Scene in the Wild Photography

Welcome to my new blog!

We had an unexpected visitor at our house recently! One of my cats was going crazy looking out a window, and this was why. This roadrunner was just a few feet away from our kitchen window, near our well house. I’d never seen one here before. It ran around the yard for a while, but I lost sight of it, and never saw it again. Although they’re common in this part of Colorado, and I’ve seen them on Comanche National Grassland and near Lake Hasty at John Martin Reservoir State Park, this was a real surprise.

A new venture for me!

I decided that I wanted to try a different venue for my photography than Facebook. It was becoming too difficult to post more than a couple of photos at a time; I was limited to the amount of information; and I wanted to attract more people, including those who aren’t on Facebook.

Two of my passions are nature and photography. I hope that by combining the two, I can stress how the importance of our outside world.

I haven’t posted on my Scene in the Wild Facebook page for a while, so in this space, along with being fairly current with the photos I post, I’ll also try to attempt to catch up on some of the photos you have missed.

I am still learning how to blog, and I am sure I will be changing the appearance of my blog as I find better ways of working with it.

There’s no cost to you to view these blogs; you can subscribe to them and then receive them as they’re posted.

Considering that the high temperature yesterday was 94 degrees, it seems hard to believe that this photo was taken not quite two months ago! I always enjoy looking at the patterns that frost makes on our windows; I’m not sure why this one was in a teardrop shape, but it certainly is beautiful.

I had never seen white-winged doves until several years ago at the High Plains Snow Goose Festival in Lamar. I was on a hike through Willow Creek Park behind Lamar Community College, and our leader pointed out several. I was used to Mourning Doves and European Collared Doves (not well loved; they’re an invasive species!). A couple of years after that, I saw a couple of white-winged doves in our yard one winter day. But late last spring, several appeared here, and stayed all summer. We’re fairly certain they nested, as by fall, we had many more individuals! I particpate in Project Feeder Watch, which runs from November to April each year. Looking at my stats, I noted we had as many as 25, with 10 to 15 being fairly normal. The last few weeks, though, we’ve seen only a few–from one to five. I’m assuming most of them left to establish their own areas. My Sibley Birds West field guide (c. 2016) shows that their range is “rare” in Colorado, but this is nine years later, and they’re most definitely not, at least in our little part of the state!

Even though I took this photo with my phone, I’m excited to share it, because it is the first bloom from two blue flax plants that I planted last year. I’ve been tryng to establish more native plants, because native plants not only attract native insects and other wildlife, some native wildlife are dependent on native plants, and vice-versa. Some wildlife and plants are actually co-dependent–they need each other to survive. Also, native plants have adapted to the climate; most in this part of Colorado don’t need much water and can thrive in hot conditions. Water is a scarce resource in areas like ours, so it’s better to encourage plants that don’t need as much–even though our local nurseries stock mostly plants that, although pretty, aren’t from here, and usually take a lot more water.

As I said above, this is a new venture for me. I’m going to try to post fairly regularly. I would love to get comments from all of you as to what you like and what you don’t–and what you might like to see. Just type in your email below, and my posts will automatically come to you when I publish them.