Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A New Love, A New Hobby

Do I need one more hobby? Umm... no. But the long, cool, wet spring has turned into a summer that is overflowing with a riot of wildflowers! And I can't resist them. As may be apparent from earlier posts, I am a birder. I love birds, and this year I am making a serious effort to see as many as possible. In fact, I am at 137 species seen in Cache Valley! Plus a Great-Horned Owl in the 2 adjoining valleys and a life-bird Sage Thrasher in Wyoming. It's been a great year! Anyway, when you are out looking for birds it's hard to not notice all the OTHER wonderful things surrounding you, like millions of wildflowers! I've been checking out every available wildflower book from the library, and I recently bought a nice book called "Plants of the Rocky Mountains". And yet I STILL cannot identify the majority of flowers I have pictures of. It's SO frustrating! Much easier to ID birds LOL
So my new love, my new hobby is photographing and identifying wildflowers. Be prepared... there are probably a lot of flower pics coming :)
Colorado Columbine at Tony Grove, Utah
Small-flowered Woodland Star, one of my most favorite wildflowers. It is so tiny and delicate that it is easy to miss.
Phlox species, Limber Pine Trail, Utah I also saw a lot of these at Fossil Butte, Wyoming

More flower pictures coming soon!

4 comments:

FrenchGardenHouse said...

It's so fun to look up flowers, isn't it? There are so many sweet flowers...it's really amazing. I love to look up birds, too. Thanks so much for visiting me today.:)
xo Lidy

Abbie said...

Hi! :)
We'd love to have you join the flozzies!! ♥ I just need your email address. You can email me at damseldesigns@hotmail.com and I'll send the invite to you.

Oh! I just love flowers too, but I dont; know very many of their names either. I do love phlox! It grows fabulous here in NH.

xoxo~
Abbie

Kelly said...

I know what you mean about taking up a new hobby, but enjoying nature is something I think we all need to take time for. It is so amazing you have seen so many species already.

Kel

karlascottage.typepad.com said...

Oh, good for you, I always wish I knew what the names of wildflowers are. The only ones I know are the ones that I grow.