30-APR-2008
Blue-eyed Mary - A carpet of Blue
To capture the sensation of seeing this annual display is very challenging. These line the creek as it winds down from the head of our hollow.
27-APR-2008
Autumn Olive
I was surprised to see this invasive bush/small tree growing not too far from the Paw Paw.
27-APR-2008
Buckeye Blossom
A little further down on the N side by the Rails to Trails.
27-APR-2008
Paw Paw, single blossom.
The closest I could get, close to the widest focal length without vignetting.
27-APR-2008
Paw Paw, closer view.
It was very difficult to get a close up view as the hill was slippery.
27-APR-2008
Paw Paw Blossoms
On the way back down I found these, it's the first time I've seen Paw Paw in bloom.
27-APR-2008
Wild Blue Phlox
Update...four days later I took another quick trip up to the gas well road.
23-APR-2008
White Butterfly...West Virginia White?
Seriously, there is a species called West Virginia White ~
Pieris virgeniensis. This was also taken on the gas well road during my
Wildflower Hike of 4/23/08
23-APR-2008
Wow, there are lots of wildflowers!
After I took the fern picture, I looked up and saw these.
It was too slippery and steep to get closer.
The black pipe you see is our gas pipe which runs down from the gas well located on a bench about 50' above.
23-APR-2008
A Fern Unfurls...
These ferns grow on the steep hill at the back of our yard.
23-APR-2008
Downy Yellow Violet
After taking the Blue-eyed Mary pictures, I spotted something yellow in the yard.
23-APR-2008
Blue-eyed Mary
After taking pictures of the Virginia Bluebell, I found this down by the creek.
23-APR-2008
Looking Good!
So far, the Virginia Bluebell is doing fairly well, it was the beginning of a long unplanned hike.
19-APR-2008
And then there were two...
Another Virginia Bluebell is coming up.
The deer are no longer looking for food, hopefully we will have some more green coming up soon in the feeding area.
16-APR-2008
Turkey Buzzard...
The first for me that was even close to decent.
It flew over when I had the TCON17 attached while testing the set-up for wildflower images.
16-APR-2008
Soaring in the blue sky
I only managed to get three shots of the buzzard while it was circling above.
16-APR-2008
With a close-up inset
The original picture was cropped to about 60% of original size. I decided to see how far I could crop it.
07-APR-2008
Butterflies!
Hundreds of these tiny little blue azures. Even though it was fairly dry this day, they were puddling in the driveway.
The blue is on their upper wings and is only visible when they flit about.
07-APR-2008
Testing the B-Macro
Not easy, but I did it! It helped that they were so busy...
06-APR-2008
The next day...a pair of Mallards!
Very early in the morning, so we still didn't have much light in the hollow.
05-APR-2008
A pair of Wood Ducks visit.
Of course it was late and dark, and they only stayed a couple of minutes.
03-APR-2008
Virginia Bluebell...against all odds
It was really a surprise to see that at least one Virginia Bluebell had survived all the deer tromping around in the yard.
We had at least four last year.
01-APR-2008
And on the Rails to Trails...
Coltsfoot, the weed that is always one of the first to emerge in spring.
More wildflower images through the 20th of April can be seen
here
31-MAR-2008
We want food!
Look closely...see the little bit of green in the lower left corner? It is a Virginia Bluebell!