June 6 - River (152/365 or is it 158/365? lol)

The rivers around here always surprise me. I grew up around fast running, ice cold and clear rivers and lakes. In this area the rivers are a muddy brown and very slow moving. Usually, I try to avoid taking photos of the river because it is so brown and dirty. People tend to comment on my photo colors being off as the water isn't blue. I saw this little bend in the river and it called to me, so here it is. What do you think?

June 5 - Turtle

As I've shared before, we have a lot of ponds and standing water around here. We also have a lot of turtles and frogs.

This little guy watched me intently as I walked around the bank to get a better photo. He really made me laugh. After I took the photo, he silently slipped into the water and vanished.

June 4 - Conk

I believe this fungus is called a conk. It's actually the sign of ill health for a tree. I've known many artists that collect conks, dry them and then paint on them.

In the Rocky Mountains I have seen these conks get amazingly large.

June 3 - Cardinals

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, there is so much wildlife around here! It is mind boggling. The more I look for it, the more I find :)

I'm not much for ornithology and this blog has really shown me how much I don't know! I think these are cardinals.

I find it so peaceful to be out with my camera. The only really bad thing is that being out with all of the trees and creatures also means I'm out where there are ticks. After this hike I found several climbing on me. Thankfully, none had bitten or anything. They were just wandering around and holding on to my clothes. Such disgusting little creatures. Gotta take the bad with the fabulous I guess. I've been around them all my life and they haven't kept me home yet.

June 2 - Pelican Rapids

I thought for sure I would find pelicans at Pelican Rapids. I was wrong. Normally this water is not over the feet of the statue, however, with all of the flooding, the water was still pretty high.

The next morning I ran down to my favorite coffee shop (Ristreto's) and I could NOT believe it when a pelican flew right in front of me and landed in the pond near my house! Of course I didn't have my camera with me on my latte run! ugghhh

June 1 - Blue Heron

I'm not sure what this bird is. It was a ways away and held very, very still while I was trying to get this photo. My husband and I went to Maplewood State Park in Minnesota and that's where I found this guy. When he was tired of me, he was gone in a flash! So quick, I didn't even get a photo of it in flight!

If you know what type of bird this is, please let me know. At first I called it a Blue Heron, but then I couldn't find any photos of Blue Herons that looked just like this guy.

Thank you CBGD for posting the comment and link :) Now I know.

May 30 - Dragonfly!

I came across a field of dragonflies! There must've been thousands of them flitting all over the place. Every time I barely moved, they all lifted in flight! It was VERY difficult getting a photo! Thankfully, I have a fantastic zoom lens!

I spent more than half an hour just sitting there watching those beautiful creatures flit here and there :)

There were several types there too! I didn't get any photos of the other blue ones with round bodies. They were just way too fast and way too busy!

May 29 - LOVE spring colors!

Not sure what kind of bird this is, but I love this photo!