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Not Everyone's A Fan
It's hard to believe that anyone could not like my cats, but the squirrels that traverse our backyard are not big fans. During the warmer months, when I get home from work, I take the cats out into our fenced backyard and the squirrels will sometimes give us an earful. They can easily circle the edges of the yard by sticking to the top of the fence (as this one is doing), or by showing off their acrobatic prowess and jumping through the trees.
Like other urban areas in Oregon, the tree squirrels you'll find in Portland's neighborhoods and parks are likely to be introduced species like eastern grays and eastern foxes. |
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Adaptable
Raccoons have adapted so well to the way that modern man has transformed the American landscape that it is estimated that there are more raccoons now than ever before. This one came into our backyard a few years ago to dine on the multitude of raspberries growing near the fence. After eating its fill, it crawled up to nap on a nearby carport.
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Personal Trainer
Our oldest cat Templeton likes to chase dragonflies around the yard. He never comes even remotely close to catching them, but he never gives up hope, and at least it gets him lots of exercise. There was one time when a mating pair of dragonflies almost flew right into him, focused more on sex than danger, but I saw what was happening and was able to restrain him from catching his prey.
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Liquid Gold
This little fellow landed on one of our rose bushes and sat still for a while, so I decided to take an enviromental macro portrait. It was sucking this drop of golden liquid in and out of its mouth — I’m not sure if the liquid is actually that color or if it was picking up reflections from the nearby plants.
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Gift of the Grapes
Our backyard isn't particularly bird friendly. I used to have grand ideas about photographing birds in the backyard, but if I was outside, usually the cats were too, so you can guess why I wasn't attracting too many birds no matter what the landscaping was like.
For a while, though, after digging up the grapes I kept some of the thicker stalks to use as perches near the bird feeders, and captured this scrub-jay as it came in to feed at one of the suet stations. |
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Mmmm, Minty!
A tiny little brown moth with its proboscis sticking down the blossom of one of our mint plants. The nectar it’s sucking down won’t taste minty of course, since the mint flavor comes from the leaves, but the moth seemed very fond of the mint plants and could often be found there. It didn’t stay still for long, making it extremely difficult to get any pictures. This one isn’t tack sharp but the best of many tries, and I do like the side view instead of the more common view of the wings from above.
Until we meet again my friend. |