The black turnstone feeds mostly on small crustaceans and marine worms, which it can find on rocky shorelines or mudflats. It is also known to eat small insects, mollusks, and occasionally plant material. The post The Black Turnstone: A Charismatic Shorebird appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

The last time I passed through Montana, I stopped by some duck ponds in Anaconda at a place called Warm Springs State Wildlife Management Area and there were dragonflies and damselflies everywhere! I was familiar with some of the species, but this one olive-golden species was very difficult for me to identify until I was […] The post Female Saffron-winged Meadowhawk appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

The Spanish dagger is one of those plants that brings a bit of nostalgia to me. It was a very common non-native landscaping plant in my childhood in Manatee County, Florida that always had these amazing displays of flowers in the spring at the very top of the plant. They are also still a source […] The post Spanish Dagger appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

Recently, while I was out in a very rural tract of public land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley looking for Texas horned toads (not a toad - it's a lizard) my wife yelled, "Watch out! You almost stepped on a tarantula!" Sure enough, this beautiful subadult Texas tan tarantula almost got squished. The post Texas Tan Tarantula appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

As with so much in the wild and in life, sometimes the most beautiful things can also be dangerous, such as this Texas mountain laurel I found in Harlingen, Texas a couple of months ago. The seeds that will eventually be produced after these incredibly beautiful flowers get pollinated, then fruit are highly toxic to […] The post Texas Mountain Laurel appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

Sometimes you are just walking along admiring the wildflowers like I was on this day in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, when from inside a a thicket of shrimp plants, I saw this green anole watching me carefully. I just love the turquoise color around its eye! (click image to enlarge) Green Anole […] The post Green Anole appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

About four or five years ago I was in Big Bend National Park in West Texas and I just missed the perfect shot of a cactus wren and it bothered me for years. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Mission, Texas looking for reptiles and while looking quietly under an enormous patch of […] The post Cactus Wren! appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

I’ve been trying to get a decent shot of a northern cardinal (I grew up calling them red cardinals in Florida) on camera for decades!  Last week I was in near Weslaco, Texas and this handsome male dropped out the trees and landed right in front of me and stayed there for about five minutes. […] The post Northern Cardinal appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

Last week I was finally able to get a green jay on camera. This has always been one of those vividly colorful tropical species I’ve always wanted to see in person, and now I’ve finally got to see a lifer up close and personal. This species can be a little tricky to get on camera […] The post Green Jay appeared first on RichLeighton.com ..read more

Today is going to be a post that has been floating around my head for a few years. I’m going to try and keep it short and succinct, while letting the imagery do most of the talking for me. For this shoot, we used a natural disaster (forest fires) into an incredible opportunity for an amazing portrait session! Story below: …. Even before I read Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist” (highly recommended!) – I have been saving images, screen grabs, quotes and drawings for years on my various computer hard drives for future inspiration when it was lacking for years.  One image I had ..read more