U is for the Unusual

These are not necessarily so very unusual, but for me to capture either the beauty or the moment was unusual. They are all things seen around here and I feel very priviledged to have been able to record them all.

Zebra long-wing butterfly--rarely seen here. What a beauty.

Passion flower or may pop as some call it. Not many things in nature are more beautiful

What a marvelous design the magnolia grandiflora has for distributing its seeds! Hang them by a thread to attract birds!

Not very attractive at all, but so interesting. Bot fly larvae emerging from little tumors on a squirrel. The squirrel was fine and grew new fur on this area in a couple of weeks.

Not many swamps are as pretty as a cypress one.

Now on to a little bit of nature porn.

Two anoles mating.

A six inch long lubber grasshopper ovipositing--laying eggs in a hole she made in the ground.

Robber flies mating--sort of long distance.

Roseate skimmer dragonfly--what a color! But this was late in the season and just look at those ragged wings.

A newly emerged cicada drying its wings. After a couple of hours, it was all brown and ready to go.

This gorgeous cougar is one of the animals that lives in the original animal section of Charlestowne Landing--a living museum of how life was in the 1600s in this area.

Dragonflies are viscious! Here's one devouring a moth.

So are fiddler crabs. This was a fight started by a young male with a dominant one--the youngster didn't stand a chance. I hope you've found these somewhat unusual moments of South Carolina lowcountry nature. Let me know!

bwkrucke@gmail.com

Thanks.

T is for T-birds

No, not the cars................I wish!! But just some birds that begin with T.

Turkey vulture

Turkeys. I think that ,although these were in the wild, that they are mixed and are partly domestic turkey because of the white on them.

Tom shows off!

Royal tern

Blue-winged teal

Tufted titmouse

Brown thrasher

Hermit thrush
I thought surely I had photos of towhees and ruddy turnstones, but I couldn't find them. I need to organize my pictures better somehow than I have them now.

bwkrucke@gmail.com

for comments

Sssss is for Ssssnakesssss!

A rainbow snake--quite rare and unusual to see. All of these will show much more detail in the larger versions. Please click to see them larger.

I bet you predicted I'd do snakes! Here in coastal South Carolina our climate is semi-tropical and our habitats are snake city! I'm showing you ones I've come across here, but I've also seen three kinds of rattlesnakes--just don't have any pictures to show you.

This is red-bellied water snake.

Then a yellow rat snake.

This cute three year old cotton-mouth water moccasin....

.....will grow up to be this! Our most common and most dangerous venomous snake.

This is a scarlet snake--it gave us a fright because it is nearly the same as a coral snake, which is very dangerous.
Black racers can climb trees easily.
This is an eastern ribbon snake--very pretty.
This is a young banded water snake.

A corn snake--often mistaken for a copperhead. I don't have a copperhead photo either, but we definitely have them. A previous Dobe of ours was bitten by one in the night and when I took him to the emergency vet, there were seven dogs there with copperhead bites. Our dog died a few months later from a stroke caused by a blot clot left from the snake bite.

A big garter snake. I also don't have a photo of a green garden snake although one dropped out of a tree onto my shoulder once!
A king snake--quite handsome. Photo by our son, Kurt.

A rat snake that has recently shed it's skin. Our son, Carl, took this picture.

I hope no one is upset by snakes. If I have any of them misnamed, please let me know.

bwkrucke@gmail.com

Thanks.

R is for Recent Red Radiance

I was sitting at the computer when something caught my eye in the live oak trees beyond the feeders.

Oh, it's a ruby-throated hummingbird sitting still for once! I've been trying to get a shot of him with his ruby throat showing. Looks nice.

Then a female hummingbird flew by and zowie! He flashed her!! He flared that throat right out and caught the sun with it. Very effective. She flew right on by though. I was impressed even if she wasn't. I'd never noticed that they could push those red feathers out into an Elizabethan collar!

Later I glanced out again when I thought it was unusual for a cardinal to be at the meal worm feeder. Zowie again! That's no cardinal--that's a summer tanager!! At the feeder!! A first for sure--usually they are only heard or maybe glimpsed deep in the trees. What a treat--I hope he becomes a regular visitor.

Hope you enjoyed seeing red as much as I did!

bwkrucke@gmail.com

We interrupt this alphabet for an award!

I am showing the award on the right side bar so it will be permanent! How nice of Sandpiper to include me in her choices. Many thanks, Lin! Now, these are the rules:

1. To acknowledge from whom you received it .
2. To pass this award on by linking 5 blogs that make your day.

This was so difficult, because the truth is that I like every single one that I look at! I am very pleased, happy, and honored to have received this award and pass it on to these photo-bloggers:

http://faithfabricandphotos.blogspot.com/

http://saphotographs.blogspot.com/

http://mybirdtales.blogspot.com/

http://oncarolinawings.blogspot.com/

http://journeythroughgrace.blogspot.com/

Choosing only five was very hard to do!

To show my award to you on your blog, just copy and paste the picture of it to your desktop and then browse for it when you want to post it. Let me know if you have any trouble.

bwkrucke@gmail.com

Q is for Quality and as it turns out Quantity too!

I got a good suggestion from Birdgirl to use Quality for my alphabet Q. So I chose some of my favorite recent photographs. Then I remembered all my African photographs that were my favorites too. So here are way too many from Africa followed by some from here and there too. They will all have to be clicked larger to see probably.

What do you see here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Local swamp

Reflections in the Canadian Rockies

Casting for shrimp


Lake Moraine in the Canadian Rockies


Lantana blossom forming

Prize winning louts photo printed in SC Wildlife Magazine

Prothonotary warbler photo used on SC Audubon website

As I look at these I think of many more that I like too. So many photos, so little time! Email me if you want to know about any of these.

bwkrucke@gmail.com

thanks