I know, no posts for five days and I come back with that previous one. You’ve probably already switched over to some celebrity gossip site, haven’t you?
I blame it on conditions. For over a week we’ve been dealing with the side effects of some storm system and it’s been solid overcast the entire time – that’s simply not normal for this area. However, this is directly comparable to cloud conditions for damn near the entirety of New York winters – not temperature-wise, at least, it only got a little chilly, but the solid slate sky and believing you’re a ghost because you cast no shadow, that’s New York. So there’s the hit to the mood, but more importantly, it greatly reduces the photographic opportunities.
That said, I got a handful of pics today, before the sun broke out again, even. Nothing new, of course, but some pics nonetheless, so I’ll feature a couple here.
First, be it known that the Orionids meteor shower is going on now, but will peak the night of the 21st, which coincides with a new moon, so pretty much the best viewing conditions, especially as the humidity should now be dropping seriously and reducing atmospheric haze. I think we had a decent sky for only one night of the Draconids, about a week ago, and I wasn’t able to get out for that, so maybe this time. As always, if you don’t see a post about them, it means I had my usual shitty luck with meteors.
So in poking around the yard today, I happened to look closely at the elephant ear plants alongside the back walk and spotted this guy.
This gives you an idea of conditions, since this was midday and the Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis) should have been out running around scarfing up bugs – it wasn’t that cold, but apparently this one wasn’t good with it anyway. Funny – I was using the Sigma 180 macro and the edges of the stem, much closer and thus far out-of-focus, where blurring over the eyes of the anole, but as the aperture stopped down when the shutter opened, they cleared a little better.
A little later on I’d switched to the 18-135, and as I approached the plant again I saw the head of the anole duck back into the hollow of the stems, leaving behind only this hint of its presence:
Rather desperate-looking, isn’t it? The anole, however, was only holding onto a near-vertical surface and not clutching wildly for a rope. Changing position slightly revealed a more complacent view.
There are several different species of plant known as “elephant ear,” and I have yet to determine which this is – slack, I know. If it’s important to you, you can do some kind of Venmo or CashApp transfer to spur me onwards – it won’t work, because I don’t use the stupid things (people will use their smutphones for anything except actually talking,) but I’ll register the desire anyway.
The first hints of fall colors have begun, and I should be able to find some prime examples in a week or two. Plus I just missed a veritable shitload of wood ducks since the bathroom window wasn’t open when they arrived this evening – it has the best view, but they’ll both hear and see me opening it and fly off, so once they’re arriving it’s too late, but there were at least thirty descending on the corn – rather frantically and boorishly, really. Hopefully I’ll have some more pics of them soon.