More from El Rio Open Space - III

And now the Wildflowers:

There was a nice flow of water in the Santa Cruz River enough though the lake was drying up:

Wildflowers - II

Continuing with my alphabetical series on my "5" Star Photos we come to a second wildflower photo. I like the simplicity of this one which almost stands out in 3D because of the muted background:

Wildflowers

Wildflowers and Grasses

As I've mentioned before, sometimes when searching for particular animals or birds and not having much luck, I look for other photo opportunities. Such was the case on Mount Lemmon one day when I couldn't pass up this beautiful photo of grasses and wildflowers:

Wildflowers and Grasses

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

The last of my excursions ventured a bit farther away: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It is about a 3 and 1/2 hour trip one-way. Organ Pipe Cactus are interesting in that it is only found in rocky mountain areas of Southern Arizona and Mexico:

Organ Pipe Cactus

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monutment

 The trip was beautiful as usual. Wildflowers were in bloom, along with the Ocotillo, and Hedgehog Cactus:

Wildflower Blooming

Flowering Ocotillo (with Lesser Goldfinch)

Hedgehog Cactus

 A nice American Kestrel posed, then allowed me to take a photo of his "take-off:"

American Kestrel

American Kestrel

 A Curved Billed Thrasher was looking for a nice place to nest in the Chain Fruit Cholla:

Curved Billed Thrasher

And, of course, the snakes were out and about:

Texas Patch Nosed Snake

Bullsnake

Mexican Hat Coneflowers and Other Wildflowers

While I focus mainly on animals and birds, I look forward to "Wildflower Season." There's always so much color  -- plus the possibility of butterflies, hummingbirds, and other birds. Here a field of wildflowers that includes one of my favorites, the Mexican Hat Coneflower:

Mexican Hat Coneflowers and other Wildflowers

Another non-bird, non-animal nature photo

Experimenting can be fun. Sometimes I'll come home look at a photo and say, "Why in the world did I take that photo? What did I see?" Sometimes I'll come home and say, "Holy cow, that's a nice photo, but how did I know to take it?" Case in point. Today's photo was essentially ...... weeds. But for some reason I saw something which I can only explain after seeing the photo. The centerpiece is actually the "flowering grasses." The background is dark green which makes the foreground standout. On the right there is color from the wildflowers, but the "whitish rock" just behind them provides wonderful contrast. 

Grasses and wildflowers
(click on photo to enlarge, there's wonderful detail)

I have probably walked right past this sort of thing thousands of times, never stopping to appreciate or photograph what is there.

The lesson, if there is one, is that if you aren't finding what you came looking for, don't go home empty handed. Experiment, have fun. Who knows, maybe you'll find a gem.

Hike and Picnic in Madera Canyon

One of our favorite picnicking and hiking spots in Southern Arizona is Madera Canyon.  After our picnic we hiked along the creek. Not a lot of birds, but a wonderful hike. Here are a few of the day's photos:

Female Black Headed Grosbeak

Male Black Headed Grosbeak

New Mexico Thistle with Unidentified Butterfly

Not a very good photo of a Painted Redstart

Two Male Wild Turkeys Showing Off

Indian Paintbrush

Rains Bring Wildflowers - Part II

A few more of my "favorite" wildflower photos:

Western Coral Bean

Arizona Thistle

Canyon Morningglory

Desert Globe Mallow

prairie Zinnia

Blue Bonnet Lupine

Mexican Poppies

Rains Bring Wildflowers

Southern Arizona's monsoon rains also bring out a second season for wildflowers. They are more abundant in the mountain ranges. So, I thought I would share some wildflower photos with you today:

My favorite: the Dandilion Puffball

Ivyleaf Morningglory: One of my few "Fine Art" photographs

Mexican Hat Coneflower

Coneflower

Field of Wildflowers

Water Lilly

Spider Plant

Prickly Poppy

Mexican Bird of Paradise

Rio Rico Ponds

Many of the shallow "ponds" in the fields at Rio Rico Ponds were gone. With them, gone were the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks that I saw two weeks earlier. Just the main pond was left with a long Great Blue Heron standing in the middle fishing. From there I headed up to Madera Canyon finding some wildflowers along the way. Here are some photos:

Great Blue Heron at Rio Rico Ponds

Wildflowers in Madera Canyon

Mexican Popies

Colorado Trip - finishing up

So, I went to Colorado searching for Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep, Moose, and Bear. What I found was Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep, Moose, and Bear --- although no photos of the Bear. I think I have mentioned this before, but about 50% of the time you come across a Bear it runs away. This was one of those times. I was thrilled to see so many large Bull Moose ... and young calves. The tiny one on Cameron Pass was the smallest I had ever seen. I was also thrilled to see so many Mountain Goats ... and young kids. I was particularly pleased with the photos of those little guys. But, in addition to the big mammals that I was looking for, I didn't really expect to get a good photo of a Beaver. And, I am really pleased with the young Mule Deer photo. And, while it rained the last couple of days, I didn't mind. I had the photos I wanted ... nothing was going to "rain" on my parade. I'll leave you with three last photos -- wildflowers of all things:

Thanks for joining me on my trip. Dennis

Miller Canyon Wildflowers

Still more from Miller Canyon. It is very easy to be so focused that you don't "stop and smell the roses" when you are headed to a specific place with something very specific in mind to photograph. I knew right where to look for the hummingbirds. But, I also knew that they would be around all day. So, I couldn't pass up taking photos of some of the wildflowers, even before the hummingbirds. In the first, there is a small pond, covered with waterlilies. Although not open yet, something about the red bulb attracted me. The second photo is Indian Blanket, a sunflower looking plant but with very distinctive yellow tipped pink leaves and a dark maroon colored ball in the middle. The third photo is Blue Bonnet Lupine, which we see a lot of along the mountain slopes. There is so much beauty in this world it is easy to see a "half filled glass" as flowing over.