Took this last summer at our (wife and I, plus the dog) backyard.
Flower from a plum tree:

Columbine:

Wild rose:

Grouse:

Nice! Along other lines: We have issues with aphids in the early spring when plums are leafing out and blooming. They do disappear with first serious summer heat. Any ideas on a chemical of two that works.

i haven't noticed any aphids on two plum trees we have, but the birch do have some kind of bugs, although we don't know what kind. These bugs sort of curl the leaves and live inside.

Aphids appear shortly after blossoms drop and leaves begin to open. You'll sometimes see ants going up and down trunk feeding on their sticky sap secretions. The ants actually host and protect the aphids.

You may want to try some concentrated Neem Oil. Mix 1 to 1.5 ozs into gallon of water with a 1/2 oz of dish detergent. Put that into a small garden sprayer and spray both sides of leaves and trunk in early morning or late afternoon. Treat every 10-14 days until aphids gone. Usually takes 2-3 treatments and they are gone. The Neem Oil is organic and won't harm people/pets. Best to spray with temps under 85.

Clean your sprayer out with hot water when finished as that Neem is sticky stuff and will gum up the sprayer.

I don't like to use pesticides until there are more serious problems like borers and beetles. The neem should work and if very wet season, you may want to try some fungicide every other treatment in place of the neem oil. If dry, only use the neem and it should eradicate the aphids.

The aphids will make leaves curl up and appear brown/black

SD

Really nice photos.

SD 65:
I gave the Neem a try last season and had essentially no luck. I'll try it again though this spring maybe hitting it every 3 or 4 days. Thanks,

Fine photos OP!

To the bugs. You may have to treat with a more drastic measure if you want immediate results by using a contact killer(insecticides) such as deltamethrin,pyrethrins, permethrins,etc. It will kill on contact but care be taken on young plants and those if eating fruit. Read Labels.

I use Malathion when infestations get bad on my ornamental cherries.

Neem works, but takes longer to disrupt behavior of insects making them not eat or reproduce or to fly. The problem is overwintering eggs of the flies, so must treat late winter and stick regiment of treatment. I would not use the Neem more frequent than every 7 days.

Good luck, hope you get them under control.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I just need to hit hard, frequently, and early.

Decided to add another photoI took today. It's a willow-tree pod (much like a flower). The pollen from willow is quite potent, and makes a lot of people sneeze like crazy. Willow blooms very early in the Spring, and most times we drive by without noticing the pods in full bloom because they are so small, but on close inspection they are quite colorful.

Ray, nice light and dof on your willow shot.

Beautiful pics!!

The Northern Lights are supposed to be real nice tonight, except that this Sunday evening the weather has changed and made the sky cloudy ):

But I took lots of photos of birds during the day. As you can see it was nice and clear just a few hours ago:

Have a retired buddy that used to float/bush pilot up there. He was always impressed by the swans, saying a pair would claim each lake within hours of a pickup sized spot clearing of ice.

Good job considering all the white in that image.

Yes, I had to work at it to bring out detail. This is my favorite so far:

That grouse pic looks very good, all beautiful pics.

All great pictures.

My favorites are the swans.

I don't really care for flower photo's much, they all look the same to me. But, that one of the purple flower is stunning! Great job!!!

Thanks, DonFisher and Distinguished2006.

You too, Bluecat.
I took a few more photos of grouse, and will post four for now (more later):








By the way, all my images posted in this and other forums will probably disappear in the near future, since PhotoBucket wants $40.00 a month for the features I want. I plan to switch to SmugMug or a similar photo hosting website sometime in 2018, at which time I can repost my images in here.

Not bad.

Ptarmigan:


Grouse:

Just noticed you added some more pics......all of them are excellent but this one is really a work of art IMO!

Indeed!

Thank you folks for the nice comments. The following image shows what happens in the interior of Alaska just before winter. The temperatures drops to perhaps 30 degrees at night (near Fairbanks), and it has been snowing toward the North. The snow will move this way very soon

And this is a baby bunny in the backyard, a wild little thing the size of a tennis ball, and mad at me because I got too close:

Beautiful photos. Love the bokah in the photos.

[quote=Ray]And this is a baby bunny in the backyard, a wild little thing the size of a tennis ball, and mad at me because I got too close:

Thanks, Sportsdad60