Cat
ps...sorry for highjacking this thread with the snake but it was near the end and I figured ya'll would start a new butterfly one anyway :o) :o)
I'm glad you put in that wee snake story Cat! I think we all enjoyed the snakes as much as reading you tell about them. Specially the part about you busting a cap in it, lol! Besides it WAS technically found in butterfly territory!! :-D ROFL
~Happy Butterfly Birthday, Deb~ : )
Lucy
Hey you all need to go to the Happy Birthday forum and wish Debnes a Happy Birthday!!! She is another year closer to me today!!!
Sheila_FW
Thx Lucy and Sheila... I had a great birthday, better than I deserved, lol! Will continue any of this over here... if anyone is interested in what my family gave me.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/929043/
Deb, I'm so glad that you had a happy b-day! That pendant is gorgeous! I've always thought that the real ones looked like jade trimmed in gold!
That is a smart jewlery maker to come up with those. Hope she gets a patent on them before someone snatches her design.
Thanks Ephaba!
Yep Sheila she is a very smart and sweet girl with young children. A true artisan with the glassworks. I also like the robin eggs nest pendant, and lots of other things with very fine detail. As for the chrysalis, I think the good Lord has the patent on that one..lol!
I thought of making one, and then looked online to see if someone else had already done it, and lo and behold- I found jude rose.
:-)
debnes_dfw_tx
You had sent me several seeds. One was a plaintain with redish or purpleish leaves. Exactly which plaintain was that. Also another question or two so that I can get ready for next year. Which of the plants that you have are the most successful for hosting buckeyes. I have several different ones but would like to narrow down to the surest ones. Also the same question for the orange falcate. I have serval species of hollyhocks and mallows, but have never seen anything hosting on them. I'm inclined to get rid of them and find something that would be used as host unless you've seen them being used.
jameso
Happy belated Birthday Deb! What a lovely gift!
Thank you everyone..
Jameso, could you please dmail me with all that?... :-)
This discussion has been continued in a new thread Mellie made. enough about me LOL! Any other questions or comments can be dmailed to me. :-D
Lets move on here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/928660/