Curiosity at the The Dallas Arboretum & Garden

A bronze statue opens the imaginagtion for a small child.

Cattail Marsh's smiling gator

The happy alligator from the Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands & Boardwalk in Beaumont Texas.

Pimpled, Dappled Sky

The sun didn't quite go down as I was shooting this, but it's brightness emphaises all the little speckles sprinkled around the sky.

Sunny flowers brighten backyard

The sunflowers in the backyard are really putting on a show this week.

Great Blue Heron ponders how to eat a catfish whole

Okay, you're a Great Blue Heron and you have caught a big catfish for your meal.  How do you eat it? 

Well, you play with it and poke it with your beak for about 20 minutes. (repeat poking and playing as necessary). Then you are ready for the "big swallow" (see bottom photo). 

This was taken at Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands and Boardwalk in Tyrrell Park in Beaumont, TX -- a popular birding spot.

Excuse the fuzziness -- but this heron was a long way away and wasn't going to tolerate me getting any closer (fearing I would steal his meal).

Alligator enjoys an after lunch nap at Cattail Marsh

This alligator at the Cattail marsh seemed to be enjoying a nap back a good ways from the viewing boardwalk.  He was up on the land to get more heat to help digest his meal of one of his marsh fellows.

Posing lizards thumb noses at gravity.

My brick-scaling, gravity-defying, photo-posing lizards are very active this summer, in case you wanted to know.

They want you to know.

Driving into the Houston sunset

This is how things looked driving into the Houston, TX, sunset on the I-10 a few weeks back. Beautiful colors, but blinding views to have to maneuver through.

Stools make great stomping for inside kids

This was a kids playground at a hospital we were at in Dallas last week where our 8th grandchild was born.

You get a better sense of the intense, playful activity from above.

Riding the DFW Sky Link

what else do you do when you have a long layover?

Ominous clouds can't deliver on rain threat

This was the weather system that blew past our neighborhood last night. Ominous as it might look, it was all bluster and no rain.  The air cooled down to about 80 degrees, and it turned breezy  -- but not even a sprinkle.

Eastern Blue Bird

Eastern Bluebirds aren't a common site, chez moi, so I was glad to see this visitor.

Bluebonnets and friends

I pulled over on the side of the road and took this shot a few weeks ago.  It was a patch of Texas Bluebonnets and their friends.

Butterfies fill the air

Butterflies were all over the backyard Monday.  This is the only one that would sit still for a portrait, though.

Flowers passionate about time

The Passion Flowers are still hanging around in the backyard, opening by day, closing by night -- floral clock style

Greetings from the big-billed bunch

This was the committee that flew in to greet us at the Bolivar-Galveston ferry a couple weeks ago. This flock of ferry followers were waiting for us to get off so the boat so it could resume churning the waters for their favorite foods.

Tongue is bird's best tool

A sparrow performs magic with his tongue. After cracking a seed with his beak he uses his tongue to flit out the shell an preserve the tasty germ of the seed.

Food fights at the bird feeder are serious

I told you, stay away from my side of the bird feeder, you thief.  The attacking sparrow, lets the snacker know he is serious by putting his claws on him.

Ferris Wheel wait

These two are waiting to go soaring at the Aquarium in Houston.  Big Ferris Wheels always get my stomach quesy.--steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.

Nightfall hush

Nightfall out in the backyard.  Calm, quiet, still. As if the night had sucked the sound as well as the sun from the horizon.
-steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.