A Cute Lil Frog - or Is There Such a Thing?!

This lil guy evaded the lawn mower the other day. Just barely...

Pasture Critters

A Walk Around the Pasture

Small Town Snapshot Sunday

Click the photo to see more buzzard detail

Buzzards roost at a nearby abandoned building; they were feeding on something obscured by the tall grass. I decided to investigate further only because our neighbor has a herd of cattle in this field, and I was concerned that perhaps one of the calves had fallen to a predator during the night. My fears were assuaged, however, as I could not see what it was they were feasting on, so it must have been quite small. I wanted to walk further into the pasture to get better photos of the buzzards, but the heat and flies were terrible this day and I had to satisfy myself with this photo. (Which I wasn't really satisfied with!)

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Revenge of the Bird

I've done my research, and I have no clue what kind of bird this is, aside from the fact it is an angry bird. Anyone know what variety of feathered friend we have here?

It has been stalking our cat, Barack, for a few weeks now. Barack must have done something really naughty to get on this guy's (or gal's) bad side. This bird sits in trees and power lines around our house, just waiting to take a pot shot at Barack; he doesn't bother our other cat, Fluff. Sometimes Barack jumps in the air trying to swipe at the bird. But usually he just hunkers down, hoping this winged terror won't get him! This was the only photo I caught of the bird flying towards him. Enlarge the photo, and you can see the bird, left top.

Update: Thanks to Christina of Christina Photo for identifying our attacking bird - a mockingbird! Very interesting reading about this bird at the Wikipedia site.

Be Still My Wings

Click to see the detail in his antennae

Not sure what type of butterfly this may be - most days, there are quite a few of them flitting about my potted flowers. This lil guy is resting on a snapdragon; they are rather smallish, not as big as a monarch.

Update: Thanks to Jeannelle from Midlife by Farmlight for identifying my flying beauty, a Pearl Crescent Butterfly (link to Wikipedia). When I found the photos on Wiki, I couldn't believe it -- that is EXACTLY my butterfly! :)

Cool Yet Unidentifiable Plant

Unidentifiable only because I am a plant nerd

I love to garden and I have flowers everywhere, but I'm horrible at remembering the names of any plants except very common ones such as petunias, marigolds, alyssum, snapdragons, celosia, moss rose. I think you get my point.

I did as much research as I could on the above plant, but alas, I can find nothing under native Kansas or Oklahoma wildflowers. We have several of these in one of our pastures. I thought perhaps some kind of milkweed or pod, but I'm not finding anything that looks similar when I search for that moniker.

So go ahead, throw in your two cents worth... what do YOU think this is?

Dragonfly Rests

Click the photo to enlarge

We have so many dragonflies flitting about on the Kansas prairie.... this is the first time I've come close enough to snap a photo of one. It's not as close as I wanted, but it's better than the pin dots I've captured before!

Travellin' Turtle

This box turtle has been hanging around our house for the last week or so. He seems to be travelling from the pasture to the house and then back to the pasture, at least several times a day - I'm amazed at how fast a turtle really is. When I come into the house to grab my camera and then head back outside, all in the space of maybe 2 minutes, he is very difficult to find again! This guy knows how to make some fast tracks.

Luckily neither the cats or Ringo is very interested in him, so he's safe. Look at those long claws in the last photo!

Small Town Snapshot Sunday

I'm a tad early with my Small Town Snapshot post, but I just love this photo that I took last night and couldn't wait to post it. It was such a great evening to sit outside and watch the horses -- we just moved them to this pasture yesterday. Now we can watch them as we sit in the back yard in the evening, or some mornings as I lay in bed and look out the window, I can see them grazing. How utterly relaxing! I do so love country life. :-)

The view in our back yard Friday evening


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Movin' the Horses to New Pasture

You can just tell that Stormy is ready to bust Paint's chops