Monday in Nature September 5, 2016

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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. Feel free to link your image to a larger version. <strong><em>In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Please refrain from images with obvious buildings or large man made structures like roads, fences, walls. Minimize man made features and keep the focus on nature. Rude comments will be deleted.<br /></em></strong><br>

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<strong><em>Are you new to this thread? We post one image per week. For more <a href="/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">details on guidelines</a> please read this helpful information. </em></strong></p>

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<p>Monday Morning Greetings,<br>

A few days ago I wasn't sure how or if MiN would be presented this week. The shadow thread in 2.0 wasn't such a bad idea after all. Fortunately, we've all emerged from our experience in 2.0 relatively unscathed. I'm glad that the difficult decision to fall back to 1.0 was made. Here we are, ready to start the week. Welcome back home.</p>

<p>Since we had a bit of a trial by fire, how about opening with fungi from fire itself. Trichophaea abundans is found on recently burnt wood. It is very small, growing in large numbers, and in this case, almost coated the small branches in a fire ring along the Appalalchian Trail. Wayfaring strangers frequent the location, all leaving their footprints behind. Maybe that's what we were for a few days, only to return to all of our images (hopefully) tucked safely into their portfolios, just in time for Monday in Nature.</p><div></div>

<p>Protea repens rubens is a plant from South Africa. While I was there for a few days in late June, I captured this image yesterday at the University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum, which specializes in southern hemisphere plants. They have separate gardens for Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa plants.</p><div></div>

<p>Yellow for me</p><div></div>

<p>A 12-point buck made a visit to my backyard. This shot taken from my patio.</p><div></div>

<p>Due to the widespread use of pesticides finding locations where one is surrounded with butterflies is becoming uncommon in the Midwest. Fortunately in south-central Indiana we have a magnificent location, Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, where a short visit can overwhelm one with butterfly species. The short time I was there I saw 5 species of Swallowtails (Spicebush, Eastern Tiger, Black, Pipevine, and Zebra), Monarchs, Viceroys, Buckeye, Checkerboard, 3 species of skippers, Frittarys, and numerous smaller species.</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18279133-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="642" /><br>

<strong>Black and Spicebush Swallowtail Butterflies Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. Pentax K5iis</strong> <strong>150-450mm.</strong></p>

<p>I found this fat Hummingbird Clearwing Moth flying around the Brooklyn Botanical Garden last week.</p><div></div>

<p>Spotted orb weaver spider.</p>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18279598-md.jpg" alt="_E6A5058" width="680" height="453" border="0" /></center>

<p>Mushrooms.</p><div></div>

<p>All Autumn Meadowhawks start out yellow, the males turn bright red as they mature.</p>

<p>The other day I noticed a third pattern of coloration, mixed in with the yellow and bright red individuals populating a meadow. These individuals were mostly yellow but with dull red on the top of the abdomen. They were clearly female in that they have the triangular ovipositor at the distal end of their abdomen.</p>

<p>A trip to the reference books revealed that "older" female Autumn Meadowhawks take on this dull red coloration. </p>

<p>I have been watching and photographing dragonflies more more that a decade and had never noticed this before!</p>

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<p>This hairy figure (actually an alien with four eyes with long white 'hair') was visiting a nearby meadow and allowed me to take a picture.<br /> Hope you'll like it (the picture) and him(?) (the little figure).</p><div></div>

<p>Monday is falling on a Monday this week. I put one on way late last week, and will repost it this week, in case there are any old-lens aficionados out there...</p>

<p>This was taken with a D3200 and a 1962 vintage 200/F4Q lens with 68 mm. of extension tubes on it. All manual, of course, and not really nice to handle, but there's something about that old lens that I like.</p><div></div>

<p>CHERRY SPRINGS DARK SKY PARK, PA.</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Two Bucks That Share Much DNA</strong></p>

<p><a title="Got DNA?" href=" data-flickr-embed="true"><img src="https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8452/29433515285_a48905d024_c.jpg" alt="Got DNA?" width="800" height="534" /></a></p>

<p ><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=130584">Ronald Duren</a> said:</p>

 

 

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<p>I found this fat Hummingbird Clearwing Moth flying around the Brooklyn Botanical Garden last week.</p>

 

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<p>Sphinx moth, aka hummingbird moth. </p>

 

<p>Here's a crab spider waiting for his next meal. The flower is a stiff aster, which is wide-spread in eastern PA but pretty rare by me in the western part of the state.</p><div></div>

<p>The one I was trying to post last week and couldn't because the site (now known as V1.0) had entered read-only mode. Then managed to enter it in the V2.0 thread - a thread that vanished into thin air. Third time charm?<br>

Osprey, looking for it's dinner. D500, 200-500 at 500mm, f/7.1, 1/2000s, ISO500<br>

<a title="what's for dinner?" href=" data-flickr-embed="true"><img src="https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7793/29330574115_f496e66b38_z.jpg" alt="what's for dinner?" width="640" height="427" /></a></p>

<p>Shun (Santa Cruz Arboretum): Visited it a few years ago. What a beautiful place!<br /><br /></p>

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<p>Douglas: Due to the widespread use of pesticides finding locations where one is surrounded with butterflies is becoming uncommon in the Midwest.</p>

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<p>I suspect that's what's happening here in New England too. I am seeing far less bees and butterflies.</p>

<p>Here's a Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio troilus) at 5th instar, shot last year. I saw one last month on my spicebush during its 2nd or 3rd instar. I thought to photograph it at a later stage. But couldn't find it any more after a week or so. Hope it wasn't eaten by a bird.</p><div></div>

<p>Ocean spray(cream bush) leaf littered with its dropped seeds.</p><div></div>

A visitor left something<div></div>

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<p>Shun (Santa Cruz Arboretum): Visited it a few years ago. What a beautiful place!</p>

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<p>Mary, not sure you attended any Frans Lanting seminar or not.</p>

<p>I have been to Santa Cruz many times, especially after moving back to California in year 2000. However, it was Frans Lanting who introduced me to the University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum. His studio is in Santa Cruz and he lives in that area. As part of his 2009 spring seminar, he took us the participants there for a photo shoot.</p>

<p>Hurricane Hermine left tons of debris in my yard but and also left damp, humid conditions that mushrooms just thrive in; even hurricane clouds can have silver linings. Here are some small mushrooms growing on a rotting tree stump that seem to be a tasty treat for snails.</p><div></div>

<p>This is from a hike two weeks ago: Mt. Hight in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It's summit is bare thanks to a forest fire that burnt all the soil away in 1903.</p><div></div>

<p>I believe these to be <em>Amanita muscaria var. guessowii but would be happy to be corrected if I've misidentified. I found many large rings of these today, some specimens being dinner plate sized.</em></p>

<p>Lesser goldfinch (I think).</p><div></div>

<p>Desert Whitetail at Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge (NM)</p>

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