Visibly different, part 39


Our opening image, as confusing as it is, comes with a story. While living in Florida, I was running a small fishnet (probably a bait net) through the water off of a dock trying to capture some minnows when I realized my empty net wasn’t actually empty, but contained a transparent blob. With care, I transferred this into my holding jar, recognizing that it was probably a jellyfish, read more

Not a fan

Another holiday has rolled around, and I’m letting you know about to celebrate if you see fit – I am, but reluctantly and perhaps not even for the entire day. Yes, it’s Put On Long Pants For The First Time Since, What, Early May? Day, and with due observation, I set aside the shorts and sandals to don actual slacks, sneakers, and socks to go around the read more

Visibly different, part 38

I know, it’s been a slow week. Well, it hasn’t really, it just hasn’t been a posting week – my time is being spent doing such fun things like cursing at contractors who thought that using fourteen nails from a nail gun set at 200lbs was proper procedure for attaching a measly riser on deck stairs, but that’s not important right now. Another project is waiting read more

The duel goes on

I’m still playing with the Chinese mantids (Tenodera sinensis,) and you’re tired of hearing about my attempts to obtain certain photos of them (aren’t you?,) specifically laying eggs, or producing the ootheca/egg sac – I’m honestly not sure these can be differentiated, because I only have one set of photos of it and they’re not that clear, plus I was read more

But they’re cute

Yeah, back in a rut – or I never left, whatever you like. But these finds from last night couldn’t be passed up.

I semi-routinely check out the property, day and night, to see what can be found, mark progress, and so on. I’d like to think that I’m getting even better at spotting extremely subtle things, but there’s no real way to determine this, no ‘master list’ read more

Visibly different, part 37

Just playing around this week, because I didn’t dig out anything of interest and comparison from the archives – been that kind of week. Still, these will be visibly different, so you can’t take away points for not meeting the bare criteria.


We open with a dramatic and contrasty image, though I admit I should have dropped the exposure down slightly to keep the snow read more

101 amphibians

Well, maybe not that many, but a few dozen at least. Or maybe it’s even more – I have no way of counting.

Some weeks back I mentioned the Copes grey treefrogs (Dryophytes chrysoscelis*) that deposited eggs in a water barrel in the backyard, which subsequently hatched into tadpoles. read more

Sorting finds n+2

Okay, not really a find, because I remembered they were there and had this idle intention of doing something with them, but since I was sorting the recent images tonight, I decided I might as well tackle it.

Back on August 23rd, we had sporadic and scattered thundercells cruising across the state in the early morning, and I got very little warning of one that may pass right over us, so I scampered read more

Time to mature

I mentioned, like, a week ago having a bunch of photos from the NC Botanical Garden, but it was too soon then to post them – they needed time to come to their full potential, mellow and full-bodied.

[Do you like how I can sell being a slack-ass by making it sound like wines or something? And what does “full-bodied” taste like anyway? I doubt they mean fatty. Even “mellow” read more

Visibly different, part 36


I’m guessing that more than a few people would fail to recognize my photo subject here, because virtually no source ever shows them at this time of year. This image is actually the first in the ‘Mammals’ category of my slide archives – not the first mammal that I’ve shot (that title probably predates read more

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