Leucistic American Robin

We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

 — Henry David Thoreau

Seen during my walk along Deerfield Trail, Blacksburg

A First for me!!!

I think technically he would be considered partially leucistic since he is not entirely white.

I'm not up on all of the terminology for these types of birds - but I must say

that I was QUITE EXCITED to see him!! 

Available - HERE 

A Unique Find In Nature

It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look.

 ― Jacqueline Kelly

I found a bee with a heart-shaped pollen basket....isn't that pretty amazing?!

(you do see the heart - right??)


Prints and More Available - HERE 

 

Praying Mantis in the Sedum

Praying Mantis - at Home in the Sedum 

Find ecstasy in life; 
the mere sense of living is joy enough.
 - Emily Dickinson

 Prints and More Available - HERE 

Be Gentle

Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others. 

~ Lama Yeshe



More of my Hummingbird Moth images - HERE 

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly Gathering

A Gathering of Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies

Showing off A Pretty Blue Belly

Another Look at the Blue Belly

I had never noticed that their abdomen was such a Lovely Shade of Blue.  Nature amazes me Daily!

 Look everywhere. There are miracles and curiosities to fascinate and intrigue for many lifetimes:..

Jay Woodman 

Rubbing His Wings

What a sweet face! 

Print Available - HERE 

With Lovely Wing Markings!

And another video.  I am using my iPhone and Olloclip lens for the pics above and this video - so no tripod involved.  VERY hard to stay still enough and stay in focus - but my goal was to show you how this Hairstreak butterfly rubs his wings together.  From my reasearch I found out this:

Hairstreaks usually have a pattern of lines or stripes on the underside wings. These, in combination with ocelli ( false eye markings ) and short tails ( false antennae ) act to divert attention away from the head, and towards the outer edge of the hindwings. By oscillating the wings, the tails are made to wiggle like antennae, further increasing the illusion that the butterfly is 'back to front'. Attacking birds will always aim at the head of a butterfly, but are tricked into aiming at the tail. The butterfly is thus able to escape in the opposite direction unharmed. Another reason for wing-rubbing is that male Hairstreaks have patches of specialised wing scales - 'androconia', located on their upperside forewings. Sacs at the base of these scales contain pheromones. Rubbing the wings together helps to disseminate the pheromones, which attract females and induce them to mate.

This info above from the website - 
 Learn About Butterflies



 More of my Butterfly Images - HERE 

Nature Amazes

Red-spotted Purple Butterfly  

Hold on to your sense of wonder; if you do not have a sufficiently strong one, then develop it. For me, it is the most precious resource in the world. 

~  Arthur Silber Jr.

Mockingbird Tosses A Berry

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

~ Kahlil Gibran

About the image:  Heritage Park, Blacksburg, VA

Delighted that I actually caught the mockingbird "tossing" the berry (99% luck)  

Nature AMAZES me every single day. 

Available - HERE 

Awe Is Quiet

Awesome is loud but awe is quiet. 

 ~ Kevin McCloud

 Morning View in Heritage Park - Blacksburg, VA

 One of my favorite places on this wonderful planet Earth.

Love On A Maple Leaf

It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look.

 ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Great Blue Heron - Open Wide

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.  

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

Great Blue Heron at Izaak Walton Park - Christiansburg VA  

Walking In Wonder

I walk the world in wonder.

~Oscar Wilde

I've been asked which comes first - the quote or the image. 99% of the time the image comes first - however - when I found this quote - it seemed to sum up exactly how I feel about walking in nature - It is ALWAYS a WONDER to me. So I searched to find something that would convey that - and this is what I found :) There is so much wonder out there if we take the time to look around.

Wishing you all a Day filled with WONDER!

Sun Rising

"The morning light, 
which rains its quivering beams

Wide o'er the plains, the summits, and the streams,

In one broad blaze expands its golden glow

On all that answers to its glance below."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Print Available - HERE 

Bee covered in Pollen

~Such AMAZING Creatures~

~A Closer Look~

I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?

~James Thomson

Orange Crush

Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.

Wendelin Van Draanen

I am amazed at what can be found on a blade of grass! 

butterfly art throw pillows

Bluebirds - Triple Play

Of all the various out-door recreations I have tried, when it comes to genuine, exciting sport, give me hunting with a camera.... 
- Roger Tory Peterson 

How fortunate I was to find THREE Bluebirds perching in the same tree. I had never seen more than two bluebirds at one time...so this was

just one more of those things I counted as an
amazingness in Nature :) 

Grasping a Dew Drop

Simplicity is the glory of expression.

~Walt Whitman

Dew on a Web

There isn't any such thing as an ordinary life. 
 ― L.M. Montgomery 

 Nature has such special wonders....if we only stop to look.

 Try to find a bit of the "extra" in the "ordinary" and you will find the Extraordinary.