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Saturday, July 9, 2016

Friday's Hunt

I'm joining in the Eden Hills Friday Hunt again today.  This week's categories are "starts with B, week's favourite, and patriotic."

Starts With B
This one was pretty easy for me this week - I had lots of pictures of birds and blooms to choose from, but ultimately, I ended up choosing this lovely butterfly.  This is Phyciodes cocyta, which has the common name of Northern crescent, at least in this part of the world.  I was delighted to find it inside my screened-in porch, so I helped it go back outside where it helpfully posed on some clover.

I thought I'd also share this picture of a bird - this time a white-breasted nuthatch - enjoying a few seeds from my feeder.  I'm always glad when I can get close enough to a bird at the feeder to take a decent photograph!

Week's Favourite
I tried for a long time to capture a decent shot of the dragonflies I kept seeing over the past couple of weeks.  They invariably turned out blurry, or the dragonfly took off before the camera took the shot. I finally nabbed this one sunning on the brush pile in the backyard, and I was quite pleased with the way the picture turned out.  This is Plathemis lydia, sometimes called the common whitetail.  It's a female - the males have different band patterns on the wings.  I really liked the way that I got a little bit of the yellow flower colour in the corner of the picture.

Patriotic
This one was a little bit tricky for me.  We did have Canada Day on the 1st of July, but we didn't attend any specific events for it and I don't have a flag or anything to photograph.  We're patriotic, but quietly so, in a sort of polite Canadian way!  I don't have pictures of moose or beavers that are quintessentially Canadian animals, and pictures of large mosquitoes, our other national critter, just didn't seem to be on point!  This morning though, as I went on my morning stroll, I saw just the thing. This young maple is growing on the edge of the woods in my yard, and when maple trees are young, the leaves start out reddish-coloured, almost like the fall leaves.  As they mature, they turn green, as you can see in the leaves underneath these young ones, which just have a small hint of their original red hue on them.  These young maple leaves remind me that Canada is a place often associated with forests and wide expanses of natural areas, largely untouched by mankind.  It's also a place often associated with peace and hope, which gives me a sense of national pride.  Go, Canada!

6 comments:

Su-sieee! Mac said...

Celebrating patriotism in a quiet way. I love that concept. I don't get how blowing up fireworks throughout the night and the weeks before and after our Independence Day is a sign of patriotism. Your photos are wonderful. I like especially like the one of the dragonfly.

Michelle said...

Yep, a red maple leaf is just about perfect for Canada Day. :-D

Tom said...

That butterfly does it for me!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful images!
I also love the quiet patriotism. We're sort of the same at the Farm. Yes, I did put flags on the horses for photos, but we stay away from large groups and fireworks to celebrate Canada Day. Fireworks is just too hard on the animals, no matter how much I work to get them used to it.

Empty nester at last said...

Beautiful butterfly. I love taking pictures of butterfly's but they don't always seem to want their picture taken. And while I like fireworks, shooting them off days before and after do annoy my dog and sets her to barking. We usually watch them on tv. Great picture of the dragon fly...I have one I got while on vacation that came out quite nice. Thanks for the posts!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful images! It's always nice when the winged ones cooperate. I can never get over how you always know what it is you've photographed. You know my method is just asking blog and FB friends what I've photographed. Good thing you are nice enough to help me. Love your take on patriotic! Thanks so much for joining in Friday's Hunt. I hope you have a great week!