Monday in Nature Weekly Photo Dec 8, 2014

[User_6502147]

<p>I know what you mean, Laura. I shoot mostly with manual lenses, so catching a critter in-flight is deemed impossible...but I still get some good ones.</p>

<p>This critter if from wasp family...tho I have no idea what's called.</p>

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

[GlennS]

<p>Heron flying into the sunset, Vancouver Island.</p><div></div>

[Gup]

<p>I snuck up on this girl while she was hiding. Shot with a 28-70mm.</p><div></div>

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>Cormorant flying from it's perch (doing a swan dive?) at Hendy's Beach, Santa Barbara, California.</p>

<p>John: glad to see another fungus among us.</p><div></div>

[anthea50]

<p>Interesting stories and images as usual, and although I can certainly identify with reaching, my shot this week is more about speed, i.e. trying to keep up with rapidly moving insects. This tiny little guy wasn't too bad though, and I was intrigued by his appearance. He was found among the leaves of a pea plant, which seemed to be affected by some kind of fungus. More intrigue followed as it seemed he was eating the fungus! Turns out that he is a ladybird larvae, and was indeed feeding on the fungus.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Anthea,<br>

Cool shot. Around here peas and many other garden plants develop a grayish coating called powdery mildew. I see it on many "weeds" and wild flowers. Is that what you have there? I've never noticed any bugs eating it, but honestly I've not looked closely. I'll check the peas more closely now. ;-)</p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>I was vacationing in Hawaii with my wife a month ago. Photo along the Na'pali Coast of Kauai.<br>

Double Rainbow<br>

<a title="Double Rainbow by Alan Klein, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7463/15260564353_15282b134e_z.jpg" alt="Double Rainbow" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>

[anthea50]

<p>Hi Laura, while I'm not 100% sure, your powdery mildew sound very similar. Our pea plants were covered in this white powdery stuff and since it affected the plant and the peas were done for this season, we started to pull them out of the garden and that's when we noticed these little guys running around. I'm not surprised you've never noticed any; they are really very tiny. By the way, once we knew what they were, we left the pea plants in a pile so they could chop away to their hearts content!</p>

[thadley]

<p><img src="/photo/17917241" alt="" />I am late to the forum - all very good images. A few caught my eye: Jon, Rick, Glenn, Glenn and Alan.</p>

<p>Mine is some ice formation in Laprairie Quebec.<br /> D300 sigma 10-20mm F10 1/160s</p><div></div>

[johnfarrar]

<p>Anthea, Laura - pathogenic fungi can indeed be preferred food for insects. A striking example is the (British) bluebell, which gets bluebell rust - diamond-shaped areas of infection. These are selectively grazed by slugs, leaving diamond-shaped holes in the leaf. I must get out more...</p>

[colin carron]

<p>Here's another duck for this weeks MiN collection. This is a male mandarin duck, now a fairly normal sight here in the UK, but imported originally from Asia for captive collections. They are now feral and add a touch of the exotic to UK ponds.<br>

Jon, beautiful snow effect!</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Another shot from my trip to Argentina last month: A brown caracara (aka chimango) flying straight towards me to express its dissatisfaction at my approach. Sometimes the best way to get close to birds is to annoy them unintentionally!</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p><strong>Alan Klein</strong>, welcome to MiN. Thanks for sharing a beautiful image of a spectacular location.</p>

<p><strong>John Farrar</strong>, I've seem an unidentified grub munching on Claytonia Rust. Given these complex life cycles I wouldn't be surprised if the munchers are as specific to rusts as rusts are to their hosts.<br>

<strong>Leszek</strong>, it's difficult to imagine using manual focus for birds in flight. I've used MF with one lens/TC combo as I didn't have AF at f8. Results were mixed on distant subjects like birds in nests. The capabilities of the new 7D mk2 with TC's makes it an attractive upgrade.<br>

<strong>Rick DuB</strong>., what a beautiful shot. Your comments about the MK2 and the TC are resonating here. I'm looking at that camera very carefully.<br>

<strong>Jon</strong>, what a beautiful result from your outing in snow.<br>

<strong>Douglas</strong>, thanks, I've been enjoying all your images from your trip.</p>

<p> </p>

[roman_p]

<p>Sorry Laura, don’t have any bird’s shots in my collection. Well, anyhow, it’s already December. And this shot of first fragile ice on Lake George reminds that the winter is approaching and it already gave as a couple good shots of its cold breath. In three weeks or so if temperature is going to stay that low as it is now, this massive body of water will be solid frozen. I hope to have some wonderful photo opportunities this winter also.<br>

Really enjoyed pictures of the exotic ducks here. Haven’t seen such birds in my life yet. Great show!</p><div></div>