cody bear’s friends

i was down for the count today. woke up with some flu thing. i was feeling better this afternoon, but that was short lived. and i’m so thirsty!

but, that didn’t stop the blogging muse from leading me to a topic. some of you may not like this one:

i went to drop off the pictures to r and a from their “shoot” with the dogs. we got to chatting. 2 topics came up: 1. they’re getting married! wonderful news! 2. bees.

and bees let to a bringing out her bug trays!

not too bad. who doesn’t love a butterfly, right? and don’t most people learn to love moths eventually, as well?

but then…

for the love of all that’s holy!

that big ass beetle, the one who looks like a death machine from a milla jovovich movie? that’s the palo verde beetle. some of you may remember the story of my cat befriending the one who was trying to assassinate me last summer….only that one was twice the size of this dead guy.

moving on…

yes, that is a hissing cockroach.

let’s cleanse our visual pallet with a butterfly…

and here’s hoju, howling…

you can catch more of him on my photoblog, dogdailyphoto.wordpress.com.

so, i didn’t stay long. and now i’m blogging because i can’t sleep since i don’t feel well. not to complain. just mentioning why i’m up is all…..

that guy looks like he’s made out of plastic, but he’s real.  such a long tail.  i don’t know why i’ve felt the need to post so many critters on here lately…

i have NO idea what type of lizard he is either.  i just had to post him.

(pardon the picture quality, but l. doesn’t like spiders and was running pretty fast toward the door at the time. and all i had was my point n shoot)

so,….i heard some commotion a few moments before i was leaving the wildlife center today. “whatcha got there?” i ask….

“a baby wolf spider” she says.

baby!? BABY!!!???? its the size of a hostess cupcake! …almost

for the spring, we have a large number of empty cages. wait, i hear some rustling from the other side of the room. the native species are getting restless….

who put the burrowing owl in with the barn owl!? they have TOTALLY different schedules!!!

i take my powershot with me everywhere i go.  today, volunteering, my friend c found this….

i have no idea what kind of frog it is….other than tiny.

i don’t know what’s going on, but, …. i had another good day. working backwards…

hannah came over for a late night play date.  here she and cody bear are “down” for a cookie.  see how serious they are?

that followed a short walk with cody bear.

prior to that i picked up hannah from her house and took her to the animal shelter to be a “neutral dog.” she’s super at being neutral.  prior to THAT …. another walk with cody bear.

earlier, a nap.

then…

apples for horses, which followed feeding more wild animals volunteering. (you saw the ducklings earlier) that was from 9 to 1.

that followed….another walk of cody bear.

so, that’s a pretty good saturday…backwards.

probably the only cruddy thing was paying 33 bux to fill my tiny car with petrol!!!

look what i found when i went to volunteer this morning:

babies.  i don’t know what kind of duckies they are.  i’m not a ducky expert.

a couple weeks ago i mentioned i was becoming obsessed with getting the perfect bee shot.  after seeing what my friend a’s “macro” can do, i’ve resigned myself to honey bee mediocrity and will return to focusing my lens and my efforts on….dogs.

but, i did get some pretty good shots, just not as amazing as hers.

she took this one:

it looks like he’s wearing leg weights….but its pollen.  quads be damned.

here’s my shot:

funny thing, our pix got better AFTER we each had a couple pints of beer.  i wouldn’t recommend getting schnackered and then going out to harass some africanized honey bees, but i felt safe with her.  she know’s her bees.  in fact, she appears to be getting in the minds of the bees.  she is at ONE with the bees.  can even identify them by the buzz they make.

oh, the bees were buzzing, as were we….

such a great weekend, with the cardinal, the bees, the bobcats.  wish i didn’t have this cold, but other than that….life is good.

the pictures are better at part two, but i have to respect chronology…

continuing on my fantastic weekend, my friend a. came over and she has many fantastic qualities:

1. super cool entomologist who knows the buggins!

2. a pal that can drink the beers and talk the girl talk.

3. knows how to give the good belly rubs for my cody bear.

4. exxxxcellllent photographer, it just so happens.

but, here are my shots (which, as lame as they are, would not have been taken without her!)

looks like some dirt, huh?

here it is close up!!

it is a bee….emerging from an underground nest. turns out i have hundreds of bees living beneath my yard!

they’re fast, so that was an illustration….

more bees (better bees) later!

best….weekend….ever….

more on that later, but in the meantime….here are some of my resident bird friends.  cardinal….

cardinal lookin’ like he’s falling out of the tree….

but really he was taking off.

after hearing my camera…

of course, he wasn’t alone.  here’s the she cardinal, shortly before feasting on a lizard!

55mmlens and i’m out.

wow, what an awesome saturday. i can’t believe how great today was!

1st of all, my dog was such a good bear! we went on three walks today and he saw a cat each time but didn’t bark once! he spun around a few times and made some squeaking noises, but no barking. AND, each walk a dog barked at him, (the last walk some dog was going nuts at him through a fence) but again, no barking! i would say “let’s go,” and he was a star! this is tremendous for him because he used to go nuts whenever he saw an unknown dog. i’m so pround of him!

THEN! (and you won’t believe this) today was my first day volunteering at a new place. i got to feed a bobcat! she ate little pieces of meat from my hand! i couldn’t believe it! so amazing!

let’s take a break to look at a picture of cody with a duck in his mouth…

ok, back to the wonderful day. then, i had some lovely chats on the phone with friends, followed by a great class at the animal shelter. i hate setting up for class because the equipment is a pain in the (*&%#@, but it didn’t go too badly and i think i only swore 3 times.

so, now i’m home with my great dog and my great cat. i am so excited to start regularly volunteering at this new place. i should get lots of nice photos. but for now….

here’s a pig…

and my shoe.