Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth

Lately, our back yard has become a bird nursery of sorts. A mockingbird couple built a nest in our lime tree and a mourning dove couple built a nest in the rain gutter on our house, right around the corner from the mockingbirds. This is one of the two baby mockingbirds sitting in one of our rose bushes, two days after they graduated to fledglings.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Flee(t)ing Moment

The Race

Talk about fleeting (or fleeing) moments, caught these two one morning in the back yard.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

End of the Journey

Stare-down

The Stare-Down

This photo was featured in the online section of the L.A. Times, Southern California Moments.

Nothing like being cowed by a squirrel. I saw him while outside in our driveway with the two greyhounds the other morning. He stopped overhead as he was traveling along this utility cable and just stared down at us, very intently. Even the dogs seemed uneasy, which is very unusual considering they are ex-racers who've been trained to chase small furry things. After several moments, he went on his way.

Little Things

Morning Light

It takes hundreds of pictures to get one like this of these fascinating little winged gems. Fortunately, there are always models out on the feeders who suffer me stalking them with that clicking black box thing with the big eye.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual

Hummingbird Swarm

It's not unusual for us, but unusual everywhere else it seems. I don't think I've ever seen so many hummingbirds in one place until we moved to southern California. And this is just one feeder. We have five feeders and there are times when there's five or six birds at each feeder. It's an embarrassment of riches!

Houseplant

Houseplant

The way the morning sun hits this plant on the window sill captures my attention periodically. I've never been a plant person (which is a way of admitting I'm highly irresponsible with plant care and I'm sure the dogs and cats are grateful I'm not as negligent with them), but I recognize they have a presence and a language, sometimes amplified by the light around them.

Western Sky

Sunset in Glendale

With the winter, there are more clouds in the sky and conditions that contribute to magnificent sunsets with such vibrant color. Where we live, we never get an unobstructed view, but the color seeps in between tree branches and utility poles and the chimneys of neighbors' houses.

The Center of the Sun

The Center of the Sun

Having come from the northeast, I am still astonished at seeing roses in bloom in December. The yellow roses on the side of the house are prolific and sweet-scented. There's no cliché in stopping to smell these roses. Yellow was always my least favorite color, but these roses have taught me to love yellow.

An Ungraceful Moment

Scratching An Itch

We have many hummingbirds hanging around the back yard even in the winter here in southern California. It's an embarrassment of riches sometimes, with upwards of twenty hummingbirds mobbing the feeders (we have five). I stalk them quite often with my camera and many have gotten used to me. Still, sometimes it takes an ultra zoom lens to capture moments like this.....a  hummingbird in an unguarded, ungraceful moment in between trips to the feeder.

The Camera and the Vine

Vine

Another foray into the back yard with the macro lens. Seeing things close-up makes me realize how many beautiful things I can miss noticing in a day because I'm moving too quickly or am too distracted.

Rain

Rain Caught In A Web

We had just enough rain  yesterday to warrant a trip out into the back yard with the camera and a macro lens.