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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Hello, BlueSky! I’m taking a brief hiatus to experiment with architectural photography, but I’ll be back soon with more bird pictures. Monarchs and Blue Porterweed (A composite of three photographs) Miami Beach Botanical Gardens December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #insects #butterflies

A bright orange and black Monarch Butterfly gathers pollen from a tiny purple flower, the lone blossom on a thin green stalk of Blue Porterweed. A second Monarch, pictured three times in this composite image, flits around the first. The background of the photograph is a blur of green hues.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Yellow-Bellied Slider Miami Beach Botanical Garden December 31, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #turtles #reptiles

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Chicken Miami Beach Botanical Garden December 28, 2024 #photography #nature #birds (Who can identify the breed and gender?)

A chicken struts through the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. This chicken has an orange breast, a speckled brown-and-white cap, a small red comb, and prominent yellow feet. Here, it pecks its ways along a trail canopied with green plants and trees. The ground is covered in dry leaves and mulch.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Cape May Warbler Miami Beach Botanical Garden December 31, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #birds

A Cape May Warbler catches a glint of sunshine. This Cape May Warbler is a small bird. Its bright yellow breast is streaked with black. Its cap and wings are gray and black. A few chestnut feathers have appeared on the bird’s otherwise gray cheeks, which suggests that this bird is an immature male that will soon acquire its adult feathers. Here, the warbler, which has been drinking the nectar from the flowers of a large Jamaican Poinsettia, pauses to take in the sunlight dappling from above.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Green Heron Collins Canal Park Miami Beach December 28, 2025 #birds #photography #nature #wildlife

Perched on an overhanging limb, a Green Heron looks out over a canal. This Green Heron is a short, stout bird with burgundy plumage on its chest and dark blue plumage on its head. It has a bright yellow eye and a long, pointy bill. Here, the heron sits on a long, dead tree branch, soaking up the sun. This perch also allows the heron to keep an eye on fish and other prey moving in the canal below. The background of the photograph consists of shaded rocks and green space.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Northern Mockingbird Miami Botanical Garden December 28, 2024 #photography #wildlife #nature #birds

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Green Heron Collins Canal Park Miami Beach December 28, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #birds

A vigilant Green Heron. This photograph offers a closeup portrait of an alert Green Heron. The heron faces away from the camera but looks over its right shoulder. The slight crouch of the bird suggests tension or wariness. This heron is impossibly colorful. It has teal-blue plumage on its back, hunter green plumage on its wings, burgundy plumage on its neck, and midnight blue plumage on its crown. It has an orange eye with a large black pupil. Its lower bill is a streak of yellow. The background of the photograph consists mostly of the sandy and white hues of a shallow canal reflecting dappled sunlight.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher Miami Botanical Garden December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #birds

A Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher examines a branch. True to its name, this gnatcatcher is a small bird with bluish-gray plumage. It also has a prominent white eye ring, but it lacks a dark band above the eye. This fact suggests that the bird is female or a nonbreeding male. Photographed here standing on a branch, the bird appears to lean in, from right to left, as if searching the branch for food. Its beak is slightly open. The background of the photograph consists mostly of green and brown hues.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Monarch Butterfly on Blue Porterweed Miami Botanical Garden December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #butterflies #insects

A Monarch Butterfly searches for nectar on a Blue Porterweed flower. This monarch is a bright orange butterfly with white spots on its black body and around the black or dark brown perimeter of its wings. Here it clings to a slender shoot of porterweed, taking nectar from its lone flower, which despite the name of the plant, appears more purple than blue. There is one small chunk missing from the bottom of the monarch’s wings. The butterfly and porterweed shoot appear near the center of the frame. The background consists mostly of green and brown hues.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Lesser Black-Backed Gull (First Winter) Miami Beach January 1, 2025 #photography #nature #wildlife #birds

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Atala Butterfly Miami Botanical Garden December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #butterflies Photographed here through blades of tall grass, creating a stronger filter effect.

A black, red, and blue Atala butterfly scours a small flower. This photograph is similar to the first and second, but it was taken behind tall blades of grass that not only soften the image but also wash it in a green hue.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Atala Butterfly Miami Botanical Garden December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #butterflies Photographed here through blades of tall grass, creating a filter effect.

A black, red, and blue Atala butterfly scours a small flower. This photograph is similar to the first, but it was taken behind tall blades of grass that slightly soften the image.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Atala Butterfly Miami Botanical Garden December 27, 2024 #photography #nature #wildlife #butterflies (See the comments for other pictures in this set. Which do you like best?)

An Atala butterfly searches for pollen on a cluster of white flowers. This is a small black butterfly with a bright red abdomen and electric blue spots on its wings. Here, in the upper right of the frame, the Atala crawls across a frilly white flower, possibly a Havana Snakeroot. A leafy green stem rises on the left side of the frame. The background of the photograph consists mostly of green hues.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Wooly Bear in the house. What to do, what to do? Supposedly, they can survive freezing temperatures, but it feels wrong to put this fuzzy-wuzzy outside.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Some folks above have wondered why this bird is not called a Red-Headed Woodpecker. Below is a photo--one of the first shots I took when I began photographing birds--of a Red-Headed Woodpecker. It has a superior claim to the title!

A Red-Headed Woodpecker clings to the rail of a tray feeder. This photograph offers a close-up perspective of a Red-Headed Woodpecker. The bird is visible from the breast up. Its bill is turned to the right of the frame, but its eye appears to be focused on the viewer. The bird has a white chest and black wings, but its head and neck are covered entirely in red plumage.

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Ben's Birds and Stuff @notabeignet.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Western Honey Bee on Alpine Sea Holly Bloomington Garden Walk, June 2024 June 22, 2024 #photography #bees #insects #wildlife #nature #plants #gardens #flowers

A Western Honey Bee explores an Alpine Sea Holly flower. This photograph offers a close-up, bird’s-eye view of an Alpine Sea Holly flower. The flower, which is a light purplish blue, has several thin, spiked bracts and a prominent central cone. A Western Honey Bee is scouring the cone for pollen. The bee is orange and black with a fuzzy thorax, a prominent mandible, and a dark eye. Moving counter-clockwise around the holly cone, the bee appears in the upper left corner of the frame. The background consists mostly of green hues.

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