Seagull Time

I know the season is changing because the birds are changing.  Ospreys have long fledged and moved on, Crows that love the Osprey fish scrap are plying other opportunities.  Grackles, Barn Swallows, and Blackbirds are no longer heard.  The high perch is still visited by a Kingfisher, a year round resident.  Today it was occupied by a Seagull.  The Seagulls are absent in the summer but show up in the fall, probably scavenging far and wide from the regular course.
Large gulls fly in and you look hard trying to make out an Osprey that is not there, an Egret that no longer moves back and forth across the sound. 
When the Gulls show up Fall is nigh.  They are here.  On the bright side my winter favorites are planning their trip down.  I can't wait to hear the honks!

The New Kids!

The young male hummers are feeling their 'wheaties', so to speak.  The fighting or play fighting has begun.  I have a feeder at my kitchen window and my breakfast was served with a live play of sword fighting, bump and run,  and plenty of tiny screams!
I ventured out just to make sure the other feeder was full (it was) so I found a hiding spot nearby to try to catch a few shots.
Near the kitchen window is a flower garden.  I caught this young male resting between bouts on the climbing rose.

You can see a few red feathers poking through, he's a fine mess! Here's a crop.

The view through the vines.

Lavender

I've been growing Lavender for a few years.  Letting the bees enjoy and cutting stems for friends.  It spreads! and I needed to do something with the lavender besides letting it just go!  I harvested it in the dried stage for use in sachet.  (I let it dry on the live stem after the flowering.)
The fragrance is super powerful.
I am making sachet packets out of cotton for my lavender.  And of course I am painting them up, what else I  would do?  The packets are about 4.5 inches square, filled with about 2 heaping tablespoons of dried lavender, hand painted!, and with a ribbon loop for hanging if you want.

A closer look at one of my favs, the sandpiper!

I need to grow more lavender!  I have more ideas for painting that I do dried lavender.

Farm Truck

There are farmed areas nearby. Waiting to be platted into house lots in some future perhaps, but for now they are planted, run through by deer, dove and hunters .... mostly enjoyed by neighbors for the vistas, the growing and the harvesting.  The machinery is so interesting especially for one whose Grandfather once plowed with a mule.  So when I spotted this truck parked as the wheat harvest was ongoing I had to take some shots.

 It's a fine truck, an International, just a letter missing.

 Pretty as a red barn!

A little walk about

Another big rain last night, a lightening strike that made me jump.  After a morning run on the bike, a walk about the gardens was therapeutic.

A ragged zinnia may reflect the state of us all in the heat!

 The flower garden the zinnia stands in is looking just a bit tired, too!

The vegie garden is giving gorgeous eggplant!  So good.

Nearby hollyhocks try to keep upright.

This ragged swallow tail is making the best of it all.

 Black-eyed Susans are a new favorite and they spread more each year.

Birds were feeding:  the wrens, chickadees, cardinals, hummers, phoebe, blue gnat catcher, brown thrasher, woodpeckers, the cuckoo and more.  It is a great show when you stop and wait ... and watch. 

On a walk about, more of my effort is on watching than shooting pics.  I just put the pictures in my head.

Young Dove

The summer of baby birds continues.  The wrens are never ending, the osprey are flying and eating on their own and maybe even catching.  New hummers are about and today a young dove was spotted in an oak tree.  Very quiet and not very nervous  so I caught a few shots before testing it.
On a morning bike ride I spotted a killdeer with a brand new little one, 15 feet down the road another brand new little one was a flat splat!  What a shame.  I pulled around and picked it up and put it in the weeds.  So tiny!
Here's the young dove, happy in his oak and nearby seeds and water.  The babies are doing well.

Dragonfly Contact?

If one is around plenty of nature, as I am, and tries to engage with the other creatures of this world one may find another willing creature!

I went out to shoot pics of a farmer's old International truck that was parked nearby and was greeted by a dusky blue dragonfly.  Dragonflies usually scoot if you approach, but this one just flew up and back down.  Perhaps it was engaged with the lens, but it seemed to listen to my stream of compliments and kept posing for me. I shot for quite awhile and may do another post with all those shots, but for tonight here is one of  my dragonfly, looking in earnest it seems.  I offered my hand at the end of my shoot and he gladly climbed aboard and we said our goodbyes.

My dragonfly, posing as Earnest in "The Importance of Being Earnest."  Isn't it an interesting creature?