Yesterday morning, I spent most of the morning photographing wildflowers in the area. The first stop was the “new” natural prairie in the area, Snowball Hill Prairie. I’ll put out another blog post on this natural gem, but today’s post features one of the many wildflowers that is now blooming there, the thistle:
As I was leaving the prairie, after photographing the abundant display of wildflowers, I came upon a couple of large patches of thistles, in various stages of bloom. As I wandered among the patches and photographed the beautiful, purple wildflowers, I noticed that the American Goldfinches were also interested in them, flying in to forage among the many flowers.
But as I moved about the thistles, one clearly stood out … a white one! I don’t know how common a white thistle is. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one before! But moving closer to the “odd ball”, I captured these images:
Then I noticed another white bud, coming off the same plant stem:
Certainly different! I don’t know if this is a form of leucism (spelling?), like is sometimes found in birds. Have you ever seen a white thistle?
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D Mark 2 body
- Canon EF 100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod with ballhead
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/3.5 to f/22
- Shutter 1/13 sec. to 1/160 sec.