Monday in Nature Weekly Photo August 18, 2014

[Laura Weishaupt]

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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>

<strong><em>In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Please refrain from images with obvious buildings or large structures. 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. </em></strong><em>More details please check <a href="/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">here</a>.</em></p>

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

Do you ever wonder how long it takes an animal to learn what it needs to know? Do we understand the day to day conditions that teach those lessons? Do animals use a lifetime to keep learning and adjusting to new circumstances? Do they learn up to a certain point then go on hard wired auto pilot with environmental conditions serving as fulcrum variables? Fecundity aside, when does an animal "come of age"? How much does a social animal need to know to be a leader? Bigger brain, more to learn, but species with less gray matter still need to learn to make what seem like complex decisions. Young learn from elders in ways that are fascinating to watch if we have the opportunity to do so. Sometimes the decision makers can be picked out of a crowd in a large flock of birds in flight. This way, no, THIS way, we ate there yesterday, were going to THAT field today.....fly there NOW! And a thousand birds follow.</p>

<p>We probably come of age as photographers in many ways. We grow into gear, mature with time and a particular subject or location. We learn to see with our own eyes. We learn as we go, and sometimes we just become beginners again with an entirely new approach. Hopefully we learn how to help the younger ones along.</p>

<p>Watching geese grow from hatchlings to migration ready has been helpful in learning to be a bird photographer. These were among a larger group waiting for signals on where to go. They had been comfortably grooming and relaxing when people went to the lake edge. The geese wanted to leave and had many options, but communication among a few birds led the pensive youngsters to a chosen, calmer shore.</p>

<p>Nature is a place to be a teacher and a learner. Monday in Nature is a good place for images from nature, whether you're a beginner or a little more seasoned.</p><div></div>

[stemked]

<p>Okay, trying to pickup on Laura's theme, I bring to you one of the true marvels of the animal world, a Bowerbird bower. In Papua New Guinea these structures are absolutely amazing, you would swear they were created by a Japanese gardener/architect. I saw Bowers of two different species in Australia, the Satin Birds, which use blue collected objects and this, one I think is the Greater Bowerbird Bower, (there were also Regent Bower birds in the area, but they are a smaller bird). I'm not showing the whole display area here as the sun was rather harsh, but on one side was folded foil, in front was broken-arranged green glass and inside were white pebbles. Therefore the image may break the 'hand of man' but I think it fits into Laura's theme.<br /> The image isn't great, I know, as the lighting was poor and I was traveling so I couldn't come back at a more reasonable time.<br /><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17835504-lg.jpg" alt="" width="465" height="700" /><br /> <br />Greater Bower Bird (?) bower. near Bowen, Queensland, Australia.</p>

[johnfarrar]

<p>Hmm. Canada Geese have learned a little too well how to take over many of our upland lakes, ousting native species. So less invasively -<br>

Making a silk thread (no idea what the arachnid is, but the bands are oof threads, and the colours interference from very small beads of liquid laid along the threads). </p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>And I'll jump on John's spider theme, which was my intended post for today anyway. This one seems to be making some adjustments to the web. Hmm, I wonder when he/she learned to do that? Shot with the Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm, iso 1600, 250 shutter with -1 Exposure Compensation @ f6.3.</p><div></div>

[User_2019667]

<p>My what big ears you have!</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Blue Damselfly seen in Austin, Texas. </p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>I sometimes wonder how long it takes a mushroom to learn to make spores. They don't have much time.</p><div></div>

[biomed]

<p>While hiking in the Crawford Notch area of the White Mountains of New Hampshire I came across this tree with a fungus.</p>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17838645-md.jpg" alt="NH_S100 281" width="680" height="510" border="0" /></center>

 

[dcstep]

<p><strong>YELLOW!</strong><br>

<strong> </strong></p>

<p><a title="YELLOW! by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3846/14753054849_63d8fc2461_c.jpg" alt="YELLOW!" width="800" height="800" /></a></p>

[gordonjb]

<p>This juvenile gray tree frog is one of several which have recently morphed from tadpoles. In the afternoons I have been finding several of these little frogs perched on the uppermost leaves of pickerel weeds catching some sun.</p><div></div>

[kts]

<p>both of these fawns were born the same week from doe's of the same family group....the smaller one (which i've previously posted pics of) was born in between two backyards that were enclosed by chainlink fence....the mother would jump the fence and leave this little one behind for days while the other doe and fawn would be within view foraging on the other side of the fence....as the two on the outside would move along the fence this one would try and stay with them only to be left behind again.....i honestly thought this one would starve back there....anyway's, to shorten this up i went out there a while back and took apart a section of the neighbors fence and this past week finally got it to go thru......it's now hanging with the other mother and fawn</p><div></div>

[cwphoto]

<p>Milky Way shines down on Potter County, Pa.</p><div></div>

[User_6502147]

<p>In this case the young one is way more on the edge than her mama. Denali allows the animals to just be, and often the rangers have to enforce this. Sadly, some people insist on crowding the animal/s even if they are in immediate danger.</p><div></div>

[MarcelRomviel]

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

[colin carron]

<p>I suppose a lot of behaviour is hard-wired but with birds such as geese and seabirds they seem to teach their young by example and I have seen them flying on circuits alongside juveniles looking for all the world like a teacher with a bunch of kids. They often like to live in big groups which must have some teaching potential.</p><div></div>

[robert100]

bee and skipper<div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

Since Laura mentioned social animals, here are some learners of a very different kind: supersized ants

(between half and 2/3rds inch) in a creekbed up in Lassen National Forest, where bathtub rings from dried-

up mini puddles in a large flat boulder along their trail appeared to attract their particular attention. Some

individual ants would hold still and lick/nibble the salts(?) for minutes at a time, and when it bumped into a

similarly lick-obsessed neighbor then the occasional kissing session followed. Were they exchanging

samples to compare the taste and possibly learn that way which spot had the best "flor de sal"?<div></div>

[Mary Doo]

<p>How long does it take an Organ-Pipe Mud Dauber wasp to learn to catch spiders?</p><div></div>

[anthea50]

<p>Outstanding images this week! My shot this week just proves that ordinary flies like lovely flowers too ;)</p><div></div>

[bing_huey1]

<p>This is a fly I not able to identify yet, on a sneezweed, or rosilla (Helenium puberulum).</p><div></div>

[robert100]

to Thom P, i admire the action you took, it takes a genuine understanding to have the patience you did and

not interfere until it became obvious it was okay, and then have the wisdom to take only the action of

removing the man-made barrier and then step aside and let the interaction between the animals take its

own course in determining whether or not the orphan was to be adopted and have a shot at survival in a

natural upbringing under the tutelage of its own kind. Well done.

[RickDB]

<p>I wonder how the Woodpecker Finch (aka Carpenter finch; one of Darwin's finches) first learned to use twigs and cactus spines as tools to dislodge grubs and insects from wood. 7D / EF 100-400L; 1/800s at f/5.6, ISO 200.</p><div></div>

[katsone]

<p>How long does it take for an Osprey chick to learn to fly and find the confidence to take off?</p><div></div>

[robert100]

to Paul, good photo of the ants.....and in that you've posed it as a question in reference to what you've

called "kissing", in all likelihood what you're witnessing is mutual grooming. One of the most difficult areas

for any animal to keep clean is its own face, especially around its mouth. so mutual grooming is actually

an almost universal behavior, ie lions, wolves, etc all commonly lick each other's faces to cleanse the facial

fur of blood and meat clinging to fur, cows lick each other's faces, etc etc. (in humans, mothers often

annoy their children by imitating this by licking their own fingers and then using them, coated with their

saliva, to give children a usually fought-against rudimentary face-wash. For some reason they seem to feel

this is more socially acceptable than just licking the kid's face). It would definitely be in the ants mutual

interest to give each other a face-grooming to remove the salt before it dries to their faces.

[kts]

<p>thanks Robert, haven't seen any of them since that shot was taken so i'm guessing they're all fine......:)</p>