We’ll leave Exploration Green behind and journey to El. Franco Lee Park. The bees and butterflies were enjoying the abundance of blossoms on a couple of Vitex Trees (aka Chaste Tree) planted near the gazebo at the park. Capturing this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was almost as challenging as trying to capture a warbler. There were just too many blossoms for it to visit and not enough time as it flitted about and spent precious little time at each flower.
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Tags: WanaM3 Sony A7RV Sony A7RV Texas Houston Harris County El Franco Lee Park park nature outddoors wildlife nature photography animal plant flora fauna tree Vitex Tree Chaste Tree butterfly Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio glaucus Vitex agnus-castu
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I returned to El. Franco Lee in an attempt to find some birds to photograph but saw only a couple of them whizz by while it was trying to keep up with some Bumblebees and Butterflies that were feeding on some trees near the Gazebo. Not much else was happening and the sunset was just a sunset.
I'm a bit late to the party, but I will catch up with everyone directly. Also want to wish all of the mothers a Happy Mother's Day. We have so much to thank them for all their love that they offered so freely. Happy Mother's Day.
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Tags: WanaM3 Sony A6600 Sony A6600 Texas Houston Harris County El. Franco Lee Park park observation platform sunset dusk sky clouds cloudscape Golden Hour twilight vista
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The eyes might roll back in some people’s heads when the see these beasties forging on flowers and most are hoping that they keep their distance from any wood structure that they might have. Not your basic Bumblebee here, but the more destructive Eastern Carpenter Bee. They were busy gathering up nectar from the blossoms on the Vitex Tree and made for a decent capture. Photo taken at El. Franco Lee Park.
If anyone would like a bit more information on the Eastern Carpenter Bee they can check out the link below.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_carpenter_bee
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Tags: WanaM3 Sony A7RV Sony A7RV Texas Houston Harris County El. Franco Lee Park park outdoors nature wildlife animal fauna nature photography Carpenter Bee Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica pollenator blossoms flowers flora Vitex Tree Vitex blossoms Chaste Tree Vitex agnus-castu
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Or maybe it should have read that I was nowhere…MAN…like you know…back in the late sixty’s MAN!!
Those statements will leave most people viewing this scene scratching and wondering if ol’ canoe boy has spent too much time in the sun. The truth is, that I was just finishing my walk along the drainage canal that I walk along when this beauty developed. And I was absolutely nowhere to take a shot. The park would have been great because there was so much more to this sunset than I was able to capture. The colors were quite intense and although the setting is not spectacular, it was an incredible sky.
A number of people have commented about the colors in the sky, and I have my own theory about the colors, but am not an expert and know little about meteorology. We are twenty to thirty miles from the coast, and we usually have a strong southerly wind along the Gulf Coast. Those winds gather up a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and create some amazing thunderstorms in our area. The sun fuels the formation of those storms which tend to subside when the sun is setting. If the sun can get under those clouds, then they can light up in quite a spectacular way as they did in this case.
Just a neighborhood sunset in the southern part of Harris County, Houston, Texas.
I am also behind on my comments but will try to get to everyone’s photos as quickly as possible. Have a safe Memorial Day. We remember!
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