Backyard Naturalist

I am certainly not a naturalist. I don't have any formal training in the sciences and I don't actually study the natural world. I just find it interesting from time to time. John Bartram, John J. Audubon, Alexander Wilson and Charles Darwin are all famous naturalists from past eras for whom I have the greatest respect. Bartram was a botanist, considered the father of American botany. Audubon died in 1851 and during his life attempted to paint and describe all the birds of America. A poet, ornithologist, naturalist and illustrator, Wilson was a Scotsman transplanted to America with several species of birds named after him. Charles Darwin was an English naturalist whose theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation for the process of evolution in the 1930s. As I said, I don't study anything, but thought I would keep my camera ready for a couple days and see how many images of nature I could collect from my own backyard. The bluebird above raised 3 babies from a clutch of 5 eggs.

Shooting through my horse pen, I caught a Turkey Vulture cleaning up road kill.

The hummingbird stayed at my Red Hot Poker plant giving me lots of different angles and seemed to wait patiently for me to get the shot.

This common ground squirrel shows up every morning outside my bedroom window while I'm checking my email. Once it warms up, I don't see him again.

I can't tell whether there are eggs in this nest built inside the steer skull that hangs from my garage, but something sure went to a lot of trouble to build it.

I have no idea what kind of butterfly this is, but it graced my garden for quite a while this afternoon.

These are cactus flowers that I wrote about last year when they bloomed. They're back in all their brilliant glory right now.

This little guy popped out of a planter on my patio when I was watering this afternoon. He hardly moved while I took 4 of 5 shots of him. I hope he finds his way back.