I am not 100% certain of the maker of these tracks, but it’s one of two species, and I’m pretty confident that it’s a North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) – the other possibility is a raccoon. There are subtle differences between the two, and some obvious ones like size, since an otter can be many times the mass of a raccoon, but my memory
Author: Al Denelsbeck
The obligated abstract
Okay, no, it’s really still June, and not eight hours into July, so my month-end abstract is still on time. It’s was just… server issues, yeah, that’s it, server issues that prevented this from posting when I told it to.
[No, I am not going to back-date a post just to look like I’m maintaining a schedule.]
And, as might be gathered from the previous few posts, I’ve
Sunday slide 26
And so we reach the halfway point in the year, at least as far as Sunday slide posts go. This week’s offering comes from April 2006, as a collection of wheel bugs (Arilus cristatus) hatches from an egg cluster affixed to the branch of a tree. I credit this capture to James L. Kramer, who has made a few
Fill frogs
I have been trying to get to a couple of posts, including possibly a podcast, for quite a while now, and just haven’t been able to get my shit together. So for now, because I feel guilty and inadequate, I’m going to do a quickie to feature a few of the amphibians I’ve found in the past few weeks.
This particular image goes back to the beginning of May, before the beach trip, and
Sunday slide 25
This week has been pretty demanding, in multiple ways, so while I had several things that I was planning to tackle for the blog, I couldn’t even bring one to completion, and only shot a handful of photos as it was. I am hoping things will get better soon, but I know it’s likely to be another couple of days. More content is coming, I promise.
This one comes, again, from the very early
Sunday slides 24
The sequence about to be seen here comes from our trip to Florida, back in the early days of the blog, and I mentioned then that I was going to scan in a few more images from that trip, so you can see how well I schedule things.
The season had been lean for rain, and this was most visible while we were at Big Cypress Bend down in the Everglades. While previous trips had netted some
Now wait a second
Several days back I was trying to do some aquatic photos using the macro tank, and while I was working with the main subject (to be seen later on) I took the opportunity to photograph an aquatic beetle that had come along for the ride. This one was about 3mm in body length, just to give you an idea –
But how? Part 23: What would it take?
I’ve kind of covered this in portions of several different posts, but expanding on it seems warranted, as I change perspective a little just to highlight something. So let’s look at the question that religious folk often like to ask of atheists, “But what would it take for you to believe in god?”
I imagine that half of the time, it’s asked out of frustration, as the
Get your butt in gear
Saturday is National Get Outdoors Day (for realsies this time.) I really don’t have to explain this, do I? It’s not even National Stay Outdoors Day, so you’re not obligated to a time frame. Just get out and explore a little, put the toy phone away, try to get bitten by something new. It builds character.
I’m aiming to have something to show off for it afterward, but c’mon,
Plague me not, amphibian!
As the twilight waned to full night, there came a call, a hue and cry, a distinctive breeek from the aft yard. Pleased with the recent rains and the comfortable evening temperature, a grey treefrog had chosen a perch somewhere nearby and was advertising its desire for a mate. I ventured out with a flashlight, and soon located the pebbled lovestruck lothario sitting atop the fence not far