Monday in Nature Weekley Photo June 16, 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.</em></strong><em> A bird on the fence 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></p>

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<p>Good Morning All,<br>

How many times have you wondered how many of anything in nature exists? It seems like we should be able to look up the answer in a reference book at the library, or get a quick solution on the internet. And, fortunately, some "how many" inquiries are checked off the list just like that. Then there's the other 99.9% of the time. How many types of clouds are there? Simple question, and the answer only got mildly variable. NOAA organizes clouds one way, but the World Meteorological Org. has cloud taxonomy with families, genera, species and so on. They say 32 species of clouds. OK, it's not raining on the parade. How many Mountain Lions? Not so easy with data on this elusive cat spread about. Heeere kitty kitty kitty. How many mountains worldwide? They have names and they are everywhere, including the ocean floor. Better get to climbing. Rivers, how many of them are flowing, or at least have a bed to flow in? I did see a reference to 24,000. Jeez, better get paddling.</p>

<p>Nature is an easy and hard place to quantify. It's ever changing and there's a lot of it. I'm opening with one of my prettiest finds lately, tiny <em>Lachnum virgineum</em>. While small in size at about 2mm high, it is one of 64,163 named Ascomycetes. I need to get busy.</p>

<p>Fortunately there's only one Monday in Nature, and there's only 1 of each of you.</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>An Eastern Box Turtle this week my wife spotted as we nearly passed by it at 'Opossum Lake' near Carlisle PA. Always helps to have two sets of eyes when out strolling through the woods.</p><div></div>

[ed_hazera3]

<p>Streaking swan</p><div></div>

[colin carron]

<p>Lots happening around the ponds in my locality. Here are some damselflies doing their best to perpetuate their species. Looks awkward doesn't it?</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Dragon Fly in Austin, Texas</p><div></div>

[DawsonPointers]

<p>Yes, the pond is a busy place this time of the year. The spring peepers have done their peeping and the toads have successfully croaked.</p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Like many around the Northern Hemisphere, we have <em>Glechoma hederacea</em> flowering in our yard. Around here, we call it gill-over-the ground, others may call it ground-ivy or creeping charlie. No matter the name, pretty little thing.</p><div></div>

[User_2019667]

<p>A natural mixture from a walk in the park at Byers Woods, Ashland, Ohio</p><div></div>

[johnfarrar]

<p>How many species? Are you a lumper or a splitter? And as for prokaryotes.... By contrast, a nice simple Hart's Tongue Fern in a limestone crevice.</p><div></div>

[kts]

<p>babies first bath.......one of two baby jay's living in the yard, this one followed mom into the water while it's timid sibling hopped around on the rocks then watched from above</p><div></div>

[gordonjb]

<p>A morel growing in pine litter, taken two weeks ago.</p><div></div>

[daniel_harris]

<p>My family and I visited the Exploratorium in San Francisco last Thursday. As we ate lunch out on the deck we watched as some Brown Pelicans flew around and dove into the bay getting their food.</p><div></div>

[biomed]

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17787973-md.jpg" alt="spider_in_space" width="680" height="453" border="0" /></center>

[RickDB]

<p>My hunt for photogenic "mushrooms" continues - one soon gets to appreciate the difficulties of capturing these fungi that grow so close to the ground. I found this tiny (1/2") white mushroom growing on rotting tree bark. 5D2 / EF100mm f/2.8 Macro IS; 1/10s at f/16 ISO 200. 9 shots focus stacked.</p><div></div>

[robert100]

damage control......when the high winds which romp through the forest high on the rocky ridges of the

Malahat every night beat the crap outta yer house, ya just kinda grit yer teeth and run around seein' how

big a load of reno materials you can jam in yer mouth at once....<div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>Insect (termite ="ant") architecture in the Guinea savanna - near Bida, Nigeria</p><div></div>

[nicolaiecostel]

<p>Cloudy morning over Caras-Severin:</p><div></div>

[SteveH]

<p>It's Tiger Lilly time in the woods.</p><div></div>

[nicksta]

<p><img src="/photo/17790703" alt="" /></p><div></div>

[MarcelRomviel]

<p>Forget me not</p><div></div>

[tombest]

<p>Since I haven't been out with my camera since returning from the Canyon, I will have to bore you with another shot of the big ditch. The pictures don't do justice to the majesty of that place. I am still in awe..</p>

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

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>John Farrar, I'm a lumper through and through. I'm a big fan of the "species complex". The number came from the 10th edition of "The Dictionary of the Fungi". For real fungal numbers fun <a href="http://www.dbbe.fcen.uba.ar/contenido/objetos/Blackwell2011.pdf">read this paper</a> by Blackwell.</p>

<p>Rick DuB., really nice. It can be a challenge, but at least the subjects are cooperative.</p>

[dcstep]

<p><strong>Lone Prairie Dog</strong></p>

<p><a title="Lonely Prairie Dog by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3926/14235495509_5b3d63e406_c.jpg" alt="Lonely Prairie Dog" width="534" height="800" /></a></p>

<p>Apparently this guy survived a colony extermination, or moved in after the carnage. Anyway, he's the only PD left in an area that had dozens last year at this time.</p>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Beautiful morel shot Gordon! I'm still catching up with photo harvest from my last trip to the mojave desert a month ago. That includes a mushroom shot I planned to upload this week - except Laura's theme is endless variety so I regret having to change plans and yet again feel compelled to follow my bug for bugs instead :)</p>

<p>One of my favorite subjects along the dusty trails of SoCal are beeflies, which mostly look like bees but do midair helicopter stunt flying like hoverflies. There's just a measly few species back home where I grew up in Europe, but here in the far west there's oodles of subtle and less subtle diversity. Here's one that's excitingly new to me: perfectly camouflaged by its ivory colored fur amidst the sands and desert sages of Kelso Dunes.<br /> <br /> (Sony a65 + Sigma 70 macro)</p>

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

[anthea50]

<p>Had fun trying to capture parrots feeding on flowers in the huge tree in our new backyard. Unlike fungi, they tend not to co-operate, but patience paid off with this shot.</p><div></div>