Nature Notes: Viewing nature with my new camera

The photographs in this post will cover about 10 days starting almost at mid May through to the present.

I got my new camera shortly before going on vacation so I went to the lake near my house to practice using it before we left.

One of the many benefits to having a more powerful optical zoom lens on this camera is that I can see thing in the photographs that I never see with the naked eye. In the case of these shots of the great blue heron I could capture those long thin feathers in front and I never get close enough to the heron to see them without the zoom.

I thought the pair of ducks below looked very beautiful circling in the lake.

I love tall grasses and always think it's too bad that most grass ends up being cut before making it to the stage where it provides food for the animals.

The next shot was taken in WV on the New River Gorge National River trail.

The shot below was taken at Babcock State Park in WV and I love the way the grist mill looks.

The water was really rushing down stream over the dam below.

I always love to see plants growing through rock. It seems to demonstrate to me how well some plants can adapt to their environment.

It's also uplifting to me to see a green forest where the growth is lush and happy. Yes, in case you are wondering, I speak the language of trees and vegetation and they tell me they are happy.

Back home my new camera lets me see the drying fuzzy feathers on the female cardinal having a long beauty bath.

I think this squirrel was debating whether or not to challenge me for some of the turf in my yard.

I'm going to end with some shots of the butterfly taken from quite a long ways off.

I was able to follow it with my eyes, staying put, and then zoom in once it landed on the butterfly weed.

Once the butterfly landed I was able to watch and photograph it a long time from a distance.

Click for the home of nature notes. I'm posting early because I had so many shots I wanted to use I decided to do a long early nature notes, and not to wait until I had even more photos to complicate my choices.