Monday in Nature, 22 June 2020

Basic Guidelines: In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include "hand of man elements". Please refrain from images with buildings or human made structures like roads, fences, walls. Pets are not permitted. Captive subjects in zoos, arboretums, or aquariums are permitted, but must be declared, and must focus on the subject, not the captivity. Images with obvious human made elements will likely be deleted from the thread, with an explanation to the photographer. Guidelines are based on PSA rules governing Nature photography which also cover the Nature Forum. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc.

 

Each member please post no more than just one image to this weekly thread per week.

 

Bald Eagle on the ice last winter, Bear River MBR:

We unfortunately don't have sea otters up here in the northwest corner of California, but that doesn't mean that we don't have otters who live mostly in the sea.

Speaking of bald eagles, the sort of "local" nest in our county has two eaglets this year. They hatched around April 1 and are pretty much fully grown as far as size goes; i.e. they are pretty much as big as their parents by now. They can hop up and down to branches just above the nest and should be able to fly just about any day now. However, it takes a bald eagle chick about four to five years to fully mature and hone their hunting skills. By then their head and tail feather will turn white. Statistically, only about half of the eagle chicks survive their first year and only around 15% survive four years to become adults. That same nest also had two chicks last year. Unfortunately one of the two flew up to some high voltage power pole and was electrocuted. There are simply a lot of hazards for eagles, natural and human made, even though they are on the top of the food chain.

 

Sea Lions, Monterey, CA

William,son's Sapsucker, Sierra County California

 

Female red-winged blackbird, Great Meadows NWR.

This was a grab shot with the Nikon 1 V2 and 70-300 CX lens. I was actually playing with ("testing") the 300 PF+FT1 on another V2 body, but that combo was too long for this. Oh yeah; the TL;DR is that the 300PF works a treat on the V2.

 

Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee

American Goldfinch On Thistle by David Stephens, on Flickr

We're in a fungal lull, but soon many varieties will carpet the woodlands. In the meantime, spider web schmutz got my attention. Eventually the occupant came out to see what was making all the noise. The arachnid was very patient with me, then returned to its meal. Fungi are much easier.

 

Caught in the act by Tom Yin, on Flickr

Little Bluet (male), about one inch long; made yesterday with a 300 mm f/4 and a 36 mm extension tube.

 

http://gorga.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/2020-06-21/dsc2472.jpg

After crop this image can use in nature.

 

After crop this image can use in nature.

 

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I'm not sure how strict the guidelines are here, but there are white bags in the background on the left, and one of the cattle on the right appears to have a rope around it's neck.

Nature is.... My canal,my green tree, my water is fake or real. What do you think?

 

Nature is

 

Well, yes, if it's nature. Please, take any philosophical discussions as to what constitutes "nature" to the philosophy forum. This thread has long established guidelines regarding human made elements. You may want to refer to the guidelines for this thread. They are at the top of all the threads and always there to read. Nail33 makes a good point. We also only post one photo per week, also in guidelines and mentioned every week in the opening.

Also, please keep in mind that we are allowed only one image per person each week. Thanks.