Intermission, unnumbered

Al Denelsbeck

Way too many numbered posts in here…

Anyway, a couple of recent pics to break things up slightly, with little exposition.

pickerel frog Lithobates palustris perched on pond's edge
I was out exploring around the edges of the pond out back several days ago and found this guy, who was nice enough not to move while I held the camera down to its level and shot blind. This is a pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris,) that I would see near the old place only on rare occasions, I think always along the Eno River. They can be mistaken for a leopard frog, but are distinguished by more squared-off spots along the sides and, especially, no light spot in the middle of the eardrum. Nothing exciting to say about it, just cataloging that I can expect to find them around here now, presumably more often than before. I’m still determining the various amphibians that are in the immediate vicinity.

And this one (of a pair) was cooperative enough to let me go in and get the camera, but not so cooperative to move to a clearer view:

pileated woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus semi-obscured on backyard tree
We’d spotted pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) near here before, and then one flitting deep in the foliage of the trees near the pond, but this one and its sibling, I think, were right alongside the driveway – just, not getting clear of intervening branches and leaves. I did at least get this frame with the eye and catchlight visible between the branches. The two were foraging not more than two meters apart, and I thought they might be a mated pair but couldn’t get a clear enough look to determine male and female. Then the following day, I heard a familiar wheet-a wheet-a sound and watched a pair land on a nearby dead trunk, likely the same pair, but that sound seems to be uttered by immature woodpeckers conversing amongst themselves – so far, that’s the only time I’ve heard it, and until now I thought it was only flickers.

I went in to get the camera for the pair on the dead tree, but they elected not to hang around long enough. However, within a couple of minutes a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) came along instead.

red-bellied woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus on dead tree with acorn
The day was light overcast and I was facing almost due south in mid-afternoon, so the lighting wasn’t getting any better, and this has even been lightened in post, despite dialing in some exposure compensation while shooting. But at least it’s sharp, and you can see the acorn snack that the woodpecker has, as well as the fungus growing from the trunk. This tree sees a lot of action, mostly woodpeckers so far, but it’s a shame that my vantage is never going to be in good light. Maybe I’ll go down the road a little and see if I can get a better view from there, but the nearby trees may prevent that.

Managing a little more time to chase photos now, but up next, we have even more anoles. Well, one…

Don’t miss this

Al Denelsbeck

The idiocy of Daylight Saving Time is upon us again, or at least it was early this morning, and while smutphones and computers are generally on top of things now, you are likely aware of how many little clocks around the house are not: the alarm clock, the stove and microwave, the grandfather clock… and of course your camera. Sure, maybe this matters little, but if you’re going to have a timestamp on your images, it might as well be accurate, right? So go change that clock now.

As yet, no one that has the power seems inclined to eradicate the utter nonsense of DST, even though it gets bandied around as a worthwhile idea twice a year. I’m 98% positive this is what is keeping alien civilizations from contacting us, because it takes a special brand of stupid to alter the time of day that we do any given thing, but change what the clock reads to pretend that we didn’t. Who are we attempting to fool? If you need to do something in daylight, then do it in daylight regardless of what the clock says, but the daylight period is going to be less in winter no matter what we do, so fucking with the ‘official’ time isn’t accomplishing anything.

But anyway, if you prefer to have your pics match the time on your smutphone (and there are occasions when I’ve actually counted on an accurate timestamp,) then fuck with your camera clock too and set it appropriately. I’ll be back in six months to bitch about this again.

They know

Al Denelsbeck

We had one batch of trick-or-treaters tonight, the first Halloween in the new house – we’d been alerted that the neighborhood never saw too many, and we decided to forego the All Hallows Read thing this year because we didn’t feel like packing away the collected books. But once we decided that we weren’t likely to see any more costumed visitors, I went out front and glanced down to find this guy snoozing right alongside the walk.

juvenile Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping on greenbrier leaf
It looks like I caught it clambering up this greenbrier plant, but no, it had been sleeping in exactly this position, only cracking open its eye as I leaned in closer with the headlamp to focus. This is the same plant seen earlier, but once the nights had gone colder it was abandoned as a sleeping perch and I figured I wouldn’t be seeing them on it anymore this year – I’d almost cut the plant out, since this and the swamp oak (also used as an anole hammock) are growing from a decorative patch of liriope and don’t need to be there, but I didn’t want to deprive the anoles of a sleeping spot until they were no longer using it. However, they seem to know when the night isn’t going to get too cold, because it wasn’t the only one I found snoozing under the stars.

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping on porch light bracket
This is the bracket for the same light fixture seen in that linked post above, right alongside the back door. I find it curious because the metal obviously loses its heat quickly overnight, but at least this one gets the very first light in the morning so the anole should warm up quickly at daybreak. On multiple occasions, we’ve found anoles sleeping in the gap above the storm door only centimeters from this light, and if we’re not careful in checking the door, they drop off as we open it and get into the house; so far The Boogs have never noticed this happening and so the rodeo isn’t half as hectic as it might be. Two mornings back, I opened the main door to see a little tail peeking down from the crack of the storm door, and rudely woke the owner up by tweaking it gently, but it prevented the anole from getting into the house at least.

And finally:

Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis sleeping on railing planter frame
This one was found on the frame for a railing planter off of the back deck, first time I’ve found one sleeping there. It’s 19°c right now and I don’t think it’s supposed to drop below 16, so they might get a little chilled but nothing serious.

Even more anole pics will be along shortly – yeah, it’s a rut, but the property is absolutely covered with them and they’re active when other critters aren’t, so this is what we have right now. I’m trying to imagine the territorial battles come spring.

Scaring October off

Al Denelsbeck

I’m later than normal, but it’s still the end of the month, so we can still have the end-of-month abstract. And I even have a couple of specific attempts, all from yesterday when I had a few minutes. Let’s see here, we have:

bald cypress Taxodium distichum turning bright orange in autumn, backlit overhead
I believe I mentioned, but Walkabout Estates Plus has a bunch of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees, right in the back forty, and the light was good yesterday morning to fire them up as they did their autumn color change. Curiously, while none of the trees are more than a couple dozen meters apart, the color range they display is pretty much the full gamut that they can before the leaves drop off for winter – some of them are still fully green.

And then we have:

Virginia creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia vines changing color for autumn
I think there’s only a very narrow window during the day when these Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) vines catch the sunlight, and I failed to be out there for it so far, so we have the color cast of open shade, yet a decent range of colors. I really do have to get this in sunlight…

And finally:

reflection of great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias in water alongside sailboat mast
The Girlfriend and I went down to the waterfront in the morning, because it was the perfect conditions for it – well, almost. We hadn’t been down there to check on the fall colors across the sound, but the trees there had already all turned and lost their leaves. So I snagged this instead, while it was still early morning and my eyes hadn’t quite cleared their overnight gunk, and this affected the photo.

Okay, I lie, this is actually the reflection of the heron and sailboat mast in the water, and is displayed upside-down here just to be confusing. It’s a shame a turtle didn’t surface someplace in the ‘sky’ to make things really eye-bending.

I have a few more photos to feature, should be along in the next day or two. Slowly getting back into the groove here…

Just once, part 44

Al Denelsbeck

fledgling white-breasted nuthatch Sitta carolinensis pausing on ground
This one’s kind of curious, not because of its appearance, since it only looks like this because it’s newly fledged, just out of the nest. No, it’s because I can’t imagine why the species has only been seen here once. This is a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis,) and as such, is common everywhere I’ve lived, and usually not too hard to spot – put up a bird feeder and they’ll be there within a day. So how is this the only photo of one that I’ve featured?

In checking (because on occasion, the species name changes and I’ve actually featured them countless times, but only once under a particular name,) I found plenty of nuthatch posts – only, for the brown-headed nuthatch. That’s a species that I only started seeing in NC, never realizing they existed for at least half of my life. As such, I consider them much rarer than the white-breasted above, though this is likely only personal experience and reflected in growing up with that species and seeing it constantly. And I’m sure I have plenty of pics of the white-breasted, but I simply never posted any. Huh. Some of the posts I was thinking about I realized were of the black-capped chickadee instead.

But since I’m here, I have to relate an anecdote from NY. One fall, I was looking out the window and seeing a white-breasted nuthatch perched on the pole supporting our bird feeder – nuthatches are even more adept than woodpeckers at clinging to vertical surfaces and will do it in any orientation, apparently possessing their own personal gravity. This one was perched sideways on the pole, and as I watched, the bird gave a short hop and reversed the direction it was facing, not even flipping its wings momentarily. A few seconds later it occurred to me that this wasn’t kosher; had the bird given a little hop like it appeared, it would have arced away from the pole and started falling to the ground, sideways from the bird’s perspective. Instead, it simply appeared like it had performed a short hop wile standing on the ground, only sideways. This required a full reversal of its feet at least, but the bird made it look perfectly normal. It’s the kind of thing that you want to look at in slow-motion replay, to see exactly how it was done.

I just checked; I even have a handful of images from my first digital camera, nearly four years before I had started the blog – I just never featured one here, except once. Oh well.

white-breasted nuthatch Sitta carolinensis perched sideways on bird feeder

Another milestone in photography

Al Denelsbeck

Or to be more specific, another milestone to photographers, because it doesn’t really impact photography in any significant way. But today is the birthday of Patois Ferndiddler. known far and wide (for a given definition of those, anyway,) as the inventor of the neck strap.

Ferndiddler’s innovation came along in that crucial time period between photographers no longer being able to afford assistants (those damn labor laws and requirements that ‘apprentices’ actually learn something) and the creation of the camera bag. Ferndiddler, realizing that constantly carrying around a large format 8×10 view camera didn’t allow the photographer to scratch themselves or pick their nose, tried to find a decent way to support the camera in a more-or-less handy way without it being in his hands, and we’ll go into the inherent contradiction in the term ‘handy’ in some later post. He first attempted to support the camera on a wheeled stand, but after losing three cameras and causing an international incident at Machu Picchu, he realized this wasn’t going to work. He then tested out the idea of a backpack sling but correctly determined that hanging a camera from your back was the best possible way to mimic leaving it at home while still carrying the weight – sadly, this lesson was lost to time. However, while leaning over a railing to speak to a teenage girl below, one of his backpack straps broke and the heavy camera swung around in a large arc that neatly decapitated an ancient statue while nearly pulling Ferndiddler over the railing, and he had his inspiration. He quickly devised a leather belt to hold the camera around his neck and thus in front of his chest, also making it obvious that he had a camera and was thus a force to be reckoned with.

Camera manufacturers were quick to adopt his idea because he was dumb enough not to patent it, but it also increased their revenue substantially in repairs to broken lenses and dented bodies. Since it also made the camera more obvious, they began adding in such enormously useful accoutrements as chrome and leatherette accents, which helped keep the makers of cheap-ass glue from going broke (as well as the breeders of steerettes.) The most abundant addition to the idea came when Kodak accidentally invested millions in pale brown shoe polish (phone connections to your broker were abysmal in those days,) and had to find some way to make this work. They created the Ever-Ready case to completely enclose the camera in leather, with a snap to release the top portion and permit immediate control of the camera while allowing the same portion to hang clumsily and conspicuously from the bottom of the camera, creating the tourist meme that Mad Magazine was delighted to abuse for decades.

Eventually, even tourists realized that a leather strap holding something heavy around your neck was enormously uncomfortable and chafing, and manufacturers were quick (for a given definition of that, anyway) to adopt the broad and softer accessory neck strap, usually with some Native American blanket motif because… actually, we have no goddamn idea why this pattern became so prevalent; it’s not like Native Americans even used such for their quivers. What all of these were adept at producing, however, was neck sweat, leading to the ‘ring around the collar’ commercials in the 70s.

Ferndiddler himself was undone by his own invention, bending over to greet the Duchess of Esperanto and accidentally snagging his camera on the arm of her chair, sending her over backwards when he stood again and hurling her into a piranha-infested river; the firing squad was unsympathetic. Meanwhile, even though camera bags have virtually taken over in a blindingly-obvious “Duryea!” manner, camera manufacturers still include a neck strap with new purchases as if this is a bonus of some kind, always requiring the buyer the thread it themselves through the little flat loops because, in a high percentage of cases, this results in the camera slipping free and shattering on the concrete.

Today, you can still purchase camera straps (yes, even in those Native American motifs,) though the target customer now seems to be retro-hipsters with their Yashica Electro 35s. But for a glorious period (for a given definition of that, anyway,) the neck strap reigned supreme as the must-have camera accessory, and for that, we recognize Patois Ferndiddler and his contribution to the history of neck problems and dented chrome accents.

What’s the right thing?

Al Denelsbeck

So it was a bit of an amphibious day yesterday, meaning that’s what I was finding around Walkabout Estates Plus. We’ll start with the greenhouse:

odd muddy markings on side of greenhouse, likely from a treefrog
While, as I said before, the property is absolutely overrun with anoles, they tend to be dry and not leave any evidence of their passing, so while I have found nothing conclusive within these strange, faintly muddy markings on the sides of the new greenhouse, I’m inclined to say that they were made by a treefrog – perhaps more than one, because really, they were literally covering several of the panes, and this was on the outside, so not any that got trapped within. I checked, last night and tonight, but didn’t find any frogs around the greenhouse.

I did find one, a tiny one, on the liriope along the front walk, though.

juvenile Copes grey treefrog Dryophytes chrysoscelis perched on liriope
While the green patch is bright and obvious, this is instead a Copes grey treefrog (Dryophytes chrysoscelis,) and a little one at that, probably just a few weeks out of tadpole stage – the key identifier for the grey treefrogs is the pale patch under the eye, and while there is another species with the same patch (the common grey treefrog,) they’re almost unheard of in North Carolina. The green will disappear as it gets older and begins to hide on trunks rather than leaves.

As I came out the front door yesterday, I saw a tiny black thing hopping across the bricks and quickly stooped to grab it, then sought The Girlfriend out so she could hold it for pics. She watched my cupped-hand approach with some trepidation, not knowing if I had something cute (like a frog) or creepy (like a snake,) but agreed to hold this guy once she saw it.

unidentified tiny black frog with gold markings, in The Girlfriend's hand for scale
The thing is, I don’t know what species this is at all; it’s likely a juvenile, especially since it resembles none of the chorus frogs that might be found in the area, but the guides that I have all show adult specimens. I’m vaguely suspicious that it’s a young narrowmouth toad, from the dark skin and snout shape, but that’s the best I can offer right now.

old nylon webbing that had ensnared a spadefoot toadYesterday as we went past a patch of bare earth, I spotted something moving and realized that it was a toad trying to bury itself, but it soon ceased any movement as we drew close. I’m a guy, so I took a small handful of sandy soil and deposited it onto the back of the toad, to protect it from the hot sun, and continued on with our tree-transplanting tasks. Today, I stopped by the same spot and could still see it there, so I went to scoop it up for a closer examination, because I rarely saw toads that dark. Only, it wasn’t coming up, and appeared to be anchored by a leg (I was not tugging with any force at all – I’m circumspect.) Eventually I determined that one hind leg was wrapped tightly with something well-anchored in the soil, and with some digging I freed this, finding it to be a scrap of old nylon webbing; what I had taken the day before to be efforts to bury itself were actually efforts to free itself from this tourniquet. That meant that it had been there at least a full day, and the hind leg was angled badly and discolored. Wanting to evaluate the condition as well as get some detailed pics, I brought the toad inside and eventually set it up in a makeshift terrarium, since all of my decent options for housing are still two hours away. But you need to see these eyes at least.

eastern spadefoot Scaphiopus holbrookii showing vertical slit pupils
This is an eastern spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii,) a toad not to be found in our old area of central NC, but closer to the coast the conditions are more conducive to them since they prefer sandier soils. Spadefoots are also one of the few species of toad with vertical pupils, and the irises are not always this green; let’s have a closer look:

closeup of eye of eastern spadefoot Scaphiopus holbrookii
Those are perhaps the best-looking eyes of any species I’ve photographed, and they get even better from the front:

portrait view of eastern spadefoot Scaphiopus holbrookii showing almost-confusing eyes
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is where the writers of Futurama got the inspiration for the hypnotoad, and certainly, once I saw this perspective I knew that I needed a pic. You can see the right hind leg sitting out at an awkward angle, but here’s a better view:

injured leg of eastern spadefoot Scaphiopus holbrookii, still showing dark ridge for digging that inspired the common name
The dark ridge along the back edge of the foot is what gives the species its common name, and helps them dig backwards into their burrows, where they spend much of their time. But it shouldn’t be sitting out at this angle, and even after several hours of recovery time, the toad shows no signs of being able to use it, so I fear the worst. You can even make out the groove that the nylon webbing left, right where the coloration changes going up the leg.

The toad is otherwise alert and responsive, and can move around despite the hindrance of this leg, but I’m certain that it’s at a distinct disadvantage in avoiding predators, capturing meals, and even maintaining its burrow. Spadefoots spend most of their time underground, and often “forage” by simply coming to the mouth of their burrow and waiting for food (spiders, crickets, ants) to happen past. So the chances are that this guy would simply die quickly in the wild from being unable to function properly, if complications from that leg injury don’t accomplish this faster. I’m not a fan of keeping wild animals as captives, but I’m thinking this might be the best thing for this guy, provided I can give it enough of a habitat to be comfortable. Or I may contact the university the next city over (about a half-hour away) and see if their biology department wants to tackle this. Even if the leg could be ‘set,” I doubt any veterinarian in the area would know how to, saying nothing of course of what they’d charge me. Even the licensed wildlife rehabilitators within an hour of here only take small mammals.

So, I’m undecided right now, but I’ll settle on something within a day or so, and let you know where it’s going.

Just once, part 43

Al Denelsbeck

I find it a little amusing right now that, during the house closing thing when I knew we’d be busy, I set up several posts ahead of time to prevent any noticeable lapses in my posting “schedule,” but for the past month or so have had almost nothing to continue filling in, naively (or is that naïvely?) thinking that I’d be able to fill in here and there. It is to laugh. Seriously, I’m wondering when we’ll be done with all of this moving horseshit and I’ll be able to get back into a routine.

Also, for amusement, I’ll remind you that, almost two years ago, I’d speculated that we’d reach the 3,000th post by late September of this year; we are quite far from that mark and, unless things do a serious change for the better (which is not something to hope for when fall is settling in and the critters becoming less active,) we’re not going to hit that mark by the end of the year either. However, I might be able to squeeze out another podcast – I’ve had one stewing in my brain at least.

For now, we turn to the Just Once subject for this week, with the caveat that it might not have appeared just once anyway.

yellow rat snake Pantherophis obsoleta quadrivittata digesting baby bluebirds within nest box
This is from four years ago, a yellow rat snake (Pantherophis obsoleta quadrivittata) – or at least, it was. Since that time, or somewhere near it anyway, biologists have changed the species – now it’s potentially considered a subspecies of the eastern rat snake, which itself has changed, and is thus Pantherophis alleghaniensis quadrivittata. Seriously, the number of times the scientific names of these related species have changed just since I started the blog is disturbing.

yellow rat snake Pantherophis obsoleta quadrivittata in author's hands, showing bulges from consuming baby bluebirds, by The Girlfriend's Sprog
This session did mark the first time that I’d photographed (and handled) a yellow rat snake, however, having pulled it from a bluebird nest box at our friends’ house, where you can see that it had consumed several baby bluebirds. Our friend was not happy about this, but this is how nature works; rat snakes are really good about climbing things and detecting the scent of birds’ nests (and, naturally, of rodents as well,) and bluebirds have clutches of multiple young, sometimes twice a year. Natural selection keeps them working their own angles to survive.

A year later, we have the first (and so far only) example of the new nomenclature – maybe.

yellow eastern rat snake Pantherophis alleghaniensis quadrivittata not as threatened anymore
Quite a bit different in appearance, isn’t it? While I’m quite sure that it’s a variant of eastern rat snake, I’m not 100% sure that it’s the yellow subspecies, due to this coloration. The main species of eastern rat snake used to be called the black rat snake, which is more appropriate, and this is neither black nor yellow. I’ve heard that the two subspecies can cross-breed, which this might be an example of, or it might simply be a wider color variant of the yellow – snakes, many reptiles and amphibians actually, can have a lot of variation in their colors, meaning little. Since this was found on an island (albeit not a remote or significantly isolated one,) there remains a chance this is an island variant, able to be found only on Topsail Island, but I admit this is unlikely.

I have a brief video clip, too:

The scale of the first snake above is clear enough, but not this one, which was even bigger, pushing two meters in length. I had no qualms about handling it, but let it be, then regretted it when I discovered later on that I couldn’t find this color variant. I watched the same area for the next several days but saw no signs of it; I would have at least gotten a lot more detailed images of it, from all angles, underside included.

Well, I might’ve, anyway – The Girlfriend was the only other person available at that time, and she sure as hell would not have tried handling it, nor would she have gotten too close for nice detail shots either. I’ve done the one-handed thing with snakes for photos, and it’s quite challenging, to put it mildly. No, I don’t have any Xtreemkooldood head-mounted action cams or anything of that ilk, so that wasn’t an option either. But I would’ve found some way…

Just once, part 42

Al Denelsbeck

It’s been a while since we’ve had a mammal, hasn’t it? That’s because I have very few candidate mammals in the Just Once list, and too few mammals overall, really. But since the posts have been lean, we’ll have a video for this one.

Those are Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus,) and were found at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, a new brood that had hatched there two years back. They also represent the only species featured so far to have “Asian” in the name – a little surprising to me, but okay.

On our visit to Goose Creek State Park last year, a ranger alerted us to the presence of otters early that morning, though we were there in late morning and saw no signs of them; these would have been North American river otters instead, and I do have a handful of frames of those, from the wild even, but am always happy to have more/closer/better because that’s what nature photographers do – I still take photos of osprey and great blue herons even though I have thousands of frames of those. When we revisited the park a couple weeks back I thought we had found otter tracks, but now comparing the sizes, I’m fairly certain we’d found something else instead. Still, if they’re there, I’ll be after them – the biggest issue is that I can’t get very early access to the park unless I camp there overnight, and I hate camping.

“But Al,” you interject snarkily, “can’t you endure a little hardship if it’s for the cause? Are you sure you’re a real nature photographer” Though I admit I don’t know the definition of a real nature photographer but I suspect it involves garnering more income than this from it, so no, I’m probably not – which gives me a handy excuse. But it’s true that, if I have enough evidence that it won’t be wasted effort, I may set up a tent overnight, knowing full well that I won’t sleep worth a shit and will be tired and stiff as hell when I’m chasing pics. And given your comment, I’m sure you’ll be buying a print or five when I do, right?

Just once, part 41

Al Denelsbeck

Hmmmm, what do we have here? I was just about to do this week’s Just Once post and decided on the specimen below, in honor of Halloween (which is when it originally posted nine years ago):

jumping spider Habronattus pyrrithrix peering out of shadows
… which you gotta admit is a nice, ominous image, and as I said then, I wanted to do this in the yard some Halloween, or perhaps up on the rooftop. I never did get around to it, mostly because finding the raw materials in the size I wanted to do it wasn’t happening.

Though as I got ready to do this post, I searched BugGuide.net on the name (Habronattus pyrrithrix, I think) to be sure that it hadn’t changed and it still looked like a good match, because I’m anal in that regard, dog knows why. No change and it still looks like a match, but, one of the images shown on that site looked familiar, and so I compared it to the video I’d shot a few years ago, where I’d asked if anyone recognized the species:

I had a post just about finalized thinking that I’d found a match and thus this species hadn’t been featured Just Once, but then I looked closer and realized that the cephalothorax markings seemed inverted. Other pics of the same species all show distinct black markings along the sides, while the center dorsal markings are usually less distinct if not almost missing entirely – but they all have those side markings, which my video specimen does not have in the slightest.

So I thought I’d solved a mystery by finding the species of the video spider, but now it looks like I did not, and thus Habronattus pyrrithrix comes back into the lineup as a Just Once feature, and the video spider remains unidentified. So much drama…

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