Monday in Nature Weekly Photo April 14, 2014

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<p ><strong >Basic Guidelines</strong>: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Keep your image at/under 700 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing and try to keep file size under 300kb. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Do you have a series of great shots to compliment your post? Please, tell us where they are so we can see them.</p>

<p ><em >In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. <strong >Let's make this a true Photo of the Week and only post 1 image per week.</strong></em></p>

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

Grab your coffee, get your bag, it's time to be outside. Yep, that dirt out there is aching to get in your boots and under your fingernails. Dirt, yes, dirt, the brown stuff that you haven't seen since, oh, about the beginning of December. And if you could see it, it was likely frozen. If you were Down Under, it was scorching. In Central America? OK, another day in paradise, but the dry season. Let's revel in Spring and go get dirty.</p>

<p>Next week we'll celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday. It seem fitting that we should rock the Nature Forum with a celebration on Monday. Please, give that idea some consideration while you're out this week, or scanning the archives.</p>

<p>I found my first spring blossom in the woods. <em>Hepatica americana</em> is a small woodland flower. These blossoms were just poking out of the leaf litter. They remind me of organic fireworks celebrating the changing season and provided a good reason to get down on the forest floor with the macro lens.</p>

<p>It's Monday in Nature and time to head out for a day in the woods and maybe see some fungi. Where are you goin'?</p><div></div>

<p>Well, I spent the weekend in the garden and took a few pictures too, but they certainly show the "hand of man" - they better! So this week I have a no-show picture for you:<br>

Yesterday was the first pleasant warm evening here in Connecticut; perfect for a walk. A few blocks from home we saw the first bats, a few more blocks we saw some more. I was quite excited that another winter of white nose syndrome hadn't done them all in and went back to get my camera. The plan was as follows: take an image of the bat-less sky at base ISO and exposure to get the clouds, stars, trees etc. without much noise. I didn't want to use a flash, because I wanted the bats black against the sky and certainly didn't want to mess with them by shining a flash at them. Their life seems hard enough. So the second set of shots would have been taken at ISO 1600 at maybe 1/20 or so, cleaned up in DxO, and then merged in PS in some yet to be determined way.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the bats were gone, so all you get is a rather boring picture of some (batless) CT sky. Maybe next week.</p><div></div>

<p>I went with the <em>Forsythia</em> buds breaking open. Lighting was not to my liking so I went high key.</p><div></div>

<p>Rick, I like that high-key image!</p>

<p>Nice start as usual. I wandered over to one of my favorite haunts, 'Children's Lake' in Boiling Springs Pa to enjoy the weather and waterfowl. Found this duck that had been poorly assembled ;).</p>

<p>Ah, yes...Spring is a time of renewal. Laura, nicely photographed subject. Christoph, I'm trying to imagine how the bats would look at 1/20s; wouldn't they just be a blur? Rick, on the rare occasions you see a B&W from me, it was probably because I didn't like the lighting. Your image looks terrific!</p>

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<p>Let's try again.</p><div></div>

<p>My second try at the forest floor mosses near where I live. I took last week's shot with my Canon G1X, which if you have one, you will be aware is not an ideal nature photography camera. Here we are again this time using the Canon 5D and 100/2.8 macro. <br>

I love the pincushion shapes of these mosses but have not yet identified the species. There are about 170 different mosses in this particular forest, so I am told. Anyone who can identify it please say!</p><div></div>

<p>The ice is out of the pond and Lexie is in. She has been waiting all winter for this day. </p><div></div>

<p>Nothing blooming yet in the UP of Michigan, but this squirrel was very curious...</p>

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<p>beautiful little flowers Laura and a great catch of the great egret with her brood Mark</p>

<p>this was one of the few crocus that bloomed this past week</p><div></div>

<p>A Great Horned Owl has built her nest in the same location at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin for the last 4-years. I have been watching for weeks. Two owlets were born in early April. </p><div></div>

<p>It rained hard for a while and then...hail!<br>

Sony A7, Canon FL 55mm f/1.2</p><div></div>

<p>I was photographing insects and spiders yesterday by the edge of a lake in Somerset when this grass snake came by - the first I'd seen in years. I didn't have a chance to swap my macro lens for something more suitable, but managed to grab a couple of shots before it disappeared into dense vegetation. </p><div></div>

<p>Colin - it might be <em>Leucobryum glaucum</em>. Hard to tell from a photo.<br>

Now I don't have the skills, gear or patience for wildlife photography - but when Helen wanted to walk a stretch of coast where we knew of two ravens' nests, I threw in a tele. These are the very ugly chicks. By their stage of development and time of year, this may be a second clutch, the first having been lost in winter storms. </p><div></div>

<p>Thanks for the nod Christoph & Mark</p>

<p>John, I am pretty sure you are right. According to a reference I have just looked <em>Leucobryum glaucum </em>or Cushion Moss is said to grow in 3 places in Britain of which one is the exact place where I took the phot - Jack's Hill, Epping Forest. As ever it isn't just the photography here that is impressive. The range and depth of knowledge is too. Many thanks.<em><br /></em></p>

<p>The two-acre wood took heavy damage during our last ice storm. The good side is this little fellow will get his time in the sun.<br>

thom polimeros, please excuse my stealing your idea......beautiful image.</p><div></div>

<p>Anna's Hummingbird feeding on Pride of Madeira. It was quite overcast that morning (@ 8:05am). In order to maintain a 1/1600 sec shutter speed @ f4, auto ISO raised it to 6400. There is some noise, of course, but the colors are still very amazing on the new Nikon D4S.</p><div></div>

<p>Shot of the moon thru the trees as I enjoyed the first warm evening of spring and listened to the chorus of spring peepers with a couple of sleepy robins adding their song - forever etched in the memory banks.</p><div></div>

<p>Some great pictures again. Mine isn't too spectacular, but I'm pleased with it considering it was taken in the last light of the evening at ISO12800, 1/60 sec. exposure and handheld using a 500mm lens. Image stabilization is a wonderful thing.<br>

It's a pair of Double-striped Thick-knees. They had a chick somewhere in the area, as they were keeping a close eye on me and later tried distracting me by acting as if wounded to draw me, a potential predator in their eyes, away.<br>

<a href="/photo/17735978"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17735978-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="451" /></a><br>

Hoping the skies will be clear tonight to see the lunar eclipse.</p>

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielpneal/13730024913" title="Erythronium multiscapideum (Sierra Fawn Lily) by Daniel Neal, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3738/13730024913_29bc4d32c8_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Erythronium multiscapideum (Sierra Fawn Lily)"></a>

 

<p><i><a href="http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=10589">Erythronium multiscapideum</a></i> (Sierra Fawn Lily)

 

<p>As far as hobbies go, I could do a lot worse than chasing native California wildflowers. I took last Tuesday morning off of work in order to drive to the <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/Pacific_Southwest/TraverseCreek/index.shtml">Traverse Creek Special Botannical Interest Area</a> near Georgetown in El Dorado County, California (roughly 38.869109°, -120.817483°). This site features some really nice serpentine outcrops and serpentine-adapted wildflowers.

"Sounding Board"<div></div>

<p>For me something from below the surface this week: a quarter-sized comb jelly came in with an aquarium shipment for the zoology class I'm teaching this quarter:</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Bird Gets Worm</strong><br>

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<p><a title="Bird Gets Worm by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7262/13828399754_0aa9f7131c_c.jpg" alt="Bird Gets Worm" width="800" height="800" /></a></p>