The Hummer Thread Vol.2!!!

[Jeffrey B. Banke]

Sheila, I am still on CS5, and Adobe have never made me an offer, so lucky you

Love everyone's wildlife shots, here are a couple I have from around our house in WA

 

[Linda Bestwick]

Wish I had such great wildlife to try and capture! Fantastic

I could have done with seeing your white tailed deer shots a few weeks ago Jeff. I've just finished a drawing/painting of one for a friend in MA. I was working from a ropey b&w trail cam clip she sent me, so googled for colour and markings. Yours are so much better! Thankfully mine is a bit whimsical so I can get away with not being quite right lol.

[Jeffrey B. Banke]

23 minutes ago, Linda Bestwick said:

Wish I had such great wildlife to try and capture! Fantastic

I could have done with seeing your white tailed deer shots a few weeks ago Jeff. I've just finished a drawing/painting of one for a friend in MA. I was working from a ropey b&w trail cam clip she sent me, so googled for colour and markings. Yours are so much better! Thankfully mine is a bit whimsical so I can get away with not being quite right lol.

Linda, anytime you need anything like that just let me know, I would be happy to send you some images, from a better camera. I have Coyote, Gopher snake, Pronghorn Antelope, Rabbit, Blacktail deer, Monarch and Western Swallowtail Tiger Butterfly's from California, Cow Moose, Mule deer,  Osprey, and Buffalo from Wyoming, Whitetail from WA, and of course tons of animals from Africa that you are welcome to. Red Deer, Butterflies, Oyster catchers, Takahe's and Pukeka's in NZ, even Red deer, Pheasants and Swans in the UK :-) Obviously these are just a few of the thousands of wildlife images I have, but just gives you an idea if you want to sketch others, don't be afraid to ask.

[Sari ONeal]

Sheila - do you remember what shape the leaves were, the stem looks a lot like a Pipevine stem, but the subspecies we have here does not have toothed leaves like the one in your pic. I don't know about the subspecies that are in California, though, they are different.

Is the dry part that shows underneath of the same part, as it looks like it has thorns? Pipevine wouldn't have those AFAIK.

 

The leaves look large, though, you might be able to ID it with the characteristics you remember of it combined to the ones you see in the pic, including what type of habitat it was living in?

[Linda Bestwick]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey B. Banke said:

Linda, anytime you need anything like that just let me know, I would be happy to send you some images, from a better camera. I have Coyote, Gopher snake, Pronghorn Antelope, Rabbit, Blacktail deer, Monarch and Western Swallowtail Tiger Butterfly's from California, Cow Moose, Mule deer,  Osprey, and Buffalo from Wyoming, Whitetail from WA, and of course tons of animals from Africa that you are welcome to. Red Deer, Butterflies, Oyster catchers, Takahe's and Pukeka's in NZ, even Red deer, Pheasants and Swans in the UK 🙂 Obviously these are just a few of the thousands of wildlife images I have, but just gives you an idea if you want to sketch others, don't be afraid to ask.

Oh wow, thanks so much Jeff!
That will be a huge help! I haven't got anything on the cards right now, but next time I don't know what something looks like I will know where to come. Thank you  

[Sheila Fitzgerald]

Jeff, they only just started their contributor bonus thing so I'm sure you'll get it soon enough. I think it starts after you have 150 sales on their site for the 2021 year.

 

Sari, here's an image my dtr took. Shows more of the plants. Growing in the alcove between the river and the trail. climbing the fence and the dead tree trunks along the area. If I don't use my hands, I barely feel anything but typing right now is making pins and needles like the feeling one gets when a limb has fallen asleep and it's waking up. Can be uncomfortable but mostly it's annoying. Because it was a 4+ mile round trip hike, I begged my dtr to come along with me JIC I had any issues. And I'm helping her learn to use her camera too.

 

 

 

[Sheila Fitzgerald]

I figure if I'm having this prolonged a reaction, I'd best avoid it in the future as I'm sure my body is building up a nice number of antigens against it and the next time is likely going to be worse.

[Sari ONeal]

That dent on the stalk reminds me of blackberry.

In your pic (the earlier) the leaf looks quite big, and different, though, than this 2nd pic.

I don't think the hairy looking vine is the same plant as the prickly one, so we must be looking at two different plants.

[Sheila Fitzgerald]

Huh, you're right. I just looked closer. There are two different kinds of plants growing in there. The ones with the thorns on the stems and then the fuzzy ones. This might be a better view as it shows both plants.

 

[Sari ONeal]

The more I look, the more I think it's in the Rubus -family;  raspberries / blackberries / dewberries -- but I'm probably WAY off.

I just have a feeling I can almost smell this leaf, I should know what it is.

For now, I give up, I've tried to google things that come to mind for images and descriptions, but I don't know!

[Sheila Fitzgerald]

LOL. Thanks. I hope I didn't waste too much of your time. I'll have to ask one of the rangers if they know next time I go out there. Which likely wouldn't be before autumn since there's not much of anything else out there to go to see.

 

[Charles Lewis]

The local birds have really discovered our water trough to the extent that I had over 400 photos on the critter cam and had to switch it off for the afternoon. I did like, however, one of the bird photos in particular.

[Sari ONeal]

Sheila - no, and it's never a waste as one might remember something the next time one's looking for something and it can be helpful! I just feel dumb not being able to say what it is. The dead / dry stuff looks near identical to the black/dewberries we have here.

 

Charles - male Cardinals are always such a bright sight, we have lots of Cardinals here as well. The other must be a Western Bluebird as it's slightly different than our  [Eastern] Bluebirds.

And yeah, the birds will create you lots of pics; I never take pics with my trail cams (I have no use for them), but sometimes I get lots of footage of birds.

 

We have a chance of rain / snow / sleet today, so it's supposed to be wet and miserable. The temps are high enough that whatever comes down, will be wet.

[Charles Lewis]

27 minutes ago, Sari ONeal said:

Sheila - no, and it's never a waste as one might remember something the next time one's looking for something and it can be helpful! I just feel dumb not being able to say what it is. The dead / dry stuff looks near identical to the black/dewberries we have here.

 

Charles - male Cardinals are always such a bright sight, we have lots of Cardinals here as well. The other must be a Western Bluebird as it's slightly different than our  [Eastern] Bluebirds.

And yeah, the birds will create you lots of pics; I never take pics with my trail cams (I have no use for them), but sometimes I get lots of footage of birds.

 

We have a chance of rain / snow / sleet today, so it's supposed to be wet and miserable. The temps are high enough that whatever comes down, will be wet.

Sari

 

I think the other might be a Mountain Bluebird.

Our night time visitor was a Javelina.

[rCarner]

16 hours ago, Sheila Fitzgerald said:

LOL. Thanks. I hope I didn't waste too much of your time. I'll have to ask one of the rangers if they know next time I go out there. Which likely wouldn't be before autumn since there's not much of anything else out there to go to see.

 

Sheila, look up nettles. They are very irritating.

[Charles Lewis]

42 minutes ago, rCarner said:

Sheila, look up nettles. They are very irritating.

Where there are nettles, there are usually dock leaves.

[Sari ONeal]

My experience with nettles is that while they do sting, it doesn't last long. My brother pushed me in a huge pile of nettles when I was a kid. We also had nettles all over the place, so you'd get in frequent contact with them.

 

[Sheila Fitzgerald]

3 hours ago, rCarner said:

Sheila, look up nettles. They are very irritating.

Thanks! They actually look just like the stinging nettles. Except the ones here were not as green and lush. So much for "pain for a few hours". It was almost 2 days. My finger is just slightly numb now enough to notice it when I'm typing, but at least it's not stinging anymore. Definitely want to avoid that stuff in the future.

 

Need to do some basic weeding today. I've been putting it off way too long so it's becoming more than basic with all the recent rains. And the repair guy never called me back so thinking I might need to look for an alternative person to repair the rain gutter. The one out front is still on the wall, but the straps are actually pulled out of the wall on one side, so it's basically being held on by the paint and the fact that it's attached to the gutter at the top and the drain spout in the planter at the bottom. Probably why the larger one fell off if the straps gave out. Gotta love old houses.

[Wendy Townrow]

On 2/6/2021 at 8:29 AM, Sheila Fitzgerald said:

LOL. Thanks. I hope I didn't waste too much of your time. I'll have to ask one of the rangers if they know next time I go out there. Which likely wouldn't be before autumn since there's not much of anything else out there to go to see.

 

I was wondering if it was a form of stinging nettle? We have a few varieties here some are worse than others. I have a stinging tree that can affect you for years! Old houses are always a challenge.

Jeff you have a beautiful selection of animals, love the close up showing the velvet on the antlers.

Charles having that many birds come calling is wonderful

[Sari ONeal]

Wendy is that the tree that if you get stung it hurts so bad people literally go nuts, and it just goes on, and there's no remedy for it? I forget the name of it? You have one of those at your place??  😮

 

[Wendy Townrow]

1 hour ago, Sari ONeal said:

Wendy is that the tree that if you get stung it hurts so bad people literally go nuts, and it just goes on, and there's no remedy for it? I forget the name of it? You have one of those at your place??  😮

 

Thats the one Sari, I have 2 growing that I have to get rid of ....  one of them is fruiting right now so I better get onto that

 

[HodagMedia]

On 2/5/2021 at 7:00 PM, Charles Lewis said:

The local birds have really discovered our water trough to the extent that I had over 400 photos on the critter cam and had to switch it off for the afternoon. I did like, however, one of the bird photos in particular.

I have a trail camera, no trail. I used it once and caught a shot of what I wanted to see. If I had a camera out now, I would see rabbits or squirrels. The water would be frozen so no birds. Maybe in the Spring? There's a little natural pond, maybe I can see what comes around at night?

I didn't know these things worked for birds during the day. Good for some fun and ideas.

Tractor won't start, I hope it doesn't snow? 😉 Forecast is for a couple inches on Thursday. Going out soon to do some shopping. Then I have the snow blower on a charger and a backup pack inside. I'll give it a jump.

11:00 am

Sunny

-6 F (-23C)

wind chill makes it -27 F

[Sari ONeal]

Pete, by all means stick your trail cam at the pond, I bet lots of animals come by that you never knew were there!

Wendy - from the sound of how bad that tree is, I'd be scared to even go near it! 😮

We're supposed to get some stupid cold weather (for here, mind you, Northeners  ) this coming week. Slight chance of snow towards the end of the week, BUT, the temps are going to be below freezing all week, day and night, and night time temps will be in single digits with gusty winds at least Thursday and Friday night. Ugh ugh ugh That'll be miserable.

 

Here's my newest; finally had the time to get around to compiling it - LOTS of bobcat clips in it!!!!    

I set another camera near the "waterfall" camera to see where the bobcat is going to/ coming from, so I got clips that are the same one just passing two cameras within a minute of each other.

 

 

 

[Jeffrey B. Banke]

Sheila, nettle stings don't usually last for any length of time, and as was pointed out by Charles, there are also Dock plants growing nearby and they have large leave, which when rubbed onto the nettle sting usually alleviate the irritation.

The one thing you do need to watch for in CA is Poison Oak, that is really nasty crap, I know since I ran into it several times, even the rrots of a plany killed with roundup can still contain the urusoil that causes the inflammation, again I found out the hard way.

BTW Poison Oak, (out West) and Poison IVY (Back East), and Sumak (Mid West) are all related, contain the same irritant.

[Jeffrey B. Banke]

Great shots Sari!,

love the armadillo :-)

Your variety of animal species is fabulous, and they all look so healthy!