Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name Aspen. (Wikipedia)

In my rainy element. As shot from RAW, except to convert to black and white. The vivid green and yellow hues in the rain looked too bright; I'll post at some point.

Thanks for looking! Comments unnecessary. Aspen trees and rain aren't to everyone's taste.

Wild daisies—different aperture and depth of field. And light. I went back to photograph these again for summer solstice here. Or winter solstice wherever you are.

Hope you like these.

One of the tiny female Anna's hummingbirds perches on a twig in between rain and hail showers. Sorry that this little one is not in flight; I need to practice more on these wee ones.

"Though no larger than a ping-pong ball and no heavier than a nickel, Anna’s Hummingbirds make a strong impression."

Cornell Lab's www.allaboutbirds.org

Thanks for looking and sharing my joy this morning!

Evening light. Chatting female, far left. More of a squeak.

Comments unnecessary, thanks. Just practicing and feeling the joy while in the moment.

There must have been over a million Red wing blackbirds and Grackles at Squaw Creek NWR. The flocks went on for miles. Murmurations were everywhere at dusk. Lines and lines from North to South.The most amazing thing I have seen in a long time.

Testing a rented 1.7 teleconverter on an unwilling male Wood Duck.

A parcel of four black-tailed deer wandered through the back forty last evening, just as the sun set. Three bucks and one doe. A true joy to see and admire, even as they munched on a couple of old, dwarfed fruit trees.

(Only two in this photo.)

Almost as shot. Just a small crop and curve.

Larger view: larger view

Tonight's wildlife. I loved our rainy day. See you on May 24, o’ virtual Flickr friends. Thanks for kind words and encouragement. ❤️

(Comments completely unnecessary ;)

We planted milkweed in one of our planter boxes to attract monarch butterflies, or any butterfly. As you can see, we have bees. Or a glowing bee in early sunlight of summer. (I won't post all of the bee photos ;-)

About as shot.

Large view

I was surprised to find a common snipe out on the Zumwalt Prairie as there is little cover, but this one was sitting pretty on a fence post.

Chinese lanterns glowed this morning. I just can't resist these little jewels.

Thanks for looking!

...when we lived in Alaska.

Thanks for looking!

First light strikes the high Zumwalt Prairie in northeast Oregon.

House Sparrow-Moineau domestique (Passer domesticus) eating a dragonfly, Auvergne, France.🇫🇷🐧🌏 👉 www.gettyimages.fr/photos/vincent-pommeyrol-birds?assetty...

As shot; the hues had more magenta. Shade, perhaps?

Another outtake of this rabbit standing to catch a piece of grass. You'll have to trust me on the standing part. Or not.

Comments off. Part 2 of 2.

Photo by my husband. I cropped it considerably. We love to see these wild creatures of all ages appear in the evening. I did NOT like their exploration of our sequoia trees, however.

Black-tailed deer or blacktail deer that occupy coastal woodlands in the Pacific Northwest of North America are subspecies of the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-tailed_deer

Howard caught them far better than I did with my 500mm lens. He’s just a natural, and more mobile than I with my lens and heavy tripod. (I am a lightweight.)

The Seven Devils in Idaho rise behind the Zumwalt Prairie.

Funny landing for this Brown Pelican-Pélican Brun (Pelecanus occidentalis), Los Islotes, La Paz, Sea of Cortez, Mexico. 🐦🐧🌞😎🌎 👉 www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

👉 Getty Video Footage Mexico South Pacific and Caribbean www.gettyimages.fr/vidéos/vincent-pommeyrol-mexico?asset...

Red-winged Blackbirds performing without a net.

The millet sprig has taught new tricks to certain birds. See Dark-eyed Juncos (in previous photos).

700.0 mm (in 35mm: 700.0 mm)

1/1000 sec; f/8; ISO 4000

Manual; Spot metering

Still practicing placing my left hand on the long lens. Lens and camera mounted on Jobu-Design gimbal head or swing-head or tripod-head on heavy duty tripod.

Thanks for looking!

A Wood duck couple walking in the evening. We feel so fortunate. More wildlife appears with each season and as we let the land return to natural growth—except for where we had all the trees planted.

A Northwestern Crow (Corvus caurinus) takes off in windy ISO 6400 weather.

Our power came back on at about 3 a.m. I feel MUCH gratitude for power and cable crews working all night in the rain and astonishing winds. Some, including a busy major supermarket today relied upon auxiliary backup power. So lucky.

Thanks for looking!

(Found this for help with noise:

helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/using/sharpening-noise-red...

Bigeye trevally-Carangue à gros yeux (Caranx sexfasciatus) and Gulf grouper-Mérou du golf (Mycteroperca jordani), Cabo Pulmo National Park, Sea of Cortez, Mexico. 🐠🌊 🌏

👉 www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

👉 Getty Video Footage Mexico South Pacific and Caribbean www.gettyimages.fr/vidéos/vincent-pommeyrol-mexico?asset...

Evening light.

Comments unnecessary, thanks. Just practicing and feeling the joy while in the moment.

Red-tail hawk, up close and personal!

A lot of wildlife photographers will recognize the situation in which the subject is compelling, but the shooting conditions are crappy.

That's what happened here. The light was harsh and the subjects were down a steep embankment making it impossible to get a good shooting angle. But what we have here is a clash between a Marbled Godwit (right) and a Hudsonian Godwit (left). I couldn't resist posting shot of the rare nature moment. The two species didn't get along very well and entertained us with their squabbling for a few minutes. The outcome of the scuffle was a surprise. The smaller HG made a nifty move and jabbed its bill into the chest of the MG. That must have smarted and the bigger bird immediately left the vicinity.

This twofer is fifth in my shorebird series. One more tomorrow.

Nature Conservancy's Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve, Kansas.

Scenic outlook in the Loess Hills in Western Iowa.

A truly beautiful place. Rolling hills and bluffs. Wildflowers and grasses covering the earth.

The Zumwalt Prairie is home to many bird species including the Western Meadowlark.

This might be the back-forty Sharp-shinned Hawk that thinks this is home. We couldn't quite instruct it to move back in order to capture a good profile shot.

And I have no idea what it thought looked so edible above me. My husband captured this to document the boldness.

Hmm, the eyes don't look red and I couldn't quite see the tail to make certain this isn't a Cooper's Hawk. But the blurry feathers on the breast indicate a Sharp-shinned Hawk, according to www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sharp-shinned_Hawk/overview. I'll go with the one we see most often here, but a juvenile—the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the smallest hawk in Canada and the United States and a daring, acrobatic flier.

Watched this big fella hunting from this perch while looking down to spot crawfish. He dove down into the brush right in front of us, but came up "empty-beaked".

Sure was hoping to catch him score one of those bright red mudbugs....... Maybe next time.....

Thank Y'all for taking the time to look.

Your commentary is always a pleasure to read.

Have a Blessed Sunday my friends........

At the Nature Conservancy Preserve, North of Pawhuska Oklahoma. Nikon D5300 with Nikor 200-500, with portrait orientation. Stitched with Photoshop; finished with DXO Photolab

Image Untitled_Panorama-1_dxo copy

Golden hour with the common buzzard-Buse variable (Buteo buteo), Auvergne, France.🇫🇷🐧🌏

👉 Getty Video Birds Collection www.gettyimages.fr/vidéos/vincent-pommeyrol-birds?assett...

www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/look-to-the-sky-...

700,000 Snow Geese stopped over at Desoto Bend Wildlife Refuge this past week.

A rainy day perfect for watching juvenile birds with wet feathers. For some reason, we see more wildlife on rainy days.

This young sparrow, perhaps a juvenile White-crowned sparrow, expected those wings to work. I brightened it a tad from the RAW, and lessened the vivid wet green hues in the background for contrast.

My friend in Perth, Australia tells me sparrows are regarded as pests.

Little egret-Aigrette garzette (Egretta garzetta) and Yellow iris, (Iris pseudacorus), Auvergne, France. 🐧🌏 👉 www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com

👉 www.gettyimages.fr/photos/vincent-pommeyrol-tit?assettype...

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

― Dr. Seuss

I wanted to share this beautiful female despite high ISO noise and errant branches. She walked past quite near where the rabbit seemed to want to build a nest a few days ago. (Too windy for rabbits today.) This skittish Wood Duck and her talkative male companion heard the fairly loud shutter on my beast of a camera and flew!

Larger: Female Wood Duck

Humpback whale-Baleine à bosse (Megaptera novaeangliae), Cabo San Lucas, Pacific coast, Mexico.🐳 🇲🇽 🌎

✅ www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

The Nature Conservancy's Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve, Kansas.

Grieving for the innocent. Such hatred in the world. Can we end the gun violence here in merica, at least?

larger

Above: One of a small community of intelligent crows that visit.

Eurasian blue tit-Mésange bleue (Cyanistes caeruleus), Auvergne, France.🐧🌏 👉 www.gettyimages.fr/photos/vincent-pommeyrol-tit?assettype...

Golden hour with the common buzzard-Buse variable (Buteo buteo), Auvergne, France.🇫🇷🐧🌏

👉 www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

👉 Getty Video Birds Collection www.gettyimages.fr/vidéos/vincent-pommeyrol-birds?assett...

www.maxtutanoronha.com

A graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove, Mourning Doves "...have soft, drawn-out calls that sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying. Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America." Ack! Hunted?

~allaboutbirds.org

This juvenile lacks the turquoise eye ring of an adult, although the hues from the leaves reflect around the eye and on feathers.

Thanks for all of your kind support.

Flickr Bird Brigade

Activists for birds and wildlife