Estate Find XVI

A little bit weak this week, mostly because I’ve been doing many other things (among them throwing up, but that’s passed now,) but also because not too much new has crossed my plate. I have some video clips that should be along shortly though.

The property is home to several groves of bamboo, mostly out onto the island on the back side of the pond, but also encroaching into the upper read more

But how? Part 31: What game is this?

First off, we’re not really answering any religious questions with this one, but asking a lot of them instead. Second, while I have tried (with varying success) to avoid going on the offensive with posts within this topic, this one is disregarding that restriction entirely, because we’re going hard on the offensive now. I’ve broached aspects of this in one form or another several read more

Estate Find XV

All week I wasn’t finding a whole lot of new things to photograph, and Thursday was busy all day, so I ended up trying to find something late Thursday night/early Friday morning. I was out with the night rig, and indeed got a glimpse of beavers, twice, but never could get focus before they slipped out of sight, and my attempt to out-patience them failed I saw some ripples read more

Just because, part 55

A few photos sitting largely by themselves, just gotta clear some of the folder out.


Out the other night with the long lens attached, I fired off a few frames handheld at the waxing crescent (nearly half, or first quarter) moon high in the sky, adjusting focus manually each time. This one came out the sharpest, and this is a full-resolution crop from the center – that’s read more

Welcome, sit down, lend us your mind for a bit

“You started off last weekend telling us about the game convention, Al,” you say, “and then you go back to bug and snake pics. What happened with the convention, Nimrod?” Which is a little rude, I must admit, yet deserved nonetheless. So here’s what happened:


As I said, Dan Palmer (the driving force behind the Gnomon Deck) and I had two tables read more

Not waiting another week

I could have shelved this one for another Estate Find, but that’s a week away and I think I should keep you in the loop.

I had a feeling this was looming, yet did my check a little too late in the day to catch anything in progress – still, we have this.


That’s the egg case/ootheca of a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) that we saw in an earlier, read more

It’s time

When did we last feature wood ducks? A couple of weeks ago? That’s enough of a gap.

Yesterday I looked out the office window and found a pair of the wood ducks (Aix sponsa) hanging out on the little log that serves as a turtle basking spot for the smaller species. They had a good view directly into my office window themselves, and so I shut off the lights therein to hopefully not disturb read more

Estate Find XIV

This one was a semi-targeted find – I figured some representative of the order would be visible around here soon, but this one showed up when I wasn’t specifically looking for it.


Instead of being anyplace along the water’s edge or among roots of trees nearby, this one was found in the middle of the driveway when we took the trash out last night. This is a very read more

Multitasking

Nearly all of the images herein were obtained while I was out last night after the month-end abstract – it was a nice night after an even nicer day and so the critters were making the most of it.

This one, however, is not from yesterday, but we have kind of a theme going so we’re running with it.


I’ve dealt with this too much before, but amphibians can be a real read more

What’s happening? Not March!

Do you think that, if I had readers, they’d be writing in to request that I hire someone else to write my titles? Let me know…

But March is on its way out the door, and you know what that means? No, not that you can finally let out that fart you’ve been holding in for hours – it’s the end of the month abstract! And we’re definitely pushing the deadline read more

1 2 3 305