Monday in Nature Oct 20, 2014

<p>Basic Guidelines: 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. 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. A bird on the fence post or bug on your finger is fine. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. Let's post 1 image per week. More details please check here.</p>

<p>Good Morning,<br>

Nature doesn't promise anything, nor does it disappoint. It's one thing to see places or events in books. The photo transports us and gives us a visual taste. It looks good. As good as any photo can possibly be, there's no substitute for being in the place, in the moment. Autumn is like that in deciduous forests. Fall was always a picture on a calendar where I grew up. It was a color scheme on fabric or something one traveled to for an apple. The few trees that turned color just went brown. Then I experienced autumn in place with all the sights and smells, the riot of color that seems to go on forever. For about a month there is an incredible feast for the all the senses. The fabric now stretches over mountains, ridge after ridge. It is spectacular in ways I could have never imagined when I was a child. There are still apples. Year after year, it is always a wonder to experience.</p>

<p>While the mountain above was all shrouded in rainy clouds, the Little Schuylkill River was misty with rich color. What treats is nature handing out where you are? It's Monday in Nature with a cup of coffee and an apple or two.</p><div></div>

<p>So.. your cutting up wood for winter heat. You notice a small patch of discoloration on the bark, what could it be? Aha ... a slime mold. Grabbing your (her) trusty MPe, you snap a few before you make if BTU's.</p><div></div>

<p>Fall is my favorite time of year, though as I get older, spring comes closer to edging it only because it leads to warmer vice colder weather. Anyway, my entry this week is a heavily cropped look at some "Northern Shovelers," which I hadn't seen before (and I thank the older gentleman looking through field binoculars who spotted and identified them for me). They were really out of range for a decent look, but I got what I could. Shot with the Sigma 150-500 wide open at 500mm and 1600 iso (if I remember correctly). Taken at Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, PA.</p><div></div>

<p>Shot from my patio....</p><div></div>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17886579-md.jpg" alt="S100 111" width="680" height="510" border="0" /></center>

<p>A fall color scene from our back yard, yesterday. </p><div></div>

<p>We see this little whitetail buck deer ever day at the Ashland county, Ohio park where we walk our dog. Part of the park is an old county land fill that has been fenced in. Every spring a doe seems to drop at least one or more fawns inside the fenced in area. This little buck is on the inside of the fenced area and he fears nothing. He will walk right up to the fence and even touches noses with our chocolate Lab Lexie. We don't touch him or feed him but I'm afraid his lack of fear to humans and dogs will be his demise one day. Enjoy.</p><div></div>

<p>Goldirocks</p><div></div>

<p>I love this time of year</p><div></div>

<p>Interacting wildlife makes for more interesting nature photos, but on a short visit with a few hours in the field you need an element of luck too. I didn't see a porcupine in Tanzania, but this magnificent young lion had clearly had a recent interaction with one. 5D2 / Tamron 150-600mm at 600 mm; 1/250s at f/8 ISO 400.</p><div></div>

<p>Goldirocks......;-)</p>

<p>One from the files. Black vulture, Florida. Late morning near Merritt Island if I recall correctly. Nikon D200 and Sigma 100-300/4 wide open at 300mm.</p>

<p>Bill Jordan, your shovellers remind me of an anecdote (collective groan). A while back I was taking desultory photographs from the dike in Great Meadows NWR. There are two large ponds on either side of the dike which is only a foot or so above water level. I spotted two hen shovellers dabbling in the rightside pond and did my best to sneak up on them. (Fooling no one since the dike was largely bare at the time and a person on it was visible from all over the ponds.) Anyway, I had my tripod set up and shot away while the ducks ignored me. Finally I was ready to go home. At this point I'd been standing up for about 30 minutes and still ignored. I folded up the (silver aluminum) tripod legs without collapsing the sections first and tucked it under my right arm in much the way one would carry a rifle. About 3 seconds later both hens squawked in apparent alarm and noisily exploded from the water winging for the opposite shore. Ducky pattern recognition?</p><div></div>

<p>Michael, if only we could get inside the minds of our subjects... I wonder if that vulture is thinking something I once saw on a t-shirt many years ago (but found funny enough to remember to this day) featuring a cartoon image of perching vultures , "Patience hell - I'm gonna kill something!"</p>

<p>Wonderful shots. Love seeing the fall colors , something we just don't see around here.<br>

This is my first time seeing raccoons in the wild.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>I took a walk in the wood last Saturday;</p><div></div>

<p>In a saga as old as life itself, this toad lost its life in order for this water snake to to have the meal that will get it through a long winters hibernation. A few minutes after I came across this scene the snake have managed to swallow the toad.</p><div></div>

<p>Fantastic Raccoon portrait, well done!</p>

<p>Pumpkin spider.</p><div></div>

<p>Brilliant photographs everyone! Rick, love your slime mold image and the story of how it happened; made me chuckle. Trying to capture nature is usually very much about timing. Recently, I noticed a couple of mushrooms growing in the leaf litter in one of our gardens as I was leaving to go out for the most of the day - I thought I could take some shots when I got home. Sadly, while in the morning they were in pristine condition, by the time I got home they had already shriveled up and fallen over. My only hope was to wait and hope that another lot would grow. About a week later, there was another batch, so I wasted no time in getting organised.</p><div></div>

<p>The peak fall colors are wearing off at my neck of the wood and I have been busy planting bulbs and peonies in preparation for spring colors.</p>

<p>In regards to the mind of the vulture, these two were definitely thinking food, trying to locate leftover carcass meat with their excellent sense of sight and smell. African vultures are scavengers. They are not normally known to kill.</p><div></div>

<p>I keep looking up. Handy cell phone shot.</p><div></div>

<p>Swan<br>

<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e2y4IDdGAc8/Up1NhjKk3RI/AAAAAAAAAho/amatPRYZu-I/s1600/Swan+lgh.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="627" /></p>

<p>I also enjoyed a walk in the Fall woods. These fungi are growing on trees downed by Super-storm Sandy.</p><div></div>

<p><img src="/photo/17886685" alt="" />Mine was taken in Park Mont Tremblant in Northern Quebec.<br>

D300 70-300mm ISO 200 F5 1/15s </p><div></div>

<p>Jon, I love the motion in your fall color image!<br>

My image is from last week: I spent the weekend camping in New Hampshire, and one of my many night sky images captured a shooting star.</p><div></div>