Looking back on those we post in 2021

Al Denelsbeck

Okay, was that a particularly terrible title? I dunno, it had that certain cliché-trashing aspect to it…

Anyway, a look back at posts and photos from last year that I’m fond of, which you should definitely consider fair warning, because you’re not getting any others. There will be a couple more posts of a similar nature coming, one of them the annual tag roundup, so this will have companions eventually. Also, while there’s no point where I could say that I ever did insightful posts, last year was notably thin on those that fit my own definition, so there will be a little more concentration on photos, here. Anyway, favored posts in chronological order:

So many questions – More about nomenclature than anything, but it reveals ongoing research into our ancestry. And it has a followup post further down.

A little bit – Surprising finds for February, but always appreciated in those slow months.

Came through in the end – A serendipitous photo sequence – well, okay, perhaps not, because it’s exactly the kind of thing we were there to find, and managed not to interrupt it or anything so, all skill, baby.

But still, ‘snot art – Cropped into a vertical from a horizontal original, and one of a sequence of frames as they passed, it all came together for this to make it one of my favorite beach pics.

The backstory (part 1 perhaps) – Just a few pics I like, mere grab shots during a road trip.

New York: The raptors II (On the Move) – The names is cribbed from the movie Mannequin Two: On the Move, but this is much better by far, and I can say that having only seen the first. This, however is part of the reason why bird photos outnumbered all others this past year.

Not even a day – I’m gonna cheat a little here, because there are three posts all together featuring the juvenile green treefrogs, but I couldn’t decide on which was the best to feature, so also check out I did and Can’t leave ’em alone.

Here be dragons. Tiny ones. And bugs – A great day at the NC Botanical Garden, with one of my favorite subjects taking the lead.

Going critical – Man, we need some more emphasis on critical thinking in this country. Well, all over the world, really, but it’s especially embarrassing when it’s your own country.

Too cool, part 49: Genetics and Human Evolution – This is the followup to a post above, even when it didn’t answer the main question, but that’s okay because it’s an excellent video nonetheless.

Not too shabby at that – Good conditions for the not-total lunar eclipse of November 2021 (yes, I know the correct term is ‘partial lunar eclipse,’ but this was so close to total that “partial’ gives the wrong impression.)

And now, a few of my favorite images from the past year [cue sappy music]:

juvenile northern water snake Nerodia sipedon sipedon from opposite angle
Wasn’t expecting to find a juvenile northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon) active in March, but I’ll take it.

osprey Pandion haliaetus flying off with fish in either talon
For all the trouble I’ve had focus-tracking on diving osprey (Pandion haliaetus) the past few years, this is way sharper than it had any right to be. Put ’em both to use!

black racer Coluber constrictor in close portrait
A briefly cooperative black racer (Coluber constrictor,) right in the side yard, and very likely one I’d seen the previous year. Welcome back!

person pn horizon appearing to shoot enormous sun above them
Sunrise with a long lens, and someone nearly two kilometers off. I bet it’s hot over there…

green heron Butorides virescens looking globular
Of course this was gonna make it up here!

closeup profile of male pileated woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus
… and this. It’s easy to say something like, “Well, sure, you had that monster lens,” (go ahead,) but 600mm doesn’t magnify that much – I had to be fairly close for both of these, so I’m showing off. Deal.

juvenile bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus staring into camera
Acting on a hunch after hearing some calls and seeing an adult fly off, I found this newly-fledged juvenile bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) enjoying its catered meal.

sunset through thin clouds over Cayuga Lake, New York
Same day.

roseate spoonbill Platalea ajaja and unconfirmed gull, likely herring gull Larus argentatus, hanging out
A few months after saying that I’d only photographed them once in my life, perhaps, I found this roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) in central New York. They do not belong in New York. At all. Not even close.

lone juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea looking unconvincingly earnest
Trying too hard to look totally guileless.

newly adult Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis sporting water droplets
The mist was my own doing, but the Chinese mantids (Tenodera sinensis) usually appreciate it.

close crop of Carolina anole Anolis carolinensis covered in dew
This dew is perfectly natural, and the juvenile Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) is tiny. And on our rose bush.

inset of previous moon photo stretching from Copernicus to Tycho craters
Full resolution crop of the moon one night, Tamron 150-600 at 600mm with Tokina 2X teleconverter.

stark trunk silhouetted against bright autumn colors
An autumn color tableau.

fireplace and holiday lights
Experimenting with the holiday lights.

Originally, I had done a post with the first and last photos of the year in each of my stock categories, but after spending too much time on it I found it was boring and trashed the post. However, in that process I did tally up the number of saved images for the year:

Aquatic: 16 (didn’t do a lot of fish in 2021)
Arthropods: 729
Beach: 195 in a mere five days
Birds: 2,978! I think it was a birdy year…
Invertebrates (which is mostly snails/slugs): 22
Lakes/Streams/Waterfalls: 533
Leaves/Plants/Trees: 754
Mammals: 145
Mountains: 23 – I don’t do enough mountain trips, and this year was no exception.
Reptiles/Amphibians: 1,165
Scenic/Abstract: 755
Science/Miscellaneous: 705
Space: 243
Sunrise/Sunset: 666

That totals to 8,929, but that isn’t accurate since a) a number of those are duplicated across multiple categories, and b) it doesn’t include the personal shots that aren’t counted as sellable stock (unless you’re making an offer?) In comparing the first and last image numbers for the year, I find I shot a hair over 15,000 images, so retention was somewhere around half – this is typical for working photographers, maybe slightly higher than average, but that could only mean I’m not being as critical as I should. I’m surprised the Arthropods aren’t higher, really. But I’ll close with one of those bookend images that never got uploaded before, the last shot in the Beach category, from way back in May:

scenic sunrise over foam on North Topsail Beach
the author encountering a small T-RexBut I can’t let it go at that, either, so I’m adding a photo of yours truly, taken by The Girlfriend’s Sprog at the Greensboro Science Center – the fences really should have a buffer barrier in there…

Thinking of getting into computers?

Al Denelsbeck

Thinking of doing HTML or webdesign, programming/coding, even database management?

Don’t. Pick something less frustrating, such as herding cats or teaching Republicans how to recognize utter bullshit.

Here’s the story: For the previous post, I was linking to something much older, and as I’ve found for years, some of the older posts have small formatting issues due to screen width and browser size and all that, so they look a little weird if you’re using a browser different from the one I’d used at the time. Fine, understood. I knew how to correct them, so as I come across them, I add them to a list to tackle when I have a little free time.

Only, if you just go into the post itself through the normal route and update them, they will reappear in RSS feeds as a new post, and likely in other ways. So I got in the habit of simply correcting them in the database itself. This means finding them, among well over 2,000 posts now.

It used to be that I’d search on the date, but with the switch to the new host, that function hasn’t been working. Eventually, I determined that a buttload of stuff in the database has corrupt date stamps – they display the correct date, but the query or search functions do not, apparently, use what I’m looking at in the results. What do they use? Got me. But it doesn’t work.

[I need to note that the date stamp includes the time as well, down to the second, so even searching on the date takes modifiers because, unless you know the exact second that it was published, it won’t be found without fudging the search criteria with “>=” factors, and again, only if the date stamps aren’t fucked up.]

Then I started searching on the post title – seems simple, right? I mean, I even endeavor not to repeat titles so there’s no confusion. But on occasion, this returns nothing.

Why? Well, in this case, it’s because the title had an apostrophe in it, and whatever apostrophe I was copying directly from the title displayed on the screen, was not the same apostrophe as the search function seemed to be looking for.

Why are there different apostrophes? The fuck if I know. I got one key on the keyboard that applies to both apostrophes and single ‘quotes’ (like those,) and even though I’m sure they’re technically different to English pedants, I have no way of differentiating them in the system nor of knowing which one was just used in a title. So I eventually determined that I had to delete the apostrophed word from the search term and use REG EXP as a modifier to the search (I’m assuming this means Regular Expression, but what that means in SQL is anybody’s guess – if there’s more than one goddamn apostrophe, the meaning of Regular Expression probably requires a Wikipedia page someplace.)

Anal me stalled the new post for fifteen minutes to allow myself time to correct the older, linked post, but it took over forty minutes to determine that it was the fucking apostrophe that hung things up (as well as trying numerous other search avenues, including in a different browser.) Who needs that shit? I remember this kind of nonsense back from my days diddybipping around in BASIC, where an “O” where a “0” should be would crash the whole program and could take a ridiculously long time to find – I’m aware of that now (and it makes at least a modicum of sense, even when it’s barely different on screen.) Even this post title, with the question mark in there, has to be externally saved as a text file (which I do routinely, after some database crashes years ago made me start covering my ass,) without the question mark, because that means something else in the operating system’s filenames.

So seriously, pick another field to get into. I only dabble in this and it’s noticeably unhealthy to my mood. If it helps, all three of my personal acquaintances who do this kind of thing routinely, each about the same age as I am, have significantly less hair than I do. Coincidence?

Visibly different, part 1

Al Denelsbeck

And so we come to the new weekly topic for the year, which may seem a bit self-absorbed at first, but is something that I recommend to everyone because it not only helps to see the progress that you’ve been making, it points out the progress still waiting to be made. In short, it’s a comparison of an older image, preferably one that I was once proud of capturing, with something current. This was almost a singular post of its own last year that I let slide, but I recently realized that I could (perhaps) make a whole year out of it.

We begin with one that currently resides in the gallery section of the main site, taken better than twenty years ago now (the copyright date actually indicates its first publication in media, in this case the web, rather than the year it was taken since I’m not sure about this.)

green treefrog Hyla cinerea preparing to leap from unknown plant in Butterfly House of Museum of Life and Science, Durham NC
At the time this was taken, I had yet to spot a green treefrog in the wild, and even finding them within the Butterfly House of the Museum of Life & Science in Durham, NC (where this was taken) was challenging; this may have been because there were very few therein, or simply because the species is nocturnal and so usually snoozing during open hours. As the position implies, I was shooting from well beneath, but this gave it a dynamic composition that I’m still pleased with. The combination of using contrasty slide film (Fuji Provia 100F) and digitally adjusting the exposure due to accidentally under-exposing the image produced, well, something that looks a little too altered.

Yes, even film cameras of that time had exposure meters, but I was using small, manual flash units strapped directly to the lens hood for macro work, since the shoe-mounted 380EX flash aimed too high for close subjects; I had yet to even get an off-camera cord to move the flash to a bracket where the aim could be adjusted, much less perform the umpteen changes that led to the current rig (and even that’s not perfectly current, because it’s since been rebuilt out of hardier materials and reshaped a little.) I had performed a plethora of lighting tests to become familiar with the little strobes’ level of light output, but neglected to account for the light loss from using a teleconverter for the shot.

That all brings us to this image from last summer.

green treefrog Hyla cinerea perched awkwardly
It’s easy to see the better color and contrast, though not quite as obvious is the improved lighting – still bright enough for good detail, but not straight-on and so providing better shaping. Not at all visible are the conditions, which was in our own backyard, not captive in any way. I’d spent years without seeing the species in North Carolina, and finally started finding them sporadically when living in Florida (only a couple of years after that copyright date up there.) Upon returning to NC, I then would only see them no more than twice a year, before the move to the new place (nearly eight years ago now) where I discovered a pond that they adored. But I was still hoping to get them established closer, and this eventually happened; we’re now at the point where I see them far more frequently than the other common species (the Copes grey treefrog,) and don’t even have to travel minimally to do so. The ready availability means that I can spend the time finding more esoteric and expressive poses, as well as more behavior and various life stages.

Yet I still have the goal to produce images that don’t look like they were shot at night, even when that’s perfectly natural: more background detail, a nicely-lit setting. This will require multiple lights to even illuminate a setting, once found, and this is considerably less portable than a strobe attached to the camera. Still hashing that part out, so perhaps we’ll see a new technique by the end of the year.

Vermilion Monday

Al Denelsbeck

No, this isn’t going to be a regular thing – I don’t think. I just had a couple of photos to upload and needed an appropriate title, and the callback to last week just happened…

But, the backstory. My mom was always found of houseplants, even though her cats didn’t approve of keeping them in pristine condition, and one of her long-term succulents was a jade plant. Sometime after her death almost six years ago, my brother gave away the jade plant because someone wanted it and he knew he wasn’t as inclined to maintain it. A week after that, he moved a bit of furniture near the window and discovered a branch that had broken off of the plant when it had been moved. It still seemed viable, so he popped it in water and, many days later when it was sprouting roots, into its own pot.

This past summer when The Girlfriend and I were at his place in New York, we saw the sprawling and abundant plant that had grown from this single branch (so it appears he was better at its care than he suspected,) and he suggested we take a couple of cuttings home with us, since they’re that easy to cultivate and transplant. And they were; all three rooted immediately, and when transplanted into their own pots, simply exploded. And just a few days back, I noticed that they were starting to bloom. I would have done some photos last night, only I discovered that these were the type of flowers that close at night, so the session waited until this morning.

flower cluster of neverdie Kalanchoe crenata
Only, as The Girlfriend repeatedly told me, this isn’t a jade plant, though it’s related; it’s a neverdie (Kalanchoe crenata,) with thinner but broader leaves. It took a plant ID app on the smutphone to pin this down. But it’s winter, and they’re flowering, so one of the three came down from an upstairs window for a short session, including some applications of the misting bottle.

misted flowers of neverdie Kalanchoe crenata
Given our sporadic luck with plants, including countless seedlings that started and faltered, and several purchased plants that thrived for a couple of weeks after transplanting then simply died, these three have scoffed at their finicky and sensitive brethren, now threatening to get huge and make us look for a bigger house. Seriously, if you have bad luck with plants, get one of these – they’re like therapy.

We also received a small cactus for christmas from a neighbor, and while we were told that the red flower it sported was simply a fake for appearance, I had brought the cactus down for some ‘dew’ sessions as well, and it was this fake flower that produced the best images at extreme magnification.

misted artificial flower on cactus
Nothing exciting, but we’ll call it a month-beginning abstract, and thematic for this Monday.

There are more things in the works, including the standard retrospective jazz, but I’m moving slow right now so I opted to go with a little color for the winter, to start the year off. Even though I’m not fond of red, myself, and calling it by another name doesn’t change that.

Not done yet

Al Denelsbeck

You think I could let the end-of-mear/yonth abstract go by like that? Not hardly!

closeup of pair of American or Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber napping
Moreover, this is quite current, having been taken today, so deal with that! You know you can’t! And we gots that color in winter thing going on too, practically assaulting your eyes.

profile of Indian peafowl or peacock Pavo cristatus from Greensboro Science Center
A handful of us (if you’re missing a finger on that hand, anyway, and if you consider a ‘handful’ to be defined by how many fingers and not how many could actually be held in that hand, which would be ‘none’ unless you count only portions that we’re not even going to examine,) paid a visit to the Greensboro Science Center in, of all places, Greensboro, NC. Curiously, I ended up shooting a lot more video than still photos, so while you’re getting a selection here, the more interesting captures will come later on after a bunch of editing, which will include deciding how much of the esoteric background noises (mostly kids saying the damnedest things) will be retained.

The last visit that The Girlfriend and I paid to the Science Center was long ago, pretty close to this time of year, but it was in relation to their hosting of Bodies: The Exhibition (which was fascinating, and in fact, the second place we’d seen it,) and I don’t think I’d lugged the camera along because they didn’t permit it within the show. Our briefer visit to the animal exhibits afterwards were thus photo-free, which is a small shame – worse, however, was not returning in well over a decade. Greensboro is not that far away, so we will be rectifying this long lapse more often, I believe.

profile of Aldabran tortoise Aldabrachelys gigantea at Greensboro Science Center
While we saw activity from plenty of species, many of them weren’t displaying or even visible, which is typical of zoos, and so return trips are necessary if you wish to get good examples of most of the residents. The Science Center has many indoor exhibits and a decent aquarium, so plenty more to see than the sample that I’m showing here, but most of the indoor stuff I didn’t even bother opening the camera bag for, knowing the anemically low light would only introduce slow shutter speeds and thus plenty of blur. I also have to point out that most of the aquarium exhibits featured rounded glass, and there’s no way to get decent photos without horrendous distortion through that; some of them were even faced with giant magnifying lenses, which was great if the subject in question decided to be centered, but otherwise was easily capable of inducing motion sickness just in passing. Cylindrical tanks are fine to let a large number of people view species at once, but distortion is omnipresent, and hexagonal, flat-sided tanks would be far better.

portrait of Komodo dragon monitor Varanus komodoensis
They have a few species there that are hard to find in other places (like, hundreds of kilometers away,) so we really should have been visiting more often. I’m just nagging myself now.

Anyway, that’s four more images to add to the year’s total, which isn’t going to beat last year’s (exhorbitant) number, but takes a firm second and isn’t a bad showing for all that – 971, I believe, so, yeah.

Happy New Year, all, and enjoy yourselves, but responsibly! (I sound like a mother, don’t I? That’s what getting old does to you, but I’m this old by being responsible, so I’m living proof of the benefits. Probably not the best way to convince people, come to think of it…)

*     *     *

Species seen above, in order:

American or Caribbean flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber
Indian peafowl (commonly just called, ‘peacock,’) Pavo cristatus
Aldabran tortoise, Aldabrachelys gigantea
Komodo dragon or monitor, Varanus komodoensis

Out at the same time

Al Denelsbeck

Checking the cupboards over carefully, it appears that we have not only used up all of our December, we finally made it through the family-sized box of 2021 as well – don’t you love it when they both run out together? So to celebrate, we have our end-of-month/end-of-year abstract.

freaky LED paths of christmas toy in mirror
I really should let you figure this one out on your own, because you look like you’re getting overconfident again and need something to take you down a peg. There are at least a couple of clues visible within (plus you can check the description tags to cheat, if you’re that pathetic.) Pause here, if you like, and examine the photo carefully to see what you come up with.

When you’ve given up, or alternately think you’ve got it locked, you can use this link to explain it; this was a christmas gift from The Girlfriend, because she knows the kind of simple little things that can nevertheless be a blast to mess about with. This was shot intentionally for the month end, part of some idle experiments with time exposures. If you did look closely, you likely saw the evidence of the bathroom faucets in there, since I bounced this off of the mirror while the room was dark – this was probably the coolest path out of a handful of exposures. The large mirror and the limited space to disappear into helped a bit – I thought of doing this outside, but knew it would be easy to have the gizmo get too far away and appear very small in the frame.

I have to say, the cats are not fond of this – too noisy and unpredictable. Perhaps we’ll see if an owl is less threatened by it.

Anyway, celebrate safely, and not what Republicans consider “safe” either, but real, sensible safety, the kind that you won’t regret later on. Have good eats, enjoy good company, achieve good mellow. If you’re in Florida, watch out for fireworks – honestly, it’s like, any excuse at all down there. Happy New Year, to all those that celebrate it, and Happy Saturday to everyone else!

time exposure of fireworks in neighbor's yard in Florida

Getting out of the projects

Al Denelsbeck

I’ve mentioned, ad nauseum, being involved in several projects, and most of those had a deadline of either christmas or The Girlfriend’s birthday, which means that most of them are done now, so I can devote a little more attention to other things. Among these have been installing three new sets of lights – actually four, but one was more for my use – and doing some custom-framed mirrors. But I’m going to show off one of them here, because what else is a blog for? Current events? Philosophical insights? Random humor? Pfagh!

Anyway, this one was started some years ago, and I never got back to it, partially because of work spaces as well as keeping it a secret, partially because I was semi-convinced that I’d screw it up, because it was a far more detailed undertaking than any previous efforts. I’d done some soapstone carvings before, so this was simply an extension of those, and soapstone isn’t hard to work with, slightly more resistant than wood, but not a lot. That makes it easier, and in some respects harder, because it’s easy to make mistakes and/or break a piece. Once I got into the nitty-gritty, though, it went smoother than expected and I managed not to commit any major screwups. I know, right?

It’s simpler to just show this as a video, so…

That’s probably a little larger than life size, but not a lot. Rough work done with a flex-shaft motor tool (a “Dremel,” only it’s not made by Dremel,) and the remainder done entirely with an Xacto knife and #11 blade (well, and sandpaper.) I had a complete set of woodcarving tools in hand and they probably would’ve worked fine, but I have decades of experience with Xactos and so I stuck with what was familiar. I’m pleased with it, and so is she. Probably more than pleased, to be honest…

The vertical lines across the white piece, by the way, are natural striations, possibly weak areas though they presented no problems – they’re even faintly visible in the previous work, done from the same master block. I’m considering whether or not to coat these in clear acrylic, which will darken the turtle but make the egg almost translucent while bringing out more of the natural color variations in both. I’m not sure if the slick, wet look will work, though, and it would be a bear to remove if she doesn’t like it.

One serious flaw: the nostrils are definitely not aligned in the same plane as the eyes, but I generally distract people before they look too closely. Often by ‘accidentally’ stomping on their foot. Think about that before you decide to replay the video…

A further project might show up here as well, once that’s completed to my satisfaction, and I have another carving to get back into that’s for both The Girlfriend and I. But this was the detailed one, and as I said, what’s a blog for?

Profiles of Nature 52

Al Denelsbeck

52?! Really? Does this mean…?

[We ain’t saying nothing.]

ring-tailed lemurs Lemur catta Riantsoa and Barguy
This week we find Riantsoa, breaking the fourth wall while her partner Barguy judges the window treatments. We wonder now why it’s referred to as the ‘fourth’ wall, since in most cases there are, technically and theoretically, no others; it should be the first or only wall, the main wall, the two-way mirror – something more appropriate. Anyway, Riantsoa and Barguy are stock models and the occasional “real person – not an actor” for advertising requiring generic and unmemorable yet still pleasant-seeming couples, the ones you see easily installing their own backsplashes or enjoying a diarrhea-free life. Seems simple, but it’s a product of years of work and practice; everyone believes they can effortlessly look as though they haven’t had the trots for days, until they try it and find that it’s much harder than it seems. Okay, the phrasing could definitely have been better there, sorry. This makes Barguy and Riantsoa in such high demand that they don’t even have family photos printed anymore because their pictures are already in all the frames in the stores. They also like walking around Hollywood a lot just to watch tourists look excited, then frown, unable to recall where they know the faces from (their autographs are purposefully illegible, so that trick never works.) They enjoy their work, but still intend to devote less time to it so they can pursue their goal of finding which, if any, of the 117 people who claimed to be the one who taught John Travolta how to dance is actually telling the truth; they’ve mentally prepared themselves for the ugly secrets that may be revealed, but the question remains: is the world prepared? Meanwhile, Barguy surreptitiously campaigns to prevent face-painters from appropriating their culture, which may be why Riantsoa is giving us the stinkeye here; we probably should have been more careful about letting that slip. Riantsoa is quick to aver that the best Cats dancer was ‘Rumpleteaser’ from the 1994 season, while Barguy controversially insists that there are lots of businesses like show business, and a couple places like home at least; maybe even two Highlanders.

You know what we’re enjoying right now? That you’re virtually guaranteed to check back next week, just to be certain. Though we’re pretty sure, based on the packages that we’ve been receiving, that that whole ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ thing is utter bullshit.

Nope – not even close

Al Denelsbeck

I asked a question in the last post title, and answered it in this one. The temperature actually got a tad warmer, held up by a front that brought rain with it, and the green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) happily took advantage of this brief spring. I’m still a little surprised, thinking they’d be in deep enough cover to prevent freezing and thus not venture out casually, but I’m no herpetologist. I am a nature photographer, so…

adult green treefrog Hyla cinerea clasping Japanese maple trunk
There were no less than three in the greenhouse; this wasn’t shocking at all, and in fact, I’d been expecting to see some earlier, since we moved several plants in there before the cold weather set in and I’d suspected somebody had come along for the ride, but I hadn’t seen any until tonight. This is the only adult that I saw this evening, and it was tucked in tight to the trunk of one of the Japanese maples. I’ll include another version just for a minor observation.

adult green treefrog Hyla cinerea showing reflections in eyes
If you look closely at the eyes, you’ll see the large round reflection of the flash softbox of course, with an intervening branch in there, but then the two little yellow lights are from my headlamp. They’re actually horizontal, but I was leaning over from above, trying to get a view past numerous small branches, and rotated this image to represent more of the natural perspective.

Two others soon became apparent, being right out in the open.

juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea on the 'glass' of the greenhouse
Now, I can’t say that all three had been in there since we moved the plants within, because last night I apparently didn’t slide the door closed all the way and it was open a crack, enough for their ingress. During the summer I occasionally had to remove one, afraid they’d get cooked in there since they never seemed capable of going out the same way they’d come in, but right now I’m inclined to leave them be.

juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea on 'glass' of greenhouse
The greenhouse is a lightweight affair, using plastic panels instead of glass, and so it’s not very well insulated. After some experiments as it got colder at night, we installed a radiant oil heater with its own thermostat, so the temperature never drops below about 12°c, keeping things from freezing while still allowing for dormancy. So the frogs should be all right for the winter, given how they handle a few months without eating or drinking anyway.

And then there were two outside the greenhouse as well.

juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea on side of planter
This one was perhaps the smallest, about 25mm in body length, and a nice bronze color. Over the course of my perambulations around Walkabout Estates, it moved along a decent amount from where I’d initially seen it.

juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea on the fence - about what, I don't know
This one was on the fence, and as so often happens, it decided it didn’t like the bright light and turned away as I was trying for a nice portrait angle. Perhaps one day I’ll try a red headlamp and see if they react the same way, but I need a certain amount of light to focus by, so this might not even work.

The treefrogs weren’t the only critters to be found, in about 45 minutes of poking around.

unidentified 'inchworm' larva suspended by silk
I have no idea what species this ‘inchworm’ larva is, nor am I even going to try. But it’s awful late in the year to be in this instar, and I doubt it’s going to survive the winter. However, I’m not an entomologist either, so take what I say with – okay, with a whole lot more faith than with any anti-vaxxer, because even my wild guesses are far more accurate than their “truths,” while still perhaps a ways from dependable.

I spotted this tiny fly on the tip of the happily-budding burning bush.

unidentified wet fly on bud
It seems rather obvious that it had been sitting there through at least some of the rains, which had stopped hours before I ventured out, but it wasn’t inclined to wait for me to install the extension tube for greater magnification. Because of that, I’m not going to try to identify the species, and just call it a doodyhead.

And one final one, because this post doesn’t have enough photos. Hey, I went a long period without shooting anything, so I’m allowed a little catchup for the end of the year, especially when presented with so many unexpected subjects.

unidentified spider on azalea bush
I initially believed this to be a slender crab spider, and I’m not absolutely sure it isn’t, but the markings seem not to match closely; I didn’t get any other perspectives to make a better identification. Spiders are remarkably adapted to the cold, not usually visible when it’s frigid but venturing out immediately as soon as the day gets even slightly warm, ready for any early insects that might appear. So this one wasn’t the least surprising, and a decent size too, running at least 15mm in body length. There were no frogs nor flies visible in the immediate vicinity, so no apparent dangers nor dining, but I also didn’t do a thorough examination; it may have done quite well for itself, or alternately became a frog’s meal.

As I look at the image, the orangish spot in the background has me curious, because I didn’t see any flower buds on the azalea, but it sure looks like that, doesn’t it?

And as I finish this, I hear the rain starting up again, which means it’s pretty heavy since the windows in the office mask the sounds of the lighter, quieter rains very well. Hope they’re all happy with this.

Last one?

Al Denelsbeck

Coming back from dropping some stuff off at the shed, very early this morning (like, two AM, because I’m me,) I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye (because I’m me,) and stopped to investigate. Which of course, made me go up and get the camera. No, I do not carry it everywhere, and don’t try implying that real photographers always do. It’s creepy to take it into the bathroom, for instance.

Anyway, my unexpected find.

juvenile green treefrog Hyla cinerea partaking of a warm evening
Okay, not entirely unexpected, since this has happened before, and it’s 18°c out there right now, hardly dire conditions, so the possibility remained in the back of my mind even though I gave it a low likelihood. But yeah, typically the green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) have found a place to snuggle in and conserve energy until spring, long before now. This juvenile wasn’t looking at all groggy, honestly, and soon hopped further off, multiple times, to get away from the glaring light of the headlamp and the old man grunts and joint-clicking that accompanied my getting down to this angle.

Will this be the last one for the year? Well, given that we have less than two days left, it seems likely, but it’s also unseasonably warm, so I’ll only place a small bet on it. And when I say, “last one,” I mean ‘treefrog’ and not ‘posts,’ because there are at least two more posts coming up. But you knew that already, because you know the schedule – sorry, it didn’t need explaining. However, another project has been finished and I intend to show it off here soon, and we’ll see if that happens before the close of the year. Isn’t the suspense thrilling?

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