Estate Finds XXXVII

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Again, a little slow this week, finding mostly the same things that I’ve been seeing far too much of, and not seeing the things that i know are there, like the beavers – I keep finding evidence, but have yet to actually see one again. What we have this week are spiders, which is all the warning you get.

The coolest one, that I’d never seen before despite apparently being common, is this one:

adult female giant lichen orbweaver Araneus bicentenarius building web in yard
Isn’t that coloration great? Excellent camouflage, at least during the day when the spider would typically be clustered up on a tree branch someplace, since this is the class of orbweavers that rebuild their large wheel webs each night, but hole up away from predators during the day. This is an adult female giant lichen orbweaver (Araneus bicentenarius,) industriously building her web right in the middle of the backyard, barely a meter off the ground. Well, depends on where you’re measuring to, really, since the top of the web was close to eye level.

I went out a little later on, once her web was complete, to get the abdominal colors better.

adult female giant lichen orbweaver Araneus bicentenarius stationed in web in yard
Largish at roughly 20mm in body length, she was very similar to the common barn spiders that are all over the place, except for a much better paint job, but still a lot smaller than the golden silk orbweavers serving as her neighbors. Very cool, in an extremely gnarly and creepy way.

The next one is less creepy, and even more colorful. The black knight butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii) had a moth that was not just motionless on one flower cluster, but at a suspiciously odd angle, and that suspicion was absolutely correct, once I got around to a better angle.

unidentified crab spider, possibly white-banded crab spider Misumenoides formosipes, on flowers of black knight butterfly bush Buddleja davidii with unidentified moth prey
Now, I was almost certain this was a common species, but my subsequent searches on both BugGuide.net and within Ecosia did not turn up a match for those colors – or at least, not one that was positively identified; I found a perfect match on a generic crab spider info page that naturally failed to list the species that it was showing. I posted the image to BugGuide.net, but wasn’t getting any firm responses. I even tried Google Image Search, which only provided some suggestions as long as I excluded the myriad potential answers that were obviously dead wrong, some of which weren’t even the same Family. Then as I was typing this up, I got a response through BugGuide.net that indicated this may well be a white-banded crab spider (Misumenoides formosipes,) which appears to be the closest match, at least when you look at this image, so I’m tentatively going with that. Now, I’ve seen plenty of white-banded crabs, but none with this color pattern and the white band really isn’t there, so I maintain that I am blameless for not identifying it sooner – it’s my blog, so there!

Crab spiders are known for having color variants (just check out the various images of only this species) and individuals can even change color to match the flowers they’re on – to a degree, anyway, except this one appears to be aiming for as much contrast as possible. I mean, I would like to see one match the deep purples of the black knight, but I don’t think that’s feasible and I wouldn’t want them to hurt themselves trying. You might think that this color would be working directly against them, since they’re ambush hunters, but as I was maneuvering for good angles, this one demonstrated just how this might work.

unidentified crab spider, possibly white-banded crab spider Misumenoides formosipes, disappearing among blossoms of black knight butterfly bush Buddleja davidii with unidentified moth prey
Aware of my presence, or at least wary of the sun that had suddenly split in two and was moving far too rapidly through the night hours (i.e. my headlamp,) this one sank backwards among the blossoms and just about vanished, which might well be the typical ambush position. Moths are notoriously stupid, however, so perhaps no such behavior is even necessary. When I revisited during the day, it was out and semi-obvious.

unidentified crab spider, possibly white-banded crab spider Misumenoides formosipes, nestled among blossoms of black knight butterfly bush Buddleja davidii
The white band is supposed to be just below the eyes, the band of reddish-brown here, but apparently it can also be yellowish. I cropped tight enough to show that the hairy scales from the moth meal were still present on the forelegs.

And one more, because it’s convenient and we’re doing spiders.

six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton on suspended screening with large egg sac
While out for another nighttime observation, I was picking up a distinct blue-green star from atop a stretch of suspended screening, the telltale reflection from the eyes of a spider, and went in as close as I could get, between the inaccessibility of the screen and the lens that I had attached. It was enough to reveal (with the help of the flip-up softbox option) a six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) wandering along the screen with a massive egg sac, much bigger than I would have thought she could produce, but there you go. Unless she’s sac-nabbing.

Now, you may ask how I can identify the species from this pic while I couldn’t from the much better images above, but the six-spotted fishing spider is quite distinctive, mostly from the white band (hey!) along the sides, but also from the ten white spots on the abdomen. Wait, ten? Yes, they get their name from the six spots on the underside, apparently, something that I have never actually seen since I’ve always found them flat on the ground or water. So why aren’t they named ‘ten-spotted’ for the easiest trait to actually see? Shit, don’t ask me, I’m not an entomologist or taxonomist or anything edumacated like that – I often wonder what the hell anyone was thinking when they agreed on the names. It’s probably some inside-joke thing akin to a secret handshake or something. At least the entomologists seem to resist putting ‘eastern’ in front of every damn thing…

See? Like this

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

After yesterday’s post that ended with damaging my brand new softbox, I repaired it, added some clips to keep the flip-up top from flipping up, at least when I didn’t want it to, and glued some coarse grit sandpaper to the top of the hotshoe to prevent slippage (it’s an accessory shoe that takes the PC cord, so I’m not doing this to the 7D body.) Then I went out to do some more tests, largely to make sure the flip-up top didn’t flip up when I didn’t want it to, and to see that the flash unit and hotshoe remained good friends.

While doing this, I pushed the count-of-bebby-anoles-on-the-property-in-one-night up to 49! I feel bad that I didn’t reach 50, because that’s a magical number donchaknow, and I really did try. Mind you, I’m purposefully excluding the full-grown adults from the count, because I’m taking note of the population boom, so the count was higher than that – or it could have been a little lower, since some medium-sized ones were in there and perhaps shouldn’t be, technically. I’m honestly not sure how fast the buggers grow, and have no way of differentiating them except in very specific circumstances like weirdly-damaged tails. Regardless, that’s a good number that I’m proud of, which only goes to show you how low my standards for pride are and, if you haven’t already looked at the image galley, this probably saves you the time now.

But okay, the flip-up top of the softbox was there for a reason, and it got exercised a couple of times last night, and this is one of the occasions:

pair of orphaned white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus browsing in yard at night
Those are the Pirate Twins, the orphaned pair of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) that visit semi-regularly, and I happened across them as I was driving the count up – curiously, they were in the middle of the yard and I’d apparently been going around them in a broad arc for a bit before I saw them. To their credit, they weren’t very spooked by my presence at all – wary, but they simply kept a certain distance and continued browsing. I’d credit this to being dazzled by the headlamp and not realizing that it was a person wandering around (I wasn’t speaking at all or even cursing, so you know I was in stalking mode,) but I turned a few times so the light thrown by the headlamp would have silhouetted me from behind, which is normally enough to send just about anything hurtling off from this sudden reveal, but these guys were cool with it.

Of course, the little Canon 300EZ flash doesn’t have much power, and I opened the aperture wide and boosted ISO way up to even get this shot – they were roughly 15 meters off, I think – but the softbox worked as intended, so it passed this test too. There’s just enough light to see that their spots have almost entirely faded.

I’m going to throw these up here, just because if I don’t, they’re liable to sit in the folder awaiting another opportunity anyway, but be warned – it’s yet another Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis.)

large and rough-looking adult Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping on weeds
This one was not one of the count because it was clearly an adult, and a huge one at that, but I had to get the pic because it’s also the roughest I’ve ever seen, obviously having been in at least one major battle, but considering how many adults I found in the general vicinity, it could easily have been more. Given the size, there’s a chance this, or some of it, is due to simply age, but it looks more like scarring to me. I didn’t disturb him (I think it’s likely a male) to try for precise measurements, but I did use my fallback method:

large adult rough-looking Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis with author's hand for scale
By the way, the first of these pics was simply named, “KeithRichards.jpg,” because of course, which reminds me that I should do another roundup of the weird image titles that I’ve used. Betcha can’t wait…

Macro photography, part 14: Selective pressures

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

The pursuit of the ideal softbox for flash macro photography has been going on for a while now, with many iterations, and now we have another. The last version took advantage of being able to hash out and 3D-print a design more optimized for the purpose, because I now could, but I realized after a while that I’d made a mistake. In thinking, A parabolic reflector would maximize the light getting down to the subject, I designed a partial dome reflector – not actually a parabola because I wasn’t sure how to trick that out in Blender, and because a true parabola needs the light source at a specific center point within, a point that I’d never get a flash unit to sit at without blocking too much of the light, plus the idea that an offset design allowed the light panel to sit more over the subjects. This was the previous design:

older domed design of macro flash softbox on-camera
It was okay, but not optimal, because it had a hotspot coming through the white diffuser panel that could be seen with highly-reflective subjects – granted, this impact was probably trivial because very few would notice it. But the biggest mistake was, with the light source (the flash head) offset to one side and having to reflect at nearly a right-angle, the dome wasn’t actually doing anything, and might have been scattering light in the wrong direction. So I went back to the original design, which I’d had to initially trick out in cardboard, but later did at least use sheet plastic. With the 3D printer, however, I could make a circular base much easier.

new design of macro photography softbox
The flat reflector panel on the back (coated with aluminum foil, as is the entire interior of the softbox) bounces the light more directly downward, and the diffuser panel evens it out and softens it, to make a broader and lower contrast light, which we’ll see in a minute.

front view of new macro softbox design showing adjustable arm on flash
Once again, the flash and softbox sit on an adjustable arm to allow more specific aiming and positioning, which permits better light angles that can be chosen for the subject matter. There are two significant upgrades to this, however. The first is a rubber gasket (actually TPU, another 3D-printable material) within the tunnel that fits over the flash head that allows a snug fit that’s unlikely to come loose in the field. The other is the hinge:

new macro softbox design showing hinge for moving reflector and diffuser away from flash path
This was actually added after initially printing the parts, but before I assembled them. It permits switching to direct flash instantly without fumbling with removing the entire softbox attachment, which of course would then have to be carried around in one hand; I’ve found that I needed this more and more, especially when something like a beaver makes an appearance when I’m out chasing lizards or something. Removing the softbox was never silent, and always stood the chance that I’d fumble and drop it, which was too likely to split the diffuser panel – it is, after all, only a single layer of white PLA about 0.35mm in thickness, and I’ve done it several times now. I mean, I just print another, it’s only attached with contact cement, but avoiding this is better overall.

Now, how well does it work? Let’s look at the test comparisons.

pair of images comparing reflections from new and old macro softbox designs
Shot back to back with the same settings, you can see the difference between the new (top) and old (bottom) light outputs – the top one is much more even and seems to be at least 1/3 stop brighter, possibly more. [The subject is my go-to for such tests, a 40mm ‘crystal’ ball that really shows reflections – it represents the worst-case scenario that I’m likely to encounter, essentially a giant water droplet.] Both of these were at my typical macro settings, 1/200 second at f16, ISO 250 – best for stopping action and flash synch, depth of field, and image quality. Now we look at a purposefully underexposed version to see how even that output really seems.

pair of underexposed images comparing reflections from new and old macro softbox designs
Same again, new on top, only now at F32 and ISO 100, underexposed by over 3 stops. The hotspots are now clearly visible, with the top being more even – still not perfectly balanced, but without the distinct tunnel edges showing up through the diffuser.

Sure, okay, but what about the field results?

sleeping juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis under new macro softbox lighting
Yeah, okay, another goddamn anole, but they’re effortless macro subjects because they’re always within a handful of meters of my door, so stick it. Notice, though, the very even light without harsh shadows or deep contrast, directional enough for shaping (see the backs of the eyes and the base of the skull, the faint shadows that help define those,) and even the leaf that sits directly above the anole’s nose doesn’t cast a harsh shadow. And while this is cropped, the light remains pretty damn even throughout the frame.

Another example:

snoozing juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis tucked within leaves of Japanese maple, without harsh shadows
Still late at night, but the lighting is so even that it could just about pass for daylight, and with a subject this obscured by leaves, the shadows could easily have made a mess – this is even better than expected, really. I can live with this.

We go for the full-frame, just so you know that the diffuse effect isn’t too small:

full-frame of juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinenesis among leaves of Japanese maple
At closeup distances, the entire frame isn’t all that big, less than 20cm across, but that’s a wide field-of-view for macro work, and the light is even throughout, as well as penetrating the layers of leaves because it’s coming from a larger area – that’s the entire point of a larger diffuser panel. I’m considering this a valid design.

This will be uploaded for others to print, but it may be for a fee – trivial, many times less than what any ‘legitimate’ manufacturer would be charging, but if I can get paid a little for my time, sure. The stickler is, this is designed around the flash that I’m presently using, an old Canon 300EZ; lightweight yet still decent light output and reasonably fast recharging times (four AA batteries instead of the two typical for small flash units.) The fit is snug and perfect, but it’s not going to translate to other flash units in any way, and so far, I’m not sure of how to accomplish this effectively – I’m even going to have to reprint at least the tunnel if/when I go back to my preferred unit, the Sunpak Auto 322 (presently in need of repair – I think the capacitor failed.) So how to make this so it can be used on a variety of flashes? I mean, I can make adapters, but I only have a couple of flashes available to even measure. I can give instructions on making an appropriate adapter or just TPU gasket, but too many people can’t use either Blender (a design program) or TPU, which is admittedly tricky. Still hashing this out…

Meanwhile, for amusement: Right after getting the illustrative pics seen here, I started for Walkabout Studios with the camera and flash unit in my hand, and the fucking flash and softbox slid out of the hot shoe and crashed to the floor, breaking the hinges on the softbox free (they were only glued on – the finished design will have them incorporated) and splitting that damn diffuser panel – and I’d just printed the new one last night! This is actually one of those design flaws, just not mine: flash units only occasionally lock onto hotshoes as firmly as they should, and the 300EZ is not among them. Smooth plastic locking rings onto smooth metal hotshoe flanges simply won’t produce a firm grip. Now, the repairs can be done easily enough, and as I said, the finished design will be sturdier in that regard, but I’m now motivated to find a method to lock onto the hotshoe much better. Right before I’d started taking the pics, I’d tightened down the goddamn locking ring, so there’s no chance that it was loose – it’s just a shitass design that’s been around for the better part of a century, badly in need of improvement but still here due to universal usage. Anyone that creates a new one instantly makes their equipment incompatible with everything currently on the market – inertia and universal adoption is the foil of innovation. We’ll see what happens, but for me, I’m thinking of a rubber or nylon gasket between flash and shoe, able to be compressed and prevent slipping.

That said, watch for more new softbox results soon.

Sorting finds n+13

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Gotta bunch this time around, and it’s going to be herp-heavy, which means we’re classing together species that barely have any relation to one another scientifically, but they seem kind of the same; this means frogs, lizards, and turtles. We’ll try to space them out a bit.

This one should have been in the last post, but I forgot about it until I’d already posted and didn’t feel like going back to edit.

juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping in Japanese maple, beginning to molt and looking desiccated
Another newborn Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) sleeping on the Japanese maple, but the light angle was hardly flattering and it looks barely this side of starving. In my experience, they often look like this soon after hatching (or first appearing in public, anyway,) but they rally quickly. The white around the eyes and chin also indicates that this one was beginning to molt, which only added to the decrepit appearance. You get the impression the twig that it clutches is providing the bare amount of warmth that the lizard possesses – or at least, you do now.

direct portrait of nutria Myocastor coypus showing orange teeth and white whiskers
I should have included this one with the post at the time that it was taken, but one of the nutria provided a nice head-on portrait showing the orange teeth and that Lorax mustache. The orange is confined solely to the front surfaces, by the way, and is the hardest portion of the teeth, allowing them to wear down into chisel shapes as the softer enamel behind it grinds down faster.

juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis with dewdrop adhering to front toes
Don’t know how I missed this on the initial unloading, but this anole seems to be sporting an ostentatious engagement ring, or maybe some kind of foot piercing. Note that very little dew is visible anywhere else, on the lizard or the leaves, so it obtained this droplet from some obscure nook. Is Sauron looking back at us?

[Makes me wonder if Sauron could actually look away from the Palantirs, or if he was forced to see what they displayed. If so, you could have a world of fun setting up things to unveil to him.

“Hey, Saurpuss, lookit this!”

“Gauggh! You filthy bastard hobbits!”

Come to think of it, this may explain a lot…]

unidentified snails possibly engaging in courtship
So, the sex life of gastropods is quite funky, with different species engaging in it differently. While leopard slugs simply wrap genitals, others actually launch a small dart from their bodies, attached to a membrane or mucus ‘line,’ and reel one another in (most species are hermaphroditic, to make things even more interesting.) But finding two of them in close proximity at least suggested that this is what I was witnessing. And then we go in closer:

tiny third unidentified snail among two much larger ones, potentially engaged in courtship
Not only is there a third, much smaller one in the middle there, but there is a line visibly connecting the two larger ones. So, was this what was happening? I have nothing further since there was no movement at all as I watched and I had other reasons not to stick around observing.. Not that anyone really needs a reason regardless.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on almond tree early one morning
Early one morning, a juvenile green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) was perched on the almond tree, peeking up from its nook in the folded leaves, and so I got a little fartsy with it. I had the opportunity for several different approaches and poses. while the frog viewed my presence with a little anxiety and shifted around a bit.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on almond leaf with dew underneath
A close crop of this one showed the dew adhering to the undersides of the leaf, though it was on top too. Plus we can see from the shadow that the frog is flashing us the peace sign, which doesn’t seem to fit the discomfort displayed, but perhaps this means something entirely different to treefrogs…

juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping vertically on hairy-stem spiderwort Tradescantia hirsuticaulis leaf
Still being fartsy now, but back to the anoles. The composition was entirely up to the anole, perching on the leaf of a hairy-stem spiderwort (Tradescantia hirsuticaulis) – the little touch of blue from the flower bud helps. Now if the lizard had only kept its tail straight, it would have been perfect. Well, okay, there’s no such thing, but better, anyway.

[Since I routinely see anoles clinging in precarious positions while fast asleep, I have to assume that their muscles lock into place during unconsciousness, which seems odd at first, but how many species actually go as limp as we do? It might even be that there’s no such thing as ‘relaxed’ muscles to them, and the muscles must be told by the brain to move, otherwise they’re ‘locked.’ Hmmm…]

While we’re being fartsy…

orange jewelweed Impatiens capensis blossom and leaves, sporting dew on tips
I saw orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) in the yard last year but didn’t take advantage of it, so I’m making up for it as we enter flowering season again for the species. I’ve seen several different plants that sport dewdrops right on the leap tips or, as here, at specific points, but I’m not even sure this is dew – perhaps it’s simply exuded by the leaves themselves? There’s probably a botanical term for this behavior, but I’m not looking it up. You’ll notice that the trumpet/cone shape of the blossom isn’t a continuation of the stem like most flowers, but hangs from it supported in the middle. Weird.

Back to the anoles and their muscle control…

juvenile green anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping vertically head-down with one foreleg suspended in midair
Easy to see that the hindlegs are doing the work, but this one didn’t even bother with one foreleg, leaving it just hanging in space. We need a better angle:

juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping with one leg hanging in space
I had to go with a different angle to get adequate flash illumination, and honestly, I can’t recall which orientation the anole had chosen – I think this is the most accurate. And that foreleg is just sticking out there.

trio of yellow-bellied sliders Trachemys scripta scripta barely catching sunlight on old snag while covered in duckweed
As spring foliage kicked back in, the turtles lost a lot of the perches that they used to sun themselves upon, but three yellow-bellied sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta) were making the most of this snag. You can see that the duckweed has completely taken over the pond, but there’s a small advantage to this too: it doesn’t flow right back into place quickly at all, so it leaves paths through the water when it’s disturbed, cluing me in as to who’s been visiting and where they’ve been going.

minuscule juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus perched on bullrush lead and looking skyward
This cute juvenile green treefrog is perched on the leaf of a bullrush, to provide a little scale, but what it’s observing overhead was lost to me; it might simply be peeing discreetly I guess. The angle and flash show off the translucent skin well though.

And finally,

detailed splash from fish reentering water after jumping
Back on the morning that I was chasing pics of fish jumping, I mistimed this one, which is a shame because it was reasonably close and focus was bang-on. But the splash looked nice, and closes out the collection on another fartsy note. Not a pleasant note, perhaps, or a skilled one, but a note – we’ll leave it at that.

Little things for now

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Just a couple of pics for the time being – I’m in the middle of sorting and some sorting finds will be along when I finish, so right now, we have a couple of recent discoveries for giggles.

First off, last night the five bebby anoles that could be found on the Japanese maple nearest the door to Walkabout Studios could be captured in a single frame:

five juvenile Carolina anoles Anolls carolinensis sleeping in leaves of Japanese maple
Can you find them all? You remember that they turn much paler when they sleep at night, right?

Another little discovery, mostly because I saw something too dissimilar from the rest, which was this dark grey ‘leaf’ dangling from one of the sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia) plants:

chrysalis of unknown butterfly, possibly American snout Libytheana carinenta, attached to branch of sicklepod Senna obtusifolia
This is cropped a little wider to show scale, but you can still see the web strand anchoring it to the branch in the middle. The details seem to indicate that this is actually a chrysalis, supported by the view when we go in closer:

chrysalis of unknown butterfly, possibly American snout Libytheana carinenta, attached to sicklepod Senna obtusifolia branch
The segmented abdomen (attached to the stem,) the wings, and the antennae are all distinct enough, but that’s an awfully pointy head, isn’t it? This might have given me pause if I hadn’t seen a species that seemed to match, almost exactly five years ago:

American snout butterfly Libytheana carinenta apparently finding Buggato's hat interesting
This is, I’m almost certain, an American snout butterfly (Libytheana carinenta,) and both that snout and the wings seem like a pretty good match to me. I’m trying to monitor the chrysalis to see if I can capture it while emerging, but I can’t sit there all day long, much less for the several days that this might take to finally occur. So, you may see it, you may not – that’s all I can say.

No, that’s never “all I can say” – we both know better. Meanwhile, the sorting finds will be along soon enough.

Estate Find XXXVI.V

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We have a late Find entry, which I’m rushing out to make it still within the confines of Friday (I have a half hour.)

very pregnant Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis perched on water reed
After watching the hatching taking place many moons ago, I saw no signs of any Chinese mantids (Tenodera sinensis) at all, except for the adult that suddenly appeared on the liriope, and I suspected that one had come from elsewhere. Tonight I found this mama, obviously ready to drop an egg sac, and I’m going to keep checking on her to see if I can witness this (and by that, I mean photograph, natch.)

I have to note that this is full-frame, and hardly the limits of closeup ability for this lens (the Canon 18-135mm STM.) We need scale, however, and I gotcha.

very pregnant Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis with author's hand for scale
Yes, she’s a right thick one, and it’s impressive seeing how much they can grow in a season, since she’s a measured 100mm in length (I went back out to check,) while the newborns might top 12mm. She spooked while i was doing this, and I had to convince her to get back into the open, since the foliage there was dense enough for her to disappear easily, and then I’d never see the egg sac being deposited.

During the same session, I also found this one.

adult female Carolina mantis Stagmomantis carolina on rain barrel
This is the other common species around here, a Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina,) not exactly providing the natural background by perching on the rain barrel. Less than half the length of the Chinese, this is nevertheless an adult, though not obviously pregnant. Another view:

adult female Carolina mantis Stagmomantis carolina showing short wings and grey/brown color pattern
The urban camouflage is strictly within this species, which can also be green. The short wings denotes this as a female.

Now, I tried to coax this one into my hand for scale pics, but she was having none of that, perhaps aware that I’d been messing with the septic system earlier today (even though I did thoroughly wash my hands.) She quickly leapt away, at least making a more natural background by landing in the grass, and after assuring herself that she’d escaped, she wasted absolutely no time in ridding her feet of that icky human ichor.

adult female Carolina mantis Stagmomantis carolina cleaning her feet after having touched the author's hand
You’d think that perhaps it might be healthier to use something other than her mouth, especially with the rain barrel right there, but what can I say?

Five minutes til midnight – gotta hit ‘Post’…

Estate Find XXXVI

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

I apologize, but there’s no Estate Find this week – I’ve spent the past two days doing almost nothing but dealing with contractors, after an extended weekend with guests over. While I did indeed go out a few times trying to find something, I was interrupted/cut short twice and found nothing new the other times.

It do be like this sometimes; despite your best efforts, you don’t produce anything of interest, and this can be made worse by insisting on something new. I’ve done extended outings like that, numerous times, and have also done sessions where almost none of the images that I did take were worth keeping. While it’s not a bad idea to have goals and to push yourself to produce something of interest, sometimes you simply have to let it go, since you can’t make the wildlife and conditions around you bend to your will.

Still, I won’t just leave it at that, so we’ll have a faintly fartsy pic from weeks ago, when The Girlfriend’s trumpet flowers (Brugmansia) were blooming.

trio of trumpet flowers Brugmansia blooms at night
Man, those are over two months old, dating from June 27th! But the lighting gives a reasonably accurate impression I think, because these open fully and look best at night, attempting to attract some nocturnal pollinator that doesn’t actually live in this area, since these were imported (long ago) from South America and are actually extinct in the regions where they evolved – which isn’t to say that they aren’t thriving in areas where they were introduced. Still, whatever pollinator they evolved to attract ain’t coming…

We can go further back into the folder, too.

unidentified juvenile frog, possibly barking treefrog Dryophytes gratiosus, perched on leaf
This dates back from May 2021, and wasn’t used then partially because I could never identify it. It’s perhaps even smaller than the impression given here, since it measured (if I remember accurately) somewhere between 15 and 20mm in length, and is likely a juvenile, perhaps only recently emerged from tadpoledom. As such, it probably doesn’t have its adult coloration in place, but it looks closest to a barking treefrog, especially those ringed spots. However, I never found any other evidence of the species in that region (this being where we used to live,) though they supposedly could be found in there. I’m just taking the opportunity to clean out a couple of older pics from the blog folder.

What the hell – let’s get rid of the oldest.

chimpanzee Pan troglodyte looking pensiveI don’t recall what the original purpose of this image was supposed to be, though the contemplative nature of it is obvious. It dates back from 2006, which predates the blog itself, and while it obviously got into this folder later than that, the program that I used for editing wrote the original ‘Date Taken’ as the ‘Date Modified,’ so I can offer nothing further. Those that maintain that I’m looking more and more like this as time goes by are ignoring that fact that the chimp has more hair on top (that’s considerably less grey) and does not have eyebrows sprouting wild and unruly hairs that resemble kudzu in more ways than one. The ears are a dead match though.

Anyway, better luck next week, and naturally I will present things here at other times as I find them, plus the occasional semi-philosophical post and some utter nonsense thrown in for seasoning. Don’t give up on me yet (he says to a nonexistent audience…)

Crikey stroppin’ beeah!

Al DenelsbeckLeave a comment

Today, so my calendar informs me, is National Wildlife Day, which is actually different from World Wildlife Day, found on March 3rd and yet somehow not on my calendar. In fact, this is only a National Wildlife Day, since it also falls in February – perhaps it depends on what nation we’re talking about (I seem to recall different hemispheres celebrating this on different days, early spring for either.) This one was created in honor of Steve Irwin, which means we celebrate it surrounded by a major camera and lighting team, animal wranglers, and controlled sets, running around pretending we’re in “the wild” while affecting a ridiculously stereotypical dialect and handling animals in a disrespectful and hazardous manner. Bonus points if you somehow manage not to be seen as an irretrievable assclown while doing so.

[As you might surmise, I’m not a fan of nature shows that aren’t the least bit natural, especially ones that foster (heh!) bad habits and entirely incorrect ideas about naturalism and zoology. The bare fact that most of them are like this doesn’t help at all, but for giggles, pay attention to the camera angles and ideal lighting to see how much staging is actually taking place. Now, at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I will readily admit that I resort to natural-looking sets on occasion, and of course I’m often controlling the lighting, but I never represent these as ‘natural’ and the purpose is almost always illustration, not ‘documentary.’ To say nothing of the large percentage of subjects that are actually captured in completely uncontrolled conditions.]

All that aside, feel free to celebrate this as you see fit; mere observation works just fine, and will tell you a hell of a lot more than trying to have any kind of encounter. Go someplace where the chances of seeing something are greatly increased: even just the local park, but national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, lakeshores… any natural area is usually capable of displaying some kind of wildlife, especially if we loosen our concept of what ‘wildlife’ is. It’s easy to get into the mindset that this means lions and camels and narwhals, but really, just think about the more common species in your area that you’re never actually seen – even for me, this is a long list. Don’t target anything, don’t have goals, just keep your eyes and ears open.

I have a few pics to throw up, not actually from today – I may get out a little later on and see what I can see, though I have several other things that have to be taken care of. It’s not like this isn’t a regular practice anyway…

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus hiding deep within leaves of calla lilies Zantedeschia aetheopica
A few days back on the 1st I found this particular subject, though this is purposefully shot wide to give context and perspective. Can you spot what I was seeing among these calla lilies (Zantedeschia aetheopica)? Granted, I suspected such a thing was there and was specifically looking for it.

We’ll go in a lot closer.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus nestled between leaves of calla lily Zantedeschia aetheopica during daylight
Naturally, it’s a juvenile green treefrog (Dryophytes conereus,) sequestered during the day before going out to hunt at night – there are almost as many of these around as there are the Carolina anoles, and that’s saying something. This was shot ambient light in open shade, and suffered a little for it, but I did do a quick scale shot too.

juvenile green treefrog Dryophytes cinereus nestled between leaves of calla lily Zantedeschia aetheopica, with author's finger alongside for scale
Eentsy little thing, but it had found a perfectly-sized spot within the leaves, perpetually shaded and so cooler during the day.

We had guests over for the holiday weekend (no, not this one, but Labor Day,) and went down to the waterfront to find that some species of fish was jumping from the water constantly and exuberantly, very similar to what we’d seen previously at North Topsail Beach and potentially the same species. I had not taken my camera on that outing, but I returned for sunrise the following day (this would be the 2nd,) and managed to snag a few shots of them in midair.

pair of fish, possibly mullets, jumping simultaneously from water
I got several photos, but most of them at a moderate distance at odd angles, and I was only working with the 18-135mm, so a positive ID was never pinned down (especially when the closest shot, here, was only seeing their bellies.) Nonetheless, based on both appearance and behavior, I suspect these are mullet; the average length seemed to be on the order of 25-30cm. But some of them were dependable enough that I could actually compose a few frames.

single fish, possibly mullet, leaping from water in front of cluster of sailboats
The sunset was unimpressive, being far too clear and thus blinding almost from the moment of appearance, and none of the fish were cooperative enough to jump in front of it before the sun was too bright to make a decent pic. But this one works halfway decently, at least. If I were so inclined, I’d wax enthusiastically about the mood of rebellion and contrariness displayed by facing opposite the boats, but there’s such a thing as trying too hard…

And then, yesterday.

adult North American raccoon Procyon lotor foraging during afternoon on pond edge
Right where the nutria (well, and everything else) regularly forage, we found this adult North American raccoon (Procyon lotor,) in mid-afternoon, of all times. I was able to slip out onto the deck for a clearer view but did not otherwise push it; not only can raccoons be remarkably defensive, seeing one during the day is one of those warning signs of distemper or rabies, though no other evidence of this was forthcoming – both illnesses often display symptoms of sluggishness or being in a daze, aimless wandering and long pauses in confusion. Far more likely was that I spook it off by trying to get closer, so I maintained a little distance while this one was quite busy with its harvesting of already-harvested corn.

adult North American raccoon Procyon lotor foraging for corn on pond edge
I couldn’t be certain while looking through the viewfinder, but I fired off the frames when it seemed likely anyway, and did indeed get the catchlights in the raccoon’s eyes, which is almost a necessity for this species; otherwise the entire mask is simply a band of black most times. It didn’t want to sit up and give me a better pose, but you take what you can get (when you don’t have an entire crew and animal wranglers setting up your shots, I mean.)

So, go see what you can find – still plenty of time left in the day, and I’ll provide a written excuse for you to celebrate this tomorrow if you need it.

Jiskaske nou rankontre ankò, August!

Al Denelsbeck

Squeaking in under the wire with this one, getting out two specially-produced abstract images to see August on its way (since I found absolutely nothing during my normal perambulations.) Will this make them better, or worse than normal? Who’s judging? Who’s reading?

Anyway, what I produced after a little playing around a short while ago:

closeup of top panel of Minox subminiature camera
A handful of people might recognize this, since it contains just enough context, and a few more may be able to make a decent guess based on the progression of the numbers visible on the dial, especially the red dot by the ‘100.’ The dot denotes the highest setting that flash synchronization could be achieved, a trait of older cameras. This is the top panel of a Minox subminiature camera, often called a spy camera though it’s a lot more likely that actual spies used cameras that didn’t look like cameras, so this is more of a spy wannabe camera. I’m slowly collecting some of these, simply because I like them.

And another, more recognizable but likely more fartistic too.

collection of small freshwater snail shells
The sharp-eyed or those familiar with macro work will spot the traits here, knowing this was fairly high magnification and so the smaller white shell is really small. These were all from Cayuga Lake in central New York, several years back – such shells would shift around the lake bottom depending on vagaries of winds and currents, and while I was there a small cove was littered with a thick carpet of these, but clear of them when I returned a few years later. Species? Not even gonna try.

So we’ll send August on its way and soon see what September has to offer, shall we? I mean, I don’t think we have much choice…

Estate Find XXXV

Al Denelsbeck

It was looking like I was going to have to punt the Find again, with nothing much to show for this week, but I went out late Thursday night and found something better than what I had lined up. It’s not fascinating or exciting, but it’s the kind of thing that makes a nature photographer (zoologist/biologist/naturalist/creepy hermit) go, “Aha! Now I know what to be looking for.”

Be warned, however, some of these images are graphic.

bald cypress Taxodium distichum trunk showing heavy bark stripping from North American beaver
Gruesome thing to find in the headlamp, no? Especially deep (well, not that deep) in the woods at night. Yet it’s only resin, an indication that the damage to the bark of this bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) was recent. And, fairly, extensive, since it reached roughly a meter off the ground.

author's hand to show height of damage to bald cypress Taxodium distichum from North American beaver
I was out there alone, so I had to put my own hand into the shot, and couldn’t pose next to it for relative scale. What this indicates though is how big the critter that did it would have to be, which makes this likely from either a nutria, beaver, or bear. Chiplike teeth marks on other trunks nearby (there were several showing this damage) largely ruled out bear, and with seeing the nutria so recently (actually, daily now) and not far from this – fifty meters or less – one would be inclined to favor those as the culprit. There were two bits that were contra-indicators, though. The first was, this is quite close to the beaver lodge and alongside the creek that they favor, and second, I heard the distinct ka-thunk! of one diving only a few minutes before this, right near the lodge – nutria will splash, but they don’t slap the water with a flat tail to make that sound.

damage to bald cypress Taxodium distichum from North American beaver
I’d been out a few times before and hadn’t seen nor heard any signs of the beavers at all, even when I felt that if they’d had young, those would have been out of the lodge by now. And there were signs that they’d had young, since I found scraps of cow lilies on the crossover paths from our pond to the creek, and the only reason for them to be carrying food back at this time of year would be to feed young. Since it had been so quiet with no further signs, however (even the cow lilies have bounced back almost entirely,) I had callously discarded them as a potential photo subject in favor of other things, though I’d wondered if they had moved on or even run afoul of some predator. These pics makes it clear that there is still notable activity, so I have to go back to plans of staking them out, or at least checking a lot more often.

Funny, too, I might have missed this entirely by day, since I would have been relying on the indirect light filtering through the dense canopy, which would not have illuminated this as distinctly as the headlamp aiming right where I was facing. But yeah, I need to be getting my butt up before sunrise and checking out the area more often to see what I can see – I’m not a morning person, as you might have guessed from all of the night pics, so switching over takes a little effort, which I’ll be happy to expend if enough people encourage me. Not that I’m hinting or anything.

For giggles, though, I’ll include what was slotted to be the Estate Find, should I not have found anything else last night. Otherwise it would just go in a separate post anyway.

sunspots late afternoon August 27 2025
I’m still checking out the sun when I think of it, and this past Wednesday, some significant activity had sprung up when all had been quiet before. According to two apps on my smutphone, though, this hasn’t so far resulted in any increase in potential auroral activity, not that I would likely see anything at this latitude, anyway. Compare this to August 4th, however:

minimal sunspot activity from August 4 2025
Barely anything registering there at all, though one day in between there was so little I could pick out only two faint specks.

So, this post could have been worse – at least the bark pics were actually on Walkabout Estates Plus, and not 151 million kilometers above it…

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