Stephen L Tabone Nature Photography

In late July, while attending a family reunion at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, Georgia, I accidentally discovered a large field of sunflowers. While driving the rural country roads between Madison and Rutledge, they were a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Adding to my excitement, the sunflowers were at the peak of their bloom.

I was not only lucky to find the sunflowers, but it was perfect timing because the sunflowers were all facing the road in the late afternoon sun. Some young sunflowers species follow the sun, which is called heliotropism, but as they mature and develop seeds, the flowers droop from the weight of the seeds and no longer follow the sun.

Below are some of the images of the sunflower field. As you can see, all of the flowers were in full bloom except for one late bloomer. The above video was taken with my iPhone 7 Plus at 4K.

While backing up image files yesterday, I came across an image of a Purple Gallinule that I photographed in Everglades National Park. It was a rewarding discovery, because it brought back memories of that visit to the Everglades and the pleasure of watching the Purple Gallinule scooting across lily pads in search of food.

I was in the Everglades very early, when I found the Purple Gallinule, and the morning sun was brightly illuminating its colorful iridescent feathers. Gallinules live in swamps and wetlands in southeast United States. They eat a wide variety of food including frogs, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders and water plants. The Purple Gallinule is not a very good flyer, but it is an excellent wader. It uses its long toes to distribute its weight, when walking on lily pads.