When first/last I featured this duo, I said that I wasn’t sure where it was taken – the obvious choice was the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, given how long ago it was taken and the negative film used. Except I didn’t recall ever seeing mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) there. Since that time, I found several more examples in my negative pages,
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Always check your calendar
Several years ago during the trip to South Carolina, I was putting one of the kayaks on the roof rack of the car and, being incautious, ran into the side mirror of the car while maneuvering the straps around. This pulled a muscle in the side of my lower back rather seriously, and left me a bit tender for a while. Worse, it’s the kind of muscle that you use for a lot of things, and
Further along those lines…
Just a follow-up to yesterday’s post, from early this morning. Because I opened the blinds in the bedroom and found the female red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) standing in the lawn right outside the window, but she noticed the movement and decided it wasn’t kosher, that close and with her down that low. I realized, many years ago while doing wildlife rehabilitation, that
Defying expectations
So yesterday I determined that there were a few shots that I wanted to capture today, and had them scheduled in. The weather, however, had other ideas, and most of the day was rainy, not at all conditions for what I had planned (which, successful or not, I’ll reveal eventually – just not in this post.) Thus I resigned myself to skipping photography for the day and working on other tasks
Just once, part 47
This week we have an American coot (Fulica americana,) found in the ponds of Savannah National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. I’d photographed one once before this, in Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida – not a very good shot, but it showed their semi-webbed feet well – but as for being featured on the blog, this only
Chaos, revisited, part one
I almost felt obligated to do this follow-up, considering how badly I lambasted the book that purported to explain the concept, because it seems that it was, at least to a degree, more the author’s dismal attempt to explain it than the concept itself.
We’re talking about chaos theory, and it does not bode well that I sought out multiple sources to try and get a grip on it and failed
Just once, part 46
We have a double this week, a cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) and thistle flowers (Asteraceae.) The thistle is not so surprising, since while it is abundant in central New York where I took this, I haven’t yet seen it in North Carolina where I spend the vast majority of my time, and truth be told, I don’t seek out thistle flowers as photo subjects
Clear ’em out (only momentarily)
All right, the anole pics are piling up, though I’ve been trying to do posts on other things to break it up a little, but now it’s time to clean ’em out, for the brief period that this will last. We’ll start with a few from just this morning.
Going out to the greenhouse to open it up for the day, I found this little scene etched on one panel:
That’s condensation
Like, Wow!, man!
This one popped up several weeks ago, when I was too busy to do it justice, so I set it aside for when I had plenty of time to write it up properly, which appears to be now. There are a decent number of details and thus it will take some explaining, so get comfy as we set off on this journey.
There used to be a massive radio telescope at Ohio State University, dubbed the Big Ear, that monitored a
Today’s surprise
Well, okay, this one wasn’t a surprise – it’s just evidence that I’m still trying to get really nice pics of the pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) that keep visiting the property, despite their penchant for appearing through a thicket of foliage. I was busy with other tasks as this one was flitting around, so I couldn’t dedicate