One of my goals during my landscaping project was to plant lots of “food” plants close to the house. I can see
this barrel cactus from 3 rooms so when this male Gilded Flicker flew in yesterday afternoon, I ran for my camera.
Canon 100-400mm at 400mm with a 1.4x teleconverter.
Click here to hear their calls.
Of all my Barrel Cactus, the red one is the most striking. It’s so brilliant, you can’t help but say WOW!
I had high hopes for a full circle of flowers but maybe next time. Here’s a few shots from yesterday.
Tech info: Slightly overcast day. Canon 5DMK2, Canon 180 macro lens, ISO 200, F/13, 1/125th sec, plus 1/2 stop.
I always have a camera with me, (as you probably know), even if I don’t have shooting in mind because you never know when a photo op is going to present itself. Such was the case yesterday when I was on my way back from Home Depot (bought Javelina fencing….more later) and saw this huge Barrel Cactus out of the corner of my eye. It was overcast so the color of the blooms was unbelievably vivid! Thankfully the road I was on has very little traffic, because I literally slammed on my brakes. After I got over the vision of a rear end collision, I pulled over to the side of the road, walked through barbed wire fence and fought off rattlesnakes (not really) to get these photos.
Another tone mapped image but this time only one shot and with a little grunge look.
Plants from a nursery almost always come with extras in the pot. I usually pluck them out but in this case, I got lucky with this little Verbena. It looks really pretty surrounding the barrel cactus. Spread your little seeds, Verbena!
The red spines of this Barrel Cactus are an indication of the great soaking rain we had last night.