Rabbit and Rats

My sister has the cutest little pets. She owns 2 dumbo rats- Ferris and Cameron, and a rabbit named Cinna (Hunger Games - LOVE!). They are so adorable and friendly. The other day Ariana and I got them out for a little playing and I grabbed my camera and snagged a couple shots of them.

 Isn't this picture of Ferris the rat and Cinna the rabbit snuggling so cute! They clearly love each other.

Cameron was so curious about what I was doing, I love this one of him.

Ariana adores them and loves petting them and giving them treats.

Return of the Macro!

I got my macro back the Monday before I flew to Florida on that Thursday. If you read this post you already know the horrible sad story of my broken marco and how happy I am to get it back in time for my trip. Here are some of my first shots from my newly repaired lens in Florida.

I loved finding these little lizards. I believe they are a brown anole also called the tree anole but I'm not a biologist so I'm not certain. It may take some more research. But they were cute lizards with a white stripe up their back and yellow around their eyes. They were all over the plants outside my mom's porch.

And then I found this white caterpillar with black spikes which I'm pretty certain is a Heliconius charithonia and grows to be a Zebra Longtail butterfly which is the official butterfly of Florida! Awesome!

 This is my photo of the Zebra Longtail from our trip to Flamingo Gardens in Florida last year.

I'm VERY happy to have my macro back on my camera, especially now that we're in Florida and I can capture those little lizards up close! 

Little Birds

I was a little bit smitten this Spring with bird watching and even I posted on my Facebook that I was "climbing trees and stalking birds"! Besides that awesome falcon, I've found a few different types of birds in our yard. Most of these are from early Spring but I'm just getting around to processing these photos.

Today I'm sharing pictures of this pretty yellow/olive green bird. I think this is the Citril Finch. I found a pair of them munching on dandelions in my backyard one morning. This little guy fluffed his head feathers at me!

Cute huh? What are some photos you've taken but haven't shared yet?

The Story of how I became Obsessed with a Falcon

Between our village and the village next to ours, there lives a bird. A big bird. A big brownish bird who I get a glimpse of every now and then driving back and forth to and from our house. I see him perched in the trees by the cow fields or sometimes circling above it. I always think to myself, "Wow, I want to take your picture." I started calling him "the hawk" and I'm pretty sure my husband didn't believe me. I would always see him when I was alone. He was sneaky.

I started taking my camera in the car with me all the time in case I saw him. Then one day I did! I was driving along and suddenly around the bend there he was sitting on a fence post across the road from me. Literally 15 feet away. He flew away before I could stop and get his photo, but I knew it would be my goal. I would snap a shot of him, whatever he was before the summer was over. I became obsessed with finding him.

Finally, it happened. It was about midday and Ariana and I were coming home for lunch, when there he was. He was sitting in the field on a long stretch of road and nobody was coming either way. I quickly pulled over and whipped my camera into action. As soon as he saw what I was planning, he took to the air, but I was able to get a pretty awesome shot of him in all his glory.

I've looked him up and decided I think he's a Peregrine Falcon. And he is beautiful!

My new goal for the summer is to get more/better shots of him! And also to get some pretty photographs of the deer I sometimes see, but I'm pretty sure that's going to be MUCH harder.

P64: Tan

When I was about 12 my Girl Scout troop when horseback riding and I fell in love with horses for the first time. I took on again off again lessons on Casper, Mocha, and others, and went riding with a family friend on a sweet dapple girl named Leia. 

Have I ever owned a horse? No. Do I still dream of owning a horse? Yes.

Yes, I still would love to own a horse. Kind of a crazy dream for a girl married to the military moving every few years and living in different countries. I can't imagine the cost to ship a horse back to the states. Maybe one day though. The truth is, I don't know how to take care of a horse. I know general care but not the real ins and outs of life with a horse. And I don't have anywhere to keep it. Plus, horses are expensive. I get all of that. That is why I don't have one. I can still dream though.

We saw some pretty tan colored horses on our walk in Bavaria. I'm linking up my first picture to Project 64. The color reflecting off his coat is just perfect for the color match. I added the other photos just because I love them, with the light on his mane and rimming the whiskers around his nose. 

Such a pretty sight with the mountains behind them. What a view!

Find other tan photos in the linkup here:

P64: Burnt Orange

Yesterday we went to a farm not far from Heidelberg. There I found burnt orange on this rooster. I never realized they have red eyes.

Find more Burnt Orange here and be sure to vote for my Bittersweet picture in the contest for the monthly winner.

baby news

Remember our snails Sheldon and Essie? Well they had babies!

Here's how the story goes in case you don't remember. For Letter S week Ariana and I found 2 LARGE snails in the woods by our house and made them a terrarium and kept them as pets for a while. It was great fun and we learned about them and she loved watching and holding them. 

Before our trip to the states we let the snails go back where we found them. Oh, did I forget to mention that while we had them we saw them mating? Well, we did and we researched how long it takes before the snails lay the eggs and we thought we were safe. Guess again. 

There had been a 24 hour period where we thought one of the snails had escaped but it turned out that she had just been hiding/laying eggs somewhere in the terrarium. Thanks mama.

Our house sat empty for a few weeks while Ariana and I were in Florida and Rich was in Washington for training and then visiting us in Florida. I say empty but baby snails were silently taking over the terrarium and waiting for our return.

When Ariana and I returned home a month later I saw a speck on the wall of the terrarium and went to investigate. Is that a tiny shell? Wait, is that another. Oh-my-GOD-there-are-babies-in-there.

So far, I've counted 37. 

THIRTY SEVEN BABY SNAILS!

How do you care for baby snails?

It's actually easy. We mist their terrarium a few times a day and give them cut up vegetables to eat.

We thought their favorite was zuchinni until we discovered them devouring some cucumber one night.

They sleep most of the day - like most babies - and don't really get active until night.

Aww he's got a little bit of zucchini on his mouth!

Here is one of the babies on a quarter to show the size. And that's Ariana's little 2 year old finger.

 Teeny tiny.

As a reminder here is a photo of the mama snail - over 3 inches long!

So, what's our plan?

Well so far some of them have doubled in size - piggies. We've enjoyed having the babies in our house. What can I say, we're animal lovers, even if they are slimy. We're going to slowly release them back into the woods a few at a time where hopefully they will live out their lives in the brush by the little creek and grow big like their parents. We've debated keeping 1 because snails are hermaphrodites and keeping 2 would mean more babies in our future and we're not ready for that yet!

xo's

Cat

P64: Raw Sienna

This past week my family and I went to the Miami Seaquarium for the day. One of the best parts of the trip was the sea lion show. They were so cute and had such personalities, they had us all laughing at their crazy antics. I spent a long time after the show watching them swim and taking pictures. It was only afterwards that I realized that they were a good match for the color this week.

Find all the other photos of this week's color here:

xo's

Cat