Chris Zimmer: A Rose, Bumblebee, Hawk and Buzzard

Sunday, June 7, 2009

A Rose, Bumblebee, Hawk and Buzzard

Sometimes I can go several days without anything good to photograph, and then suddenly a few opportunities will present themselves all at the same time. This was one of those good days.

We have one small lone rose bush in our yard, which has been there since probably the 1960s when my husband’s mother planted it. It is just a shadow of its former self, only getting a few blooms on it in the late spring and sometimes later in the summer. This year we were lucky to get 7-8 roses on it all at the same time, which is unheard of for that poor plant. It did give me one nice photo of a very bright pink rose. Maybe I should take better care of that rosebush in the future.

The Rose

While photographing my purple rhododendron before all its flowers dropped off, I was lucky when a bumblebee decided to jump into the photograph. It apparently didn't like to have its picture taken, because it later buzzed me until I left.

The Bumblebee

My husband noticed a red-shouldered hawk sitting on my neighbor’s fence at the back of our yard. It stayed out there long enough for me to get the camera and it posed for me. But it was skittish and flew high up into a tree 150+ feet away and screamed its head off. While I took pictures of it from afar, I noticed it looking up several times. There were a few turkey vultures (AKA “buzzards") flying overhead, much to the irritation of the hawk. The hawk eventually flew off, but not before I could snap a few more pictures of it, and the buzzards in flight.

The Red Shouldered Hawk