A Couple of Creatures I've Been Wanting to Show You... and More! (photo-essay)

I've been trying for quite some time to get photos of at least two different "local residents" around our place here in Cloverdale in what I call "the wild hinterlands" of Northern California but, until today, they haven't been real "cooperative" (photographically speaking) ;o) .

The first one is a common butterfly here that's called a "sulphur" because of its brilliant yellow coloring. Well, today I finally found one that kept still long enough to get off a photo of it:

Sorry I couldn't get a closer shot but I was lucky to get a one at all -- considering I've been trying for at LEAST 6 or 7 weeks now. These guys are busy little fellas that never seem to light for very long at a time...

While I was standing at the top of the driveway, looking around for possible subjects, I noticed some slight movement in a branch of a scrub oak just a few feet away... It turned out to be the little female Anna's hummingbird!

While it seems to me like the little male follows my every step whenever I walk around in the yard, up until today, I'd never even SEEN the female -- although, I knew there had to BE one since I got some macro shots of a very young juvenile male not too long ago but, even right there in front of me, she was terribly shy -- hiding, for the most part, behind behind the leaves of branch she was sitting in.

As I stood there taking her photo, one of the little tree swallows that I've been trying and trying to capture on film flew up and slowly circled around me at least FIVE TIMES -- not 3 feet from my head -- before flying off!

There's enough delay on my camera between the time you press the shutter button and the actual snapping of the photo, however, that I couldn't get off a shot in time so, I decided to follow him down the driveway...

When I got down to the landlord's house, there he (she?) was -- on a phone line right over my head!

The swallow are just about my favorite birds of all time... The reason for this is because, when they show back up here from wintering in Argentina in the spring, you know, without a doubt, that SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!

The way they swoop and dive in the air and chatter to each other (in calls that sound for all the world to me like an African "clicking" language) they seem so full of joy -- as though they are jubilantly celebrating their return -- that they make me feel happy inside, too, whenever I see them...

But the swallows, like the sulphurs, are elusive and extremely quick and, even though they've been back for weeks now, today was the first time that I was actually able to capture one of them in a close-up photo... For that reason, I can't resist posting just one more:

I walked a further down the driveway and noticed that some of the titmice in the landlord's curly willow tree were acting pretty upset about something...

Then a little marsh wren flew up and started calling out an alarm of her own:

I found out what the fuss was all about -- there he was sitting in the bare branch of a nearby oak:

Ravens and crows (both members of the "corvus" family along with jays and magpies) are highly intelligent "opportunists" that pretty much eat anything they can find... This includes carrion (thus their traditional connection with death and other "scary stuff") and the eggs and baby chicks of other birds... So, you really can't blame the rest of the bird community for being on their guard whenever these guys come around.

But it appears that there's at least one other species of bird that doesn't seem to mind their presence because, while I watched, a mourning dove from a nearby tree flew up and landed right next to the dark stranger without so much as a moment's hesitation:

(I guess they probably figure that they've "got some bulk" on the corvi... ;o) )

The last thing I want to show you is a flower from our landlord's pomegranate tree that I spied as I passed by... I couldn't resist -- they have such a marvelously bright color!

Well... It's supposed to get into the "triple digits" today here in Sonoma County -- OUCH! (Nah... I'm just kiddin'... I really LOVE hot weather! The hotter the better as far as I'm concerned! I know... I'm strange... Hey! My "middle name" says it all! ...lol...) Seriously, thanks so much for the company today, my dear Gather friends! I just love being able to spend this "quality time" with you all!

Yaaaay SUMMER!

jean