Interesting critters and such along the way

March 14, 09 surprise capture of a Blue Heron in a small overflow reservoir I was driving by. Luckily there were no cars right behind me so I could stop for a quick snap of the shutter.





The year of the cicadas....





Next years' butterflies...



Gathering pollen....



Two babes in the woods.....





All ears...one of my 1st digital pics I took.



This little guy was sitting in the grass a bit dazed.



This snake came out of my garden I had just weeded and watered. Needless to say I didn't weed that area of garden the rest of the summer!







Of course I had to torment it for a interesting camera shot!





Practicing song birds...





An interesting pattern in nature...



An evening bullfrog that came visiting...



A baby frog on a cluster of clover.



The trees have eyes...a raccoon I waited for weeks to get a shot of during a lunch hour at work.



Never knew how turtles did it....now I do thanks to stumbling on these two during a walk in the woods behind my house.





This was an interesting specimen, I have never seen it before. It seemed to be a combination of a bumble bee, butterfly and hummingbird. I was told it was a horse bee (?), that it does sting and with a major punch.








Colors and patterns in nature always appeal to me, such an infinite array of beauty.




Mirror image. Even the ugliest insects become fascinating to me.







Another thing that creeps me out except when I am viewing it thru a camera is spiders. They too exhibit such interesting pattern, color and textures.



Jiminy Crickets!

Geese xing zone at work.

Alien appearance with great camouflage skills.






Spinning and mending webs...

Honking geese...

Walking on water...

Poison catepillar ?...

A face that dons sunglasses...

Freedom...

One of two red fox pups that I saw frequently at work. This one particular day I saw the pup laying down by the stream bed, I thought he was sleeping until I got closer and found that he had been hurt. It looked as though he got hit in the hind quarters by a car. We called animal resque and they took the injured pup for help.

Another well camouflaged pray mantis.

Mother with her new borns...

captured prey...

Summer locust after shedding its' shell...

One of the largest spiders I've seen...

creepy and intriguing...

The cute ladybug....

Spiders with hair...

Lunch, another odd insect with great color and pattern...

An Aphid resting or getting ready to dine on the wysteria leaves.

This presented itself 3 years ago, it is a Skeet. This is a female and is pregnant.

The blue tail is beautiful and becomes very vibrant.

This is a baby snake I came across in my garden and caught on my shovel. Although this baby is small he is ready to strike up and fight

This catepillar was really interesting. Its' covering was furry but also like feathers, and the orange color was so striking with the black and white.

Here it looks like a clown with what looks like blue eyes and two white front teeth.





The body of this spider was unusual, flat and angled upward. The colors were green, blue, yellow, black and teal.

How the story of the birds and bees began. These appeared to be very large horseflies.

A hummingbird backing off from the sweet nectar as a bee comes out of the flower hole.

This is such a cool little bird.

Another male skeet causiously coming out from under the hot tub. I was leaning over the top of the tub and he heard me snapping pics, he cocked his head listening.

Running across the front door stoop.

A whimsical looking insect with colorful patterns.. I assume these are some type of Aphids.

A baby rabbit eating a weed from top to bottom..

another watching me with curiosity.

Robins' nest precariously built under the deck on a cross beam... I had to use a mirror to view the contents.

The baby robin...

A brown and tan daddy long leg, not sure if the red beads are eggs.





A gold and black daddy long leg.

Lightening bug...







Looking for his shadow?



Little fly of some sort with iridescent wings...

I call this my Egyptian beetle; pictures just didn't due justice to the colors of this insect. Iridescent blues and greens and solid opaque colors on its underside.











Another cool looking fly with black veined wings and an orange back...

A house spider, but not for long!



Another colorful spider...

A night slimmer with eyes and antennas...

A slug eating away at my flower foliage..

A sun bathing squirel on the shed roof...

Full of antics...

Good luck and bad luck side by side, a five leaf and a four leaf clover.

A cool colored frog also making a home under the hot tub...

A box turtle decided to lay her eggs along side my front door stoop. This proved to be a amazing sight and project to follow to see the five eggs hatch and come to life 90 dyas later.

This little guy made it thru and slowly emerged from its' underground nest.

This was one egg that didn't make it thru the weather. The shell was like a latex glove covering the baby turtle.

A few weeks later I found this baby in the backyard, getting along just fine.

A yellow, lime and lime green bee...

Wild looking orange, black and white bug...

Everyone's doing it!

Night flyer...this was a mystery creature I was captivated by. Waiting each night trying to get a glimpse of what this thing was that came to my garden nightly. Finally I was able to capture some pictures of this large bat-like flyer.

This, I found to be a Sphinx moth. It dwells along wooded areas.

This is the largest beetle I've ever come across. It was on the fence at the end of my property down by the woods. It looked like its' antenna was braided and was larger than a quarter.

This poor mother duck had its' nest washed down a hill at work. It landed on the curb by the ambulance bay. Worker's moved the nest up off the curb and placed the 5 eggs back in it hopeful the mother would continue to sit on them.

Later the 5 hatchlings and mother and were relocated to an area with a pond for safe keeping. It was fun to watch the ambulance drivers slow down to a crawl while coming and leaving the E.R. helping to preserve life.

An upgraded out house!



The End!