This is not going to be the most popular set of photos on the web this week. You have been warned.
One particular facet of spiders is how the eye pattern can be used to identify different Families, which can help pin down species, but by itself, it illustrates how much variation is visible within the arachnids, and
I just got back from a brief beach trip and have a few things to feature, but may not have a lot of time in the next week (while I get even more photos, perhaps,) so posts will come along as I find time. For now, we have what is likely a laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) in winter plumage. The problem is, this particular species not only has different plumage between
… since we last had an anole – that’s an awfully long time.
Not many opportunities for photos recently, but that may be corrected soon. In the meantime, we have some captures from the other evening, when I glanced out the front door and thought I saw something extra on a lawn decoration. It had moved by the time I could get the camera in hand, but at least I’d confirmed that
Our opening image this week comes from Florida in 2004, a grab shot as a brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) launched itself away upon sighting me. The day was near-overcast and windy, and the pelican was just emerging from under deep shadows of the causeway bridge, visible as the blue banding in the lower half of the frame. I was never enamored of the shot, thinking
I have a post coming up that revolves around some updates, which then required more updates, so this is dragging out longer than intended, but it should be along soon. For now, we have a capture during a break today, the same trumpet flower plant from the previous post (whose occupant is still hanging about, undoubtedly thinking more mantids will be along soon.) This time, the subject remained
Out watering the plants and doing my routine check in the backyard this evening, I found not only the fat green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) on the trumpet flower that I photographed a few nights ago, but a Carolina mantis not too far away on the same plant. Carolina mantises are much smaller
I was over at the neighborhood pond today doing a few tests, and had a great egret (Ardea alba) spooked by one of the ubiquitous dog-walkers fly over close to my position, then continually stalk closer. I would credit this to my amazing abilities to remain unseen, had I not been far from motionless in plain sight and talking to The Girlfriend on the phone during the egret’s
I’m finally getting around to posting ‘part two’ of the Jordan Lake outing mentioned earlier, which is not the Jordan Lake outing from yesterday, which yielded only cruel juvenile woodpeckers. I had to split up the photos because there were too many, and so we get to the more specific topic of raptors.
The outing started out with a lot of promise, given this appearance within ten
I had a few of these images waiting for an opportunity to write them up (while giving a little space from the last post about them,) and just now, I added some more. The raptors from the previous lake trip are still waiting in the wings – a ha ha ha.
We’ll start with the oldest, dating back to September 20.
This minuscule juvenile green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus)
I stopped down at the lake briefly today, curious to see how the water level had changed following the hurricane (significantly, but not quite back to normal,) and see what might appear. Even since filming the young red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) leaving the