Dew, wind, and sunshine battled for dominance on this newly planted perennial to attract more bees and hummingbirds.

This new red blossom tops a promised hardy plant called Jacob Cline Bee Balm (Monarda Didyma). And it is presumably deer resistant ... somehow.

An American Wigeon swims through a reflection of nearby foliage. Nice to find some color at this time of year.

Image MKZ_8609 copy-gigapixel-standard-width-6000px_dxo-1

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.

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

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!

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

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!

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

Love the way grasses look in Winter, they add interest to the landscape. I leave mine up all Winter so the birds have a little extra shelter and a few seeds to nibble on. Also, on a quiet day, you can hear the grasses moving with the breeze and it's peaceful.

...when we lived in Alaska.

Thanks for looking!

First light strikes the high Zumwalt Prairie in northeast Oregon.

The Seven Devils in Idaho rise behind the Zumwalt Prairie.

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.)

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.

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!

An advantage of going to this location is the possibility of getting close enough (with a long lens) for a sharp portrait. That, of course, is up to the birds and I never got one I liked in the past. A good closeup was a priority today and the photo gods smiled on me. Needless to say, this is one of nature's most enchanting creatures.

Red-tail hawk, up close and personal!

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...

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.

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

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

Scenic outlook in the Loess Hills in Western Iowa.

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

Evening light.

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

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

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

✅ www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

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........

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.

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

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

Eurasian blue tit-Mésange bleue (Cyanistes caeruleus), Auvergne, France.🐧🌏 👉 linktr.ee/vincent_pommeyrol

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

Striped marlin-Marlin rayé (Kajikia audax) hunting school of fish with Sea Lion, Magdalena bay, south pacific, Nature's Paradise, Mexico. 🇵🇫 🐠🌊 🌏

✅ www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries

👉 Video Footage Sardine Run www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries/videos-ga...

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.

“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

The Nature Conservancy's Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve, Kansas.

European robin-Rouge gorge familier (Erithacus rubecula), Auvergne, France.🐧🇫🇷🌏

✅ Join me on Linktree linktr.ee/vincent.pommeyrol

👉 Getty Images Birds 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...

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.

www.maxtutanoronha.com

Sea lion-Otaries (Otariidae), Los Islotes island, La Paz, Sea of Cortez, Mexico. 🐠🌊 🌏 👉 www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com

A splash of sunshine.

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

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

✅ www.vincentpommeyrolphotography.com/-/galleries