Poking around in the yard late last, I was silently lamenting the fact that the mantises (as well as nearly all other critters of interest) seemed to have moved on – it’s been days since I’ve seen any sign of them, but I’m not at all surprised, because the hot and dry weather has been taking its toll on the plants and so the favored lairs of the mantids are not very impressive
Category: Nature
Daily Jim pic 5
Knowing that Jim went through Yellowstone, it’s easy to imagine this is the after-effect of a geyser – but if the notes are correct, this isn’t from Yellowstone and, given the apparent distance, it would had to have been one hell of a geyser. Instead, I suspect he just captured a curious cloud formation while at the edge of a lake in Grand Teton National Park.
Or it could be smoke
Well, would you look at that?
The time has been getting away from me, it seems. I have suddenly discovered that this Friday, July 28th, is National Treat A Nature Photographer To Dinner Day. Yes, it’s the day when we show our appreciation of all the stunning natural images, interesting behavior, or grotesque closeups that only nature photographers can provide us. It should be more than one day a year,
Daily Jim pics 3 and 4
Jim sent me several variations of these mountains, and I was having a hard time deciding which of them to feature, not really wanting to do a series of days of the same subject, but I liked the difference between these two images so I’m doing a double feature. These are the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, one of the more distinctive mountain ranges in the US. Take a moment to absorb
Daily Jim pic 2
That white line is from an ancient snow fall many centuries ago, that got trapped within sediment before it had a chance to melt, and thus fossilized. It’s pretty rare.
Okay, remember what I said before? Yeah. I have no idea what created this geology, but it could be a cool story. Not as cool as mine, though…
Sunday slide 30
While I’d visited Watkins Glen State Park in central NY while growing up there, it was always before I was active in photography, and after moving away from the state in 1990, I’d had it in the back of my head to return and do some serious photography there. The chance came during a visit in 2006, a day that turned out to be
Illustration and editorial
The photos in this post were all taken during a brief outing to the NC Botanical Garden back in late April – I was planning to do a detailed post, with a lot more images, and just never got on top of it. So I’m simply going to feature one aspect here. This male southeastern five-lined skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus) was aware of my presence, but I held still long enough
Daily Jim pic 1
So, Jim Kramer did a trip out west at the same time that I was gallivanting around New Jersey, and has sent me (to date) 121 photos – with virtually no text whatsoever. And I’m pretty sure he’s not going to have the time to fill me in a lot. So while I’m not going to post all
Sunday slide 29
This is just another perspective on the little story found here, since I shot the saga in both digital and film. What you’re seeing is the egg of a ground skink (Scincella lateralis,) right at the moment of hatching. Actually, it takes more than a moment, and this one in particular stayed in
Scooped again!
I have to do this just to harass the Importunate Mr Bugg, who was with me on the outing this morning and often brags that he’s going to post something first.
We (well, I) spotted a fishing spider, genus Dolomedes, on a rock and went in for the closeup, but noticed in the bright light that it had a bizarre patch of web that it sat across. Fishers don’t make webs