Monday in Nature POTW Sept. 16, 2013

[hanappa]

<p>Keith,<br>

Caught me. Yeah, wasps have 4 as well, just not all four of relatively equal size or mounted quite the same. <br>

-R</p>

 

[keith reeder]

<p>Thanks Rodger - shows I'm paying attention, I suppose - <em>even though I got your name wrong..!</em></p>

<p>(Sorry 'bout that).</p>

[MarcelRomviel]

<p>I love this Monday in nature thread.<br>

Another from the Rotterdam Blijdorp Zoo butterfly house.</p><div></div>

[jonathan_parkhouse1]

<p>This hoverfly is <em>Rhingia campestris</em>. I don't know what <em>Rhingia</em> means; <em>campestris</em> means 'of the plains', although it seems to occur in a wide range of habitats. The elongated rostrum makes this species relatively easy to identify - it enables it to feed on nectar and pollen from flowers with deeper heads than most other hoverflies can reach into.</p><div></div>

[rjmelone]

<p>Lovely images everyone, as always! Here is an early morning shot of a sunflower opening its petals.</p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>Nurtured Nature<br>

but the name of this is not in my ken</p><div></div>

[bing_huey1]

<p>What a feast of wonderful images! A couple questions for Edwin: What ISO did you use? Beside the jack-o-lantern, are there other commonly seen mushrooms/fungi that are bioluminescent? Laura, enjoyed your intro regarding names. The fluidity of taxonomy sort of tells us how much importance to place on names. When the plants start answering to the names we give them, then names will start to matter. <br>

This shot follows last week's theme of fall colors. Poison oak here changes into various colors during the summer. This was growing as a vine up a redwood. I could not resist adding some color saturation, especially with redwood trunk remaining so monochrome.</p>

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

[stemked]

<p>Wow! 5:00 Monday and already late to the party!<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17528635-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="452" /><br>

Mating Meadowhawk Dragonflies. Carmel, IN Pentax K5ii, Pentax 50-300mm f5.8 lens.</p>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Monday is such a great day. Edwin, that is wonderful. I've hoped that someone would get that in. My results have been too noisy to save.</p>

<p>Bing, to answer your query, there are about 70-80 species of fungi that "glow" in the dark. Most are in the genus Mycena and many are tropical. You can look for Schizophyllum commune. It is extremely common and is also bio-luminescent. Me and the fungi, we always talk. ;)</p>

<p>Keith, that is funny. </p>

<p>It's nice to see so many folks who have been away for awhile. Beautiful shots, everyone.</p>

[Edwin Barkdoll]

<p>Bing, ISO 200, 50mm f/1.8 for 30 minutes. 30 sec at ISO 3200 was much noisier. Perhaps a camera with better in-camera high ISO noise reduction would perform better. Or shoot film. I was tempted to do the latter. Perhaps next time.</p>

<p>ALso, as Laura said, there are many bioluminescent fungi with wide geographic distribution. See the wiki page:</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bioluminescent_fungi.</p>

<p>Thanks for your kind comment, Laura. I see you are a mushroom fan as well. Do you collect and eat as well as photograph (not the <em>Megacollybia platyphylla</em>)?</p>

[philrichardson]

<p>This is a young Little Blue Heron. They turn a beautiful shade of blue when they reach adulthood.</p><div></div>

[srspeck]

<p>Great photos. The bioluminescent mushrooms were great. I'm in Florida and fungi seem to be everywhere in the woods. I'm going to have to pick likely candidates and check them by night. I also l loved the standing deer. Here's my modest contribution, a Zebra Longwing.</p><div></div>

[SteveH]

<p>Trumpeter Swans on the Otter Tail River. Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota.</p>

<div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Edwin, yes. I'm interested in all fungi and have been for a long time. We're currently doing volunteer work on a fungal survey project at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary here in Pennsylvania. Photography is a big part of that project. We "forage" in other areas because fungi are protected at HMS, as they should be. The science comes first, but there's always a pound of butter in the fridge.</p>

[wayne_wrights]

<p>Another great week of outstanding images. My image this week is another young deer frolicking the summer away waiting for autumn to arrive in Cades Cove, TN.</p><div></div>

[Andrew Gosden]

<p>This is a damselfly that was in my yard. I believe it is a fragile forktail.<br>

<img src="http://akgosdenphotos.smugmug.com/Nature/Insects-and-other-bugs/i-9jm5Fn4/0/700x700/IMG_1138-700x700.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<strong>XSi, Tamron 70-300 vc with 32mm extension tube</strong></p>

[anthea50]

<p>Hi all! Being in Australia usually means that for me, it's Tuesday in Nature but what the heck, I look forward to seeing everyone's images and being inspired by all the beauty in nature. Actually, mainly because of the wonderful images posted here, I set myself a challenge - to shoot a butterfly for the first time. As the photography gods would have it, the way it happened is a story in itself.<br>

We had been out on a photography excursion and stopped off for lunch at our local pub. I should probably mention at this point that I am the proud owner of a Ural, which is a motor bike and side car. I don't ride the bike, I get chauffeured around in the side car :) Anyway, we parked in a small car park near the pub, and not too long after we arrived I noticed a butterfly flying around in the car park. Initially it would only settle for a brief moment, and was having too much fun flying around for me to attempt to get a shot. At one point, I was standing with my camera and it landed on my elbow! Much to the amusement of another patron, who promptly took a shot of me and my camera and the butterfly on my elbow with his iPhone! I asked the butterfly very nicely if it would please fly off and settle somewhere where I could take it's photo. Blow me down, but he flew off and settled on the mud guard of my side car. And here is one of the shots I got.</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>The photographer regrets that some fungus was harmed in the making of this picture :(</p>

<div></div>

[Edwin Barkdoll]

<p>Laura, sounds like an interesting project. My ability to definitely identify mushrooms is pretty limited to a handful of edibles, their non-edible lookalikes and several others notorious for their toxicity or other notable characteristics. Dinner last night included a puffball/hegdgehog/chantarelle bisque; tonight it was a rice dish with chicken mushroom/hen-of-the-woods.</p>

[stemked]

<p>Paul, you're killing me! (great image too)</p>

[bing_huey1]

<p>Thanks for the replies, Laura and Edwin.</p>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Sorry Douglas (and Laura too) nature is sometimes too cruel... ;)</p>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Paul, sacrifices must be made for the greater good of us all. It's a great shot.</p>

[Bill C1664885404]

<p>As usual, some great shots listed already...here's one that is pleasing to my eye.<br /><br />Butterfly on yellow 'Tickweed Sunflowers'...seems to have taken some hits trailing edge of right wing.<br />( Canon 135/2.8 @ 8.0 on NEX-7 )<br>

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/roundball/PHOTOGRAPHY/INSECTS/CanonFD135mm2880ButterflyYellowFlowers934SUPERCropped_zps8e8a97bb.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p> </p>

[ShunCheung]

<blockquote>

<p>The photographer regrets that some fungus was harmed in the making of this picture :(</p>

</blockquote>

<p>But there was also a happy chipmunk with a full stomach, not to mention an apparently happy photographer.<br>

Such is nature.</p>