Monday in Nature Weekly Photo September 22, 2014

[Laura Weishaupt]

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

Maybe you've watched a squirrel stash nuts. Right now they are getting down to business. No lollygagging about when there are winter stores to be horded. Maybe you stumbled on the tree a bear just tore up while "grubbing". While you were watching the raptor nest did an adult come in with a rodent and rip it apart, then gulp, gulp, gone right before your eyes? Been to dinner with a big reptile lately? When do you start looking for something to eat when out in nature?</p>

<p>Is any long outing with a camera complete without a snack or two? Summer is full of berries and other goodies, but this time of year north of the equator there is a whole new batch of victuals. Those of you getting ready for summer are probably looking toward your favorites of that season. We're not the only ones who want them. A flock of Cedar Waxwings can strip a Hackberry tree clean in a noisy feeding frenzy. Nuts from pines, hickories, walnuts, and hazelnuts are up for grabs. And draping the under story in abundance and within easy reach are wild grapes. Now it's time to put down the bag, take a break after a long hike, and join the wildlife.</p>

<p>On any day, but especially on Monday in Nature, have you got some snacks?</p><div></div>

[johnfarrar]

<p>The Connemara coast, west of Ireland, after sunset. This heron is definitely keen on the idea of a snack.</p><div></div>

[cegeiss]

<p>No snack, but probably an after-snack break.</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>Laura, always enjoy your introductions. </p>

<p>John, I hope to take a similar picture in the same country one day soon.</p>

<p>My shot is of an egret that is no doubt laughing at my big-lens technique. This is cropped fairly heavily. Shot on the sigma 150-500 at 500mm. ISO 800 at f/9 and 1/640 shutter. Processed with Photoshop Elements v 7 (yeah I know, but I still have a slider cell phone too).</p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Sometimes we find the snack.</p><div></div>

[colin carron]

<p>Here is a snack for those who like edible mussels. Last week I saw seagulls and humans collecting them from the beaches of North Cornwall, UK. The mussels attach themselves by strong threads to the rocks and clump together in hollows and other sheltered spots in the inter-tidal zone. Personally I am not a fan of eating molluscs and prefer to photograph them and leave them where they are :-) but we all have different tastes. Oh, and some limpets and barnacles too.</p><div></div>

[Matthew Brennan]

<p>A mule deer grazing on high coastal meadow at the stunningly beautiful Point Reyes National Shoreline Park, California USA. <br /> Photo taken on our 6 week visit to the US Pacific North West in May/June this year. Nikon D700 + AFS 70-200mm.</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>The <em><strong>American White Pelicans</strong></em> have returned for the winter to White Rock Lake in Dallas. Usually about 100 arrive in October and depart April each year. They are a few weeks early this year. First one arrived this past weekend and I am driving to Dallas tomorrow to see them. This image was taken a couple of years ago.</p><div></div>

[kts]

<p>love watching green herons hunt and this one snacked on a fish, a dragonfly plucked out of the air and this crawfish in about 30 minutes time......how they're able to grab stuff underwater with all that duckweed on the pond is beyond me</p><div></div>

[User_6667263]

<p>Cooper's hawk (I think) with his breakfast.</p><div></div>

[DawsonPointers]

<p>Undoubtedly this loon has had a good snack as it prepares to head south for the winter. Part of that preparation is a change to winter plumage, which has evidently started.</p><div></div>

[sgust]

<p>Well, this Brown Vine Snake (Oxybelis brevirostris) is making a snack of an anole that was probably at a disadvantage because it was shedding. You can see the shedding skin still sticking to it's head, and probably impairing it's vision. These snakes are mildly venomous and their fangs are in the back of their mouth, which is bad news for the anole but makes them relatively harmless to humans. <br>

<img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3923/15134504840_fe3d780f93_z_d.jpg" alt="" /><br>

You can view a larger version <a href="

[RickDB]

<p>Foraging on the ground in the Serengeti, this little finch(?) remains unidentified by me. It has rather distinctive plumage including a fine blue rump. Anyone any ideas?</p><div></div>

[gordonjb]

<p>Not feeding but exploring the stream bank so possible looking for something to eat.</p><div></div>

[Gup]

<p>It's safe to say that this bear is hunting for a snack... I think that occupies about 90% of their awake time. </p><div></div>

[sgust]

<p>I mislabeled the snake in my posting it's O. aeneus , not O. brevirostris which is a greenish snake.</p>

[birdied]

<p>Been playing around with a lensbaby . This is a shot of a Bush Katydid Nymph happy eating the Mexican Sunflowers. This was taken with the lensbaby soft focus lens and micro converters.</p>

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[William Kahn]

<p>In the Bradshaw Mountains southwest of Prescott, AZ. No snacks visible, but I'm sure they're in there...</p><div></div>

[michael_chuang1]

<p>In spring there were three young rabbits who frequented our back yard, a tiny fellow and two bigger ones. Then there were a big and little one. This is the little one in July. Last month no rabbits were sighted. Someone has been snacking. (Yesterday a single rabbit made a brief appearance, but it's unclear whether it was one of the original three.)</p><div></div>

[hanappa]

<p>How about a couple of birds sharing a rock looking for an afternoon snack? This was shot at a creek just outside Austin,Texas. I haven't seen a Tricolored Heron here before, but seems they do head inland, or he was blown in by the weather. He didn't seem too bothered by his cousin Snowy Egret, though they both would eye one another before bending down to seek a fish. </p>

[hanappa]

<p>How about a couple of birds sharing a rock looking for an afternoon snack? This was shot at a creek just outside Austin,Texas. I haven't seen a Tricolored Heron here before, but seems they do head inland, or he was blown in by the weather. He didn't seem too bothered by his cousin Snowy Egret, though they both would eye one another before bending down to seek a fish. </p><div></div>

[GlennS]

<p>Low tide at a local bay usually results in a feeding frenzy, at least for the birds.</p><div></div>

[alpiner]

<p>Bark of Manzanita shrub. Coarsgold, Sierra foothills</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>A patch of the desert near the southern entrance to Joshua Tree NP got enough rain in past weeks to cause an eruption of germinating annuals, which are now crawling with and disappearing into the jaws of countless white-lined sphinx caterpillars.</p>

<p>They're definitely not light snackers. Thousands of the finger-long chompers are playing frogger on highway 10 and getting their "game over", yet the off-season outburst seems to bypass all of the desert's many caterpillar predators & parasites that were active in spring and early summer. With one exception: here's Aulicus edwardsii, a species of checkered beetle that looks like a carrion beetle but goes after live grubs instead. When I first spotted them the caterpillar was still struggling mightily to dislodge its attacker, which held on clamp-tight until the last wriggle. Finally the victor proceeded to carve out a big piece of juicy green steak tartare... yummy?</p><div></div>

[Mary Doo]

<p>Laura, your post spurred me to photograph this bunch of elderberries from my garden. I was eyeing this and two other bunches yesterday, thinking to harvest them today to make smoothy with yogurt, before heading out to a trip.</p><div></div>