With the apparent work-from-home year we are having eliminating my daily commute, I have turned that time into daily walks in the park near my neighborhood. As a result, I have noticed a lot of urban wildlife that we have. Usually you just think of the green area as having some birds and squirrels in it and not much more. But on my walks I have seen a greater variety of birds than I knew we had, lizards, turtles, snakes, rabbits, deer, and wide varieties of butterflies and dragonflies as well.
I also got a lighter weight camera to hike with as the big DSLR is a bit like a boat anchor after a long hike. This camera has a couple of good zoom lenses that get pictures almost as good as the DSLR, but I do have more noise correction to do in editing; especially with lower light, higher ISO photos.
I usually go in the early morning or evening when the temperature is closer to pleasant. Summertime highs are typically 100°F or higher here just about every day, but the mornings are nice. Yesterday morning, as I walked cameraless for some reason, I saw the rabbits out to forage in the early morning. There were plenty of them, so Saturday morning I brought the camera and had no trouble finding rabbits, like this guy eating a plant along the path.
I slowly approached the rabbit and didn’t seem very frightened by me. I guess he is used to a lot of people walking along the path in the park. I took quite a few more photos of him before moving along, including one in which he is sniffing at an old flower stem. Isn’t he cute?
I also saw some purple wildflowers that I often see and tried to catch one of them in a beam of morning sun with shadow behind it to make it stand out. There just grow along the sidewalk in the shady areas and it is nice that people haven’t picked them all. This park is full of wildflowers and it is nice to see the varieties blooming at different times of the spring and summer.
And lastly, if you’ll tolerate more dragonfly pictures, I saw some interesting ones. The first one below is actually from the evening before in the last light of the setting sun. I like his turquoise eyes and he didn’t seem to mind me shooting photos.
The next one has red tips on the leading edge of his wings. I took this one in the morning light. I had to sneak up on him as he was a bit more nervous about me, so this one is a bit of a crop. I see these striped-wing dragonflies often.
All of these photos were shot with a Nikon Z50 and Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lens.
Thanks for reading and please leave a comment.
Jason Frels 
Getting more exercise is one positive way to handle all this mess, and its rewarding with the things you get to see! Thumper is very cute, especially when sniffing flowers. 🙂
I wouldn’t say cute describes dragonflies but they can look pretty cool. Love the turquoise eyes!
Thanks for the pictures! Almost thought I was going to see a snake, since you had mentioned them. 🙂
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No, I haven’t been lucky enough to photography any more snakes lately. Just a lot of rabbits and dragonflies.
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Perhaps you need to start calling for them when you are walking and maybe they will come out of hiding. 🙂
Maybe you will see one tonight when camping. Or maybe another rabbit looking right at you. I do like “Thumper’s” eyes.
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I would love to ask JoRo how to call out a snake. Do you make a “ssssthhhhhsssss” sound?
Those turquoise eyeballs on the dragonfly really impress me. Great pictures, all. Small cameras these days can put out some pretty high quality stuff, in my view.
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Haha! I meant that perhaps the snake would talk back to him. After all he has had a cow, chicken, and gnu talk to him before, why not a snake??
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That’s true. And I have heard of talking snakes before. Sometimes they try to hustle fruit to people.
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That’s ancient hissstory.
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I know, but I thought I’d snake it into my comment.
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“Haha!” Yes, I do not think I will ever have a snake in a story of mine! Would make things way too easy for you!
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Great captures! Lots of hares and dragonflies in our area right now too.
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Your flower appears to be a Ruellia Nudiflora or a wild Petunia. I’m a big user of Pl@nt Net. LOL!
Love the dragonfiles, esp. the one with turquoise eyes. That is cool.
We have a trio of bunnies in our yard. They are fun to watch from the kitchen window.
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Thanks for looking that up for me. I searched around a bit and didn’t come up with anything.
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Welcome!
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The purple flower is a species of Ruellia. There are four that are native to Texas, and a couple of cultivars that gardeners use — but this one does look like a native. The last dragonfly is one of the few that I know: Halloween pennant. The so-called pennant dragonflies got their name from their tendency to do just what yours is: perching at the end of a stalk and seeming to ‘fly’ like a flag or pennant.
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