Sometimes one does not have to travel far to see amazing things. I live in the middle of the city and am always amazed about all the animal life that comes through here. I do not always have my camera ready and often I am just too lazy to go get it. However, sometimes I get over my ingrained laziness and start shooting. I will continue to add to this gallery as more things crawl, fly and hop through my backyard.

First there is all the small stuff. I am a big fan of macro photography. So, when an interesting insect comes by, I am all over it. The preying mantis was actually on the side of the house, but I thought the photo looks better this way. Then there was the giant spider. Legs and all it measured well over 1 inch in length and it was right in the front door.

The other thing we have plenty of is birds. I keep a variety of feeders stocked for the various species that come by. The usual clientele are garden variety finches. While they are cute, I have yet to take a really nice photo of them. A couple years ago I noticed the cats go crazy inside the house and did take a look. A Sparrow hawk had caught one of the finches and was devouring it on the patio. After shooting a couple photos it decided to move up to a tree to finish his meal. Sorry, these photos might be a bit gruesome, but the hawk was pretty spectacular.

And then there are the hummingbirds and woodpeckers. Eventually I will get a photo of one in flight, but for the time being sitting will have to do.