Monday in Nature Weekly Photo April 27, 2015

[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 man made structures like roads, fences, walls. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. Let's post one image per week. </em></strong><em>More details please <a href="/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">check here</a>.</em></p>

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

Nature calls on a beautiful morning. I hope you've all had a great week and have been able to get out and enjoy the changing season. Let's dive right in this morning. Grab your coffee and camera. We'll send the April showers packing with images of the beauty they bring to Monday in Nature.</p>

<p>The deep rich pink buds of <em>Mertensia virginica</em> scarcely look like they will become the beautiful pendant flowers commonly known as Virginia Bluebells.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Slip of the keyboard, caption should read Canon ef-s 60mm macro. Coffee...................</p>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Above the <em>Mertensia</em> are <em>Acer</em> flowers.</p><div></div>

[User_2019667]

<p>Some rain soaked flowers from last year.</p><div></div>

[cegeiss]

<p>A old spring breeze made it a frosty day for beach walkers, but the gulls seemed to enjoy it.</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Found this <strong>dragonfly</strong> at Lady Bird Wildflower center in Austin.</p><div></div>

[randy_cooprider1]

<p>Waking through the Cascades park and saw this tree fungus. Don't know what it is but it looked very hardy.</p><div></div>

[stemked]

<p>I was out photographing birds and came across a nice, small bed of Virgina Bluebells. Since I was setup for birds (600mm f5.6 lens) I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't switch to a macro lens and used the long focus to compress the image. I tried several different focal lengths but ultimately liked the one wide open (f5.6) as it nicely popped out a few of the individual blooms.<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18013187-lg.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="598" /><br>

Virgina Bluebells, Indianapolis, IN (Pentax K3, 600mm f5.6 A @ f5.6)</p>

[sallymack]

<p>Grasses--so elegant.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Randy, possibly <em>Polyporus squamosus</em>. This species is more common in eastern North America, but occurs in some western locations. It grows on wood and is, as you say, very hardy. I could be wrong, but based on what I see, this species should be considered.</p>

[SCL]

<p>While out walking yesterday I found a few wildflowers beginning to show their pretty faces...didn't have a macro lens along, but a wide did an ok job</p><div></div>

[RickDB]

<p>Six-spotted water spider (<em>Dolomedes triton</em>) on her tiny island on high alert as it is buzzed by an Eastern Amberwing (<em>Perithemis tenera</em>).</p><div></div>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I found this cinnamon teal (<em>Anas cyanoptera</em>) at Coyote Hill in Fremont, California. Nikon D7200 with 600mm lens.</p><div></div>

[dcstep]

<p><strong>Moma Great Horned Owl</strong></p>

<p><a title="Mama watches junior... by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8729/17266242195_5a85ab20cf_c.jpg" alt="Mama watches junior..." width="800" height="800" /></a></p>

[Mary Doo]

<p>The first tulip from my garden.</p><div></div>

[biomed]

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/18013238-md.jpg" alt="6D 152" width="680" height="382" border="0" /></center>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Not exactly an illustration of springtime beauty, but with spring flowers come spring bugs, and with spring bugs come spring bug-eaters.</p>

<p>This male <em>Efferia</em> robber fly enjoyed a juicy(?) bug to the point of tipsyness. Literally so: after snatching its prey in mid-air, the robber perched on a blade of grass which proved too flimsy, it keeled over & fell, then just lay there motionless imbibing for half a minute and a half dozen clicks, before bothering to scramble back onto its feet.</p>

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

[Jon Eckman]

<p>Didn't get outside with my camera over the weekend, so here's a cloudy sky image taken a few minutes ago outside my office.</p><div></div>

[bing_huey1]

<p>This is a pollen-dusted snout beetle(Rhyssomatus?) on a ceanothus bud.</p><div></div>

[Member69643]

<p><em>Polyporus squamosus </em>:)</p>

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

[colin carron]

<p>Great stuff as ever from all. Here is a mute swan cruising past me on the River Bure in Norfolk, UK. They are supposed to be the world's second heaviest bird.</p><div></div>

[jpalmer57]

<p>Like Mary's, the first Tulip in my yard (won't call it a garden).</p><div></div>

[thadley]

<p><img src="/photo/18004273" alt="" />Mine was taken while I was in the Caribbean island of St.Thomas. It had an abstract quality to what I was seeing.<br /> PS<br /> Jon those clouds look the ones I am seeing in Montreal right now.<br /> David - beautiful light on that owl<br /> Laura - silky smooth<br /> All the others are great also.</p><div></div>

[anthea50]

<p>Wow, terrific images this week everyone! Laura, that bluebell shot is simply gorgeous! my shot this week is of a fungus growing on another tree stump in my yard. The lower part looks like a mouth, and also rather reminds me of Audrey from The Little Shop of Horrors (just a flight of fancy) ...</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>It's always a thrill to me when I see a species of duck in the area that I've not seen before. I guess I've been kind of sheltered from duck life around here until I started visiting a new haunt near Harrisburg PA with some regularity. Wasn't sure what these were when first captured, but identified them as a blue-winged teal couple once I consulted my books. </p><div></div>