Monday in Nature Weekly Photo Feb 2, 2015

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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.<br>

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

Today is a day of silliness. It's one of those days where people and nature collide and everyone gets a good laugh. The day has some roots as a connection to nature in a pagan past. Who would have thought that a day for priests to bless candles, and marking a point in the winter would morph into a big rodent predicting the weather accompanied by a bunch of gents in top hats? Right now, thousands of people are outside in the dark and the cold, enduring the elements. The concession stand opened at midnight and everyone is, no doubt, well fortified out on Gobbler's Knob. They're probably connecting with that distant pagan right about now.</p>

<p>It's <a href="http://www.groundhog.org/">Groundhog Day</a>. If the groundhog sees the sun and hence it's shadow, there's another 6 weeks of winter. If not, then things will get better soon. Apparently the rodent isn't right very often. But the crowds in Punxsutawney don't mind. Let's face it, it's the beginning of February and there's 6 more weeks of winter anyway! All the groundhogs around here are tucked in their dens, content to wait for all this snow to melt. Now, if you go outside today and see the sun, will you be afraid of your shadow and run back into your hole? No way! You're going to grab your camera and photograph it, and anything else that warm winter sun shines on.</p>

<p>Happy Groundhog Day on Monday in Nature, whether it's sunny, cloudy, or just a little silly, naturally.</p><div></div>

<p>People and nature collide in Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park. The Japanese macaques are a delight and will entertain for hours. This little guy spotted a speck of dirt on my lens and came over to clean it off! 5D2 + EF8-15mm f/4L at 15mm; 1/200s at f/8 ISO 400.</p><div></div>

<p>Lovely, now I have to post after Ricks (stellar) image. Great, oh well. IR of a local bird sanctuary taken earlier in the year, despite whiteness. </p><div></div>

<p>That macaque has an incredible stare! Went to a beach where there is the only local exposure of old red sandstone - but on the way these backlit reeds (<em>Phragmites</em>) just took over.</p><div></div>

<p>Okay, as Laura noted. Being a little crazy and not knowing head from,... well, you know.</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/12911675-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="568" /><br>

American Toads, Alamance County, North Carolina. </p>

 

<p>Black-Crested Titmouse found at Pedernales Falls SP in central Texas. </p><div></div>

<p>We saw this tegu lizard while in Uruguay. This specimen was about 1m in length and has the mid-section girth of a cat. It was highly novel to this Canuck; however, I now understand that these are becoming a serious threat in FLA as an invasive species.<br>

The first time we saw it sunning on the side of the road, I did not have my camera with me (shame) so I said to Becky “look like food to keep it around while I run to get the camera”. That comment didn’t go over so well. Neither did my remark on my return. I just caught a shot of it as it retreated into the brush; so I said to Becky “you won’t get any Oscars for your performance as lizard food”. That was 2 weeks ago. I can still see the outline of the bruise on my arm.<br>

Anyway, the tegu appeared a couple of days later and I chased it around and got several shots. They certainly move fast. I’m glad that my performance as ‘lizard food’ was also inferior and that I did not get bit.</p><div></div>

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<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17956832-lg.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="500" /><br>

Prairie Dog</p>

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<p>I went outside Thursday night to walk the dog, and was startled to observe a very prominent ice halo surrounding the mostly full moon. The halo overlaps the constellation Orion to the lower left of the moon, and the Pleiades is to the upper right of the moon and within the halo. Halos are produced by refraction of light through randomly oriented hexagonal ice crystals at an angle of 22 degrees around either the sun or moon. The rather indistinct red end of the spectrum is refracted towards the inside of the halo. The exposure necessary to capture the halo was 15s at f:8.0, ISO 2,000, which washes out any detail on the moon surface.</p><div></div>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17958877-md.jpg" alt="G15_ice 007" width="680" height="510" border="0" /></center>

<p>Below zero with the wind chill in Vermont on Saturday</p><div></div>

<p>Yellow Eyed Penguins on Enderby Island, New Zealand.<br>

Nikon D750 with 200-400mm/f4 lens.</p><div></div>

<p>Th ground hog is going to have to tunnel upwards through sever feet of snow to see his shadow. View out to the road down my lane way.</p><div></div>

<p>American Goldfinch with breakfast.</p>

<p>Wha wha what groundhog?</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Gear Down</strong></p>

<p><a title="Gear Down by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8668/16204577248_c1b3e5a567_c.jpg" alt="Gear Down" width="800" height="400" /></a></p>

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

<p>Douglas, that is one seriously confused toad :-)</p>

 

<p>After Buffalo snow dump....in Cascades.</p><div></div>

<p>Some geese in the meadow</p><div></div>

<p>Downy woodpecker excavating bark of a willow</p><div></div>

<p>Another duck-alicious action shot from me:</p>

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<p>from earlier today out scouting for full moon and sunset locations</p><div></div>

<p>Had to go back to the summer archives for this one. Don't know if it saw its shadow or not.</p><div></div>

<p>Lorikeet in a lemon tree...</p><div></div>