Monday in Nature Weekly Photo July 21, 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.<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 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="/bboard/%20http:/photo.net/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">here</a>.</em></p>

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<p>Monday Morning Greetings,<br>

Young are born. A seed sprouts. We go out into nature to watch life live and grow. It's a simple pleasure that was probably shared by naturalists through time. They had sketch pads, we have cameras. It's easier to watch plants. Watching animals grow brings special challenges and rewards. But, then where exactly do they go? We can answer that question in many cases, but sometimes only in general terms If they are migratory will they be seen again? Often we bid the years new animals farewell and look forward to the next year. But sometimes circumstances are quite different.</p>

<p>In that place where technology, nature, and curiosity meet we find out what happens when a migratory bird leaves the nest. Modern radio tracking provides information to help conservation efforts on both ends of a migration route. This young Broad-winged Hawk exercises wings that will carry it as far as South America in large groups called kettles. Where will this bird go? We'll find out. This was taken prior to young in this nest being fitted with a transmitter. They will fledge any day now and begin their journey. Watching them grow, with a camera, has been a simple pleasure, not to mention an incredible opportunity.</p>

<p>Let's get the week off to a Monday in Nature start with some simple pleasures from you.</p><div></div>

[cegeiss]

<p>Simple pleasures: One of the few hours of blue sky on a three-week trip to Iceland. The trip was still awesome.</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>Staying on the subject of young birds, we came across this young eagle on a hike around a large lake reservoir outside of Colorado Springs. It seemed to enjoy posing for the camera.</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>A<strong> Green Heron</strong> found near Lake Lady Bird in downtown Austin, Texas. </p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>A seed may sprout, all a spore can do is germinate. This is <em>Resupinatus applicatus </em>found on the underside of wood. This photograph is from a stack of 9 images.</p><div></div>

[Edwin Barkdoll]

<p>Spittle bug in spittle</p><div></div>

[kts]

<p>on their way to becoming frogs.....unless of course the herons see them first</p><div></div>

[cwphoto]

<p>Queen Annes Lace</p><div></div>

[dcstep]

<p><strong>Big Buck, in Velvet, Jumps Fence</strong></p>

<p><a title="Big Buck Jumps Fence by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/14505894677_5e874968fb_c.jpg" alt="Big Buck Jumps Fence" width="800" height="533" /></a></p>

[User_2019667]

<p>Playing with vintage AI lenses on my D7000. </p><div></div>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>Rick, your shot is amazing, an intriguing work of abstraction.</p>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Thanks for the nod Mark</p>

[david_werbeloff1]

<p>Hello, All,<br>

<br />I often wander over to the Nature forum from Leica & Rangefinder Land and am awed by some of the images that are posted in this great thread. Recently I have started using a Panasonic with heritage Leitz lenses, exploring the many possibilities which the digital medium offers. This is an image from yesterday of a Black-Capped Night-Heron fishing below a weir on the Charles River in Boston.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>David Werbeloff welcome to MiN. Glad you wandered over. Every week there are amazing images from nature here.</p>

[Jon Eckman]

<p>It is simply a pleasure to wander in my yard and capture images</p><div></div>

[robert100]

Yes, "young are born". More than once during a season. I discovered this nest here on the property two

days ago, Saturday 07-19-2014. It's very difficult to see, I had to climb to a shaky perch 2 meters up and

about 15 meters from it to the only spot i could photograph from, and then by timing my bursts for the

times the leafy branches between myself and it were parted slightly by the breeze..From the brief glimpses

I did get, it appears there are 6 or maybe 7 nestlings in it. I didn't want to focus my own attention on it for

very long and potentially give its location away to predators and won't check on it often for that same

reason. They have a tough enough time surviving as it is without someone giving away their location to the

Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Coopers Hawks and Stellar Jays which are constantly on the prowl for

nests here .Of the 6 or 7 little heads in there, the norm is for one, maybe two at most, to ever live to fly as

an adult. I'll ignore it except for a quick look for a few minutes maybe every four or five days.<div></div>

[biomed]

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17818235-md.jpg" alt="60D_1.4tele+105macro 552" width="680" height="507" border="0" /></center><center>Canon 60D + Kenko 1.4X teleconverter + Sigma 105mm macro</center>

[hanappa]

<p>Going a little before (or a while after) birth. Here are a pair of Queen butterflies, the gentleman above seeking actively to attract the young lady feeding on the buttonbush. </p><div></div>

[johnfarrar]

<p>Christoph, Rick - excellent images.<br>

My pic is of no photographic merit, but (I hope!) of some interest, so a short intro. At a few places on our mountains there are patches of least willow - hardly a tree, only about 1-2 cm high. But briefly in late summer it supports a rich and bizarre symbiotic fungal flora. Here is one (taken today, no time to id it - any guesses?) about 7 cm tall, towering over the vegetation that supports it - and growing at about 1000 m, nearly as high as our highest hill, which is visible in the background. There are better patches for fungi that I'll visit over the next 3 weeks. </p><div></div>

[birdied]

<p>Hello everyone !<br /> This Gulf Fritillary Butterfly is the first I have seen this year. It takes this common name from its migration over the Gulf of Mexico. Hard to imagine these beautiful delicate looking wings making that journey. As you can see sometimes the journey takes it toll on the wings.<br /> Hope you enjoy</p><div></div>

[jpalmer57]

<p>Wandering through the local park trying to take advantage of the generally overcast skies yesterday I found these tiny mushrooms on a fallen tree. There were hundreds of them and the tallest was maybe 2cm.</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>I've been out in in the mountains these past few weeks looking for robberflies and beeflies. This particular image is heavily cropped from a shot of a suitably mean-looking female (probably <em>Efferia deserti</em>). See the tiny purple-winged stowaway? Didn't spot it at all until I got to chimping back home yesterday evening. Probably an egg parasitoid wasp that just happened to take a rest on its oversized and very distant insect relative.</p><div></div>

[katsone]

<p>Queen Ann's Lace seedhead</p><div></div>

[dblewer]

<p><img src="/photo/17818413" alt="" /><br>

Damselfly captured while walking dogs one morning.</p>

[User_6502147]

<p>....enduring shifting winds on the beach.</p><div></div>