08/06/25

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog once again!  We are already more than halfway through the year.  This is actually an image from last year that I never shared of a flower that blooms everywhere in my area.  This is Daisy Fleabane.  It can be a nuisance as it gets in gardens and lawns and my garden railway.  It is a lovely one though so I generally try to leave it for the bees and butterflies.  They usually bloom May through September and can grow to 3 feet tall.  There is also another type of Fleabane called Annual and the 2 are rather difficult to tell apart.  😊

08/05/25

 The Mississippi Kites have been back for a while now.  They have been more difficult to get a photo of though it seems.  I was able to capture this one flying overhead one day.  They have a distinct face with black eye patches and a very distinctive whistling call.  Even it you can't see them you can tell what they are when you hear the whistle.  You can hear an example HERE  They are called Kites due to the way they glide around on the air currents.

08/04/25

 Happy Monday and happy new week!  I thought I would start off the week with a lovely butterfly I was able to capture on my Coneflowers/Echinacea not long ago.  This is a female Black Swallowtail.  I have seen a good amount of Swallowtails around this year and Skippers but, unfortunately, not many others.  I do see a Monarch every now and then, hope to see more before the summer is over.

08/03/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is a companion to Thursday's.  As we rounded a curve on the Cumbres & Toltec Railway ride in the scrub area of Colorado near Antonito, the engineer was blowing the whistle quite a lot.  You can see the steam coming from it in the photo.  The cause was this Elk that was standing on or right near the tracks and I was able to get a photo of the action.  The white object to the right is a mile marker and we were at mile 291 when this occurred.  The train does not go that far, that is from original Rio Grande designations.  I am not sure where the starting point is.  Very early in the ride a similar thing happened with cows but I did not get a photo.  😊

08/02/25

The Sunflower field just outside my town was there again this year.  As I was out bike riding last week I saw that they were in bloom and looking lovely.  As was the case last year, the majority of the heads face to the east but they still made for a lovely photo I thought.  Sunflowers always make me happy and we need every bit of happiness we can get these days.

08/01/25

 It's Friday, TGIF!  It's the first day of August too, yikes summer goes quick.  My Rudbeckia flowers bloomed quite beautifully for a nice while this summer.  This image had some beautiful bokeh so I had to share for today because Friday's are Bokehlicious here on the Blog!

07/31/25

 It's the last day of July already, wow the summer is going by quickly.  Sigh.  We are finally out of our heat wave for the moment at least.  While I was riding the Cumbres & Toltec Railway a month ago already, I was able to see and capture several varieties of wildlife including Elk.  This is one that had been standing on the tracks in front of our train in the scrub area outside Antonito Colorado.  Check back on Sunday to see a companion photo.  😁