Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Halichoeres]

@triceratops83 Sweet jumping spider, it's got racing stripes!

@Gwangi nice frog shots. Also, wow, that's a lot of swans. I don't think I've ever seen more than four or five at a time, except in flight.

[Gwangi]

@triceratops83 Sweet jumping spider, it's got racing stripes!

@Gwangi nice frog shots. Also, wow, that's a lot of swans. I don't think I've ever seen more than four or five at a time, except in flight.

Thanks! I live near the Chesapeake Bay and that's where a large number of tundra swans spend the winter. When I lived in NY my encounters were more like what you describe. We also have a decent size flock of white pelicans that spend the winter here but I didn't see any that day. They may have already left. Their presence here is a recent thing, you wouldn't even see it marked on most range maps.

[triceratops83]

@Gwangi - You've got some beautiful scenery there. The frogs are nice and your turtles are a lot more colourful than ours. I really like the name "Whistle Pig"

As for Carl Denham, my two great passions in life are films and paleontology. My friends and I aspired to be filmmakers (until they all moved away) and I love the idea of going on an adventure to some lost jungle island to film the denizens. Denham was brazen and intrepid - "if Carl wanted a picture of a lion he'd just walk up to him and tell him to look pretty!" I refer to the original Robert Armstrong Denham but I do like Jack Black's performance as well (particularly his obsession and single mindedness). And when all else is lost Denham just decides to capture the island's God and bring him back for fame and fortune. I really aspire to experience something like the adventures of the SS Venture at Skull Island.

[Gwangi]

@Gwangi - You've got some beautiful scenery there. The frogs are nice and your turtles are a lot more colourful than ours. I really like the name "Whistle Pig"

As for Carl Denham, my two great passions in life are films and paleontology. My friends and I aspired to be filmmakers (until they all moved away) and I love the idea of going on an adventure to some lost jungle island to film the denizens. Denham was brazen and intrepid - "if Carl wanted a picture of a lion he'd just walk up to him and tell him to look pretty!" I refer to the original Robert Armstrong Denham but I do like Jack Black's performance as well (particularly his obsession and single mindedness). And when all else is lost Denham just decides to capture the island's God and bring him back for fame and fortune. I really aspire to experience something like the adventures of the SS Venture at Skull Island.

I can appreciate that. Growing up that was always the type I idolized. Maybe not a filmmaker/explorer per se but similar, like Indiana Jones or even Allen Grant. I thought I might end up being a travelling wildlife filmmaker and used to take my VHS camcorder into the woods and film whatever wildlife I happened upon. I guess things haven't changed much since I'm still going out and documenting wildlife, even if only locally and as a hobby. Can you imagine living at a time when there were still uncharted parts of Earth?

[triceratops83]

I can appreciate that. Growing up that was always the type I idolized. Maybe not a filmmaker/explorer per se but similar, like Indiana Jones or even Allen Grant. I thought I might end up being a travelling wildlife filmmaker and used to take my VHS camcorder into the woods and film whatever wildlife I happened upon. I guess things haven't changed much since I'm still going out and documenting wildlife, even if only locally and as a hobby. Can you imagine living at a time when there were still uncharted parts of Earth?

Part of the appeal of King Kong for me is the concept of "the last blank space on the map". I'd love to discover some new place. I think I was born a hundred years too late - I don't really care much for modern technology. And Skull Island in particular really speaks to me with its Dinosaurs, jungles, lost civilization and island setting.

Indiana Jones and Alan Grant are both great choices for role models. I wonder who modern kids will look up to?

[triceratops83]

Here's a baby and parent Magpie. The adult Magpies often beg for bread when they have offspring tagging along. I don't know if they have a tough time feeding the juveniles or are showing them where to get a snack when food is short. You can't ignore them either - they just march right into the house.


This is unfortunate, Christmas Beetles occur a lot less frequently than they used to. This is only the second one I've seen this summer. In fact, a lot of different beetles seem scarce these days, like Rhinoceros Beetles and Stink Beetles, though I don't mind that one in particular. I don't know why that would be, maybe because what used to be all sugar cane fields around here are now cow paddocks.

[triceratops83]

A couple of colourful visitors




Rainbow Lorikeets are always a laugh.

[Halichoeres]

Rainbow lorikeets, the birds designed by a child with a new box of crayons.

[Gwangi]

Rainbow lorikeets, the birds designed by a child with a new box of crayons.

I've said the same thing about the painted bunting.

[ceratopsian]

As a symptom of how much rain we've had here over the last few months in the UK perhaps - as I walked back from the greenhouse this morning, I was surprised to find a pair of mallards walking up my path!  Years ago we had a pair over a couple of summers that used to come and tap on the patio doors for food, but never again till now.

[Gwangi]

As a symptom of how much rain we've had here over the last few months in the UK perhaps - as I walked back from the greenhouse this morning, I was surprised to find a pair of mallards walking up my path!  Years ago we had a pair over a couple of summers that used to come and tap on the patio doors for food, but never again till now.

We've been getting a lot of rain here too, on the American east coast. I saw a heron hunting in a giant puddle last week. I wish I could have told it that it was wasting its time.

[triceratops83]

I just has an interesting problem occur. It's nearly midnight and I'm watching TV (Bullsh*t with Penn and Teller - it's great!) and I tend to leave the house open at night until I go to bed. Anyway, I start to hear a shuffling sound and I'm thinking "what the hell..." and some boards (for shelving)I have leaning up against the wall start moving about. I jump up to find an echidna has ventured into my bedroom.

Now I'm trying to shoo it out but it managed to get entangled in the loop of my fishing spear, and is dragging that about knocking over the boards and a kayak paddle, making the loudest racket.

Finally got it loose and it ran into the kitchen. This shot makes me laugh for some reason.

I had to guide it to the  kitchen door with a broom.

And finally back outside. It must have been an effort for the silly thing to climb the step inside and then of all things to head into my room with bright lights and loud TV.

I guess if I've learned anything it's that I need to vacuum behind the boards I keep in my room!

[Halichoeres]

What a delightful intruder! I'm surprised to hear you leave your house open, in a country with so many venomous snakes and arthropods.

[triceratops83]

What a delightful intruder! I'm surprised to hear you leave your house open, in a country with so many venomous snakes and arthropods.

Yeah, at least an echidna's pretty harmless. Like you said, having an Eastern Brown Snake come into the house is a nasty experience. That's happened before. I do enjoy the night air though, so it's a bit of a toss-up.

[Halichoeres]

What a delightful intruder! I'm surprised to hear you leave your house open, in a country with so many venomous snakes and arthropods.

Yeah, at least an echidna's pretty harmless. Like you said, having an Eastern Brown Snake come into the house is a nasty experience. That's happened before. I do enjoy the night air though, so it's a bit of a toss-up.

Night air is the best air.

[Gwangi]

That is so cool. I can't imagine an egg-laying mammal just wandering into my house. And Bullsh*t with Penn and Teller was an excellent show.

[triceratops83]

That is so cool. I can't imagine an egg-laying mammal just wandering into my house. And Bullsh*t with Penn and Teller was an excellent show.

I'm pretty lucky in that I can see both Monotremes here. Echidnas are common and Platypus habitats are within an hour's drive.

[Halichoeres]

Spruce Park has five species of tree:
northern catalpa
Kentucky coffeetree
some kind of ornamental hybrid maple
honeylocust
hackberry

I dunno, that's just funny to me.

[triceratops83]

A better name would be No Spruce Park.

[Halichoeres]

You know, maybe I should change the sign...