Monday, May 30, 2016

Water dogs in Oregon

Cocoa the Chocolate Labrador and Lily the border collie play in the Umpqua River near Elkton, Ore., on Monday, May 30, 2016. Both of the dogs were rescued by the Humane Society and placed with us on our ranch in southwestern Oregon. They are the two best dogs in the world. 




Transformation

A newly metamorphosed baby Pacific tree frog clings to water plants in a cattle watering trough on a ranch near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Sunday, May 29, 2016. The little frog is about the size of the eraser on a the end of a No. 2 pencil. 

A frog with a tail (or is it a tadpole with legs?) begins to make the transition to land. Amphibians are animals with spend part of their life in water and part on land.
A newly transformed frog sits in the sun.


Sunday, May 29, 2016

Soaking up the sun

A small garter snake catches the last rays of sunshine as it basks on the warm blacktop of a country road near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Saturday, May 28, 2016.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Predator and Prey

A crab spider preys on honey from its ambush spot on a blackberry blossom in a thicket along a country road near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Saturday, May 21, 2016.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Salad days

A black-tailed deer feeds in a field of tall grass along a rural road near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Thursday, May  19, 2016. Black-tailed deer, found in the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest, are considered a subspecies of the mule deer. 

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Badass spider

A crab spider watches as an unsuspecting ant walks past on the leaf of a hazelnut tree in an orchard on a farm near Elkton in southwestern Oregon on Sunday, May 15, 2016. 
The ant was not lunch.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Am I bugging you?

My Macbook Pro was on the fritz for the last week. It's now fixed. To get back into the swing of photography, I headed out this evening looking for bugs. I found a few. This spider was looking good while hiding on a flowering grass stem in a pasture on our ranch near Elkton, Ore., on Thursday, May 12, 2016.
A ladybug reaches the end of the line.
A very small long-legged grasshopper.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

The four amigos


A family of wild week-old barn owl owlets look out from their nest box high in the peak of a barn on a farm near Oakland in southwestern Oregon on Sunday, May 1, 2016.
When hunting is good, breeding pairs of barn owls can hatch more than one clutch in a season. When rodent populations are low the owlets will fight for survival and push their smaller siblings out of the nest.