Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Newt]

Thanks Doug! I admit, maple sugaring is not common in Tennessee, for some reason. It's a lot of work, but home-made syrup is delicious. The difference between it and your typical store-bought syrup is as great as the difference between fresh garden tomatoes and the flavorless pink things they sell at the grocery store.

[Gwangi]

So many great pictures there Doug, thanks for taking the time to share them. Wish I could comment on them all individually but that would take far too long. Suffice it to say, I don't know why I'm not living in Florida with all it's birds and reptiles. Not that NY doesn't have it's share of interesting wildlife but the diversity is not quite up to par, that and we get pretty cold around here!

[Patrx]

Wow, I'm a bit behind on this thread. Wonderful photos! Those shots of the fishing osprey are really cool.

[tyrantqueen]

My dad made this video of a huge group of red-tailed kites feeding on leftover chicken scraps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQx4-ZtKj7k

[Doug Watson]

Thanks Doug! I admit, maple sugaring is not common in Tennessee, for some reason. It's a lot of work, but home-made syrup is delicious. The difference between it and your typical store-bought syrup is as great as the difference between fresh garden tomatoes and the flavorless pink things they sell at the grocery store.

We had a big sugar maple at home and we made syrup once that I can remember and I was a kid so I'll take your word on the difference, mind you up here in the spring you can't swing a dead cat without hitting fresh maple syrup. The big thing to do with kids here in the spring is to go to a maple syrup operation and you dip a popsicle stick in freshly made  syrup then you roll it in clean snow (don't eat the yellow snow). It hardens into candy and the kids and some adults love it.

[Gwangi]

Great video TQ, amazing to see all those "raptors" converging on scraps like that. The only similar scenes we get around here like that consist of crows, pigeons and gulls really.

[Newt]

That sounds fun, Doug! It reminds me of the "snow cream" my family would always make when we had a fresh snowfall when I was a kid.

I'm not too into sweets these days; my favorite use for home-made syrup is to glaze hams and picnic shoulders. Equal parts syrup, brown sugar and Dijon mustard = delicious.

Tyrantqueen - that's a neat video. I've always liked kites - their silhouettes in flight and the way they move are so interesting. I don't get to see them where I live - too far from the Big Muddy.

[Newt]

Spring done sprung, y'all!

Saxifrage and cress


Stag beetle grub


Southern leopard frog


Pickerel frog


American toads




American bullfrog


and the true harbingers of spring: spring peepers!

[Doug Watson]

Spring done sprung, y'all!

I hate you    Its snowing here again and we still have two feet of snow on the ground, come on already!!! Great shots Newt, I am glad someone has spring.

[Newt]

  Maybe it's time to migrate!

Finished off the syrup. We ended up with not quite 2 gallons of syrup, from an initial collection of 74 gallons of maple sap (we had more, but two of the buckets spoiled). It took almost half a cord of firewood to boil it down. The final product is rich and buttery, with hints of smoke and honey flavors. Mrs. Butterworth is cringing with shame.

The wildflowers are still holding out. Lots of leaves up - trout lily, violet, trillium, waterleaf, and so on - but only the toothworts, saxifrages, and cresses are blooming so far. Plus the winter annual lawn weeds, but they don't count.

[stargatedalek]

We still have 5 feet of snow here, I'm jealous of the both of you

[Doug Watson]

Maybe it's time to migrate!

Finished off the syrup. We ended up with not quite 2 gallons of syrup, from an initial collection of 74 gallons of maple sap (we had more, but two of the buckets spoiled). It took almost half a cord of firewood to boil it down. The final product is rich and buttery, with hints of smoke and honey flavors. Mrs. Butterworth is cringing with shame.

Tell me about it! If only I had wings.

Wow, that's a lot of syrup for a homemade job. If you ever have a chance to see one of our commercial operations running I think you would get a kick out of it. The last one we took our daughter too had continuous plastic tubing running from tree to tree on a hill then down to the the sugar shack at the bottom of the hill so they used gravity to supply them with the syrup and no hauling pails of syrup. I imagine someone has a youtube video showing something like that.

[Doug Watson]

We still have 5 feet of snow here, I'm jealous of the both of you

Yes, I heard you were getting nailed again, my brother is in NB and my nephew is on training maneuvers for the army in Northern NS right now sleeping in huts. Normally he is in Gagetown near my brother.
Either way we are all still frozen when normally I would be seeing robins and listening to red wing blackbirds.

[Newt]

High of 69 F (20.5 C) today. Getting warmer next week. 

[Doug Watson]

High of 69 F (20.5 C) today. Getting warmer next week. 

You are evil.

[Gwangi]

Spring is here too according to the birds that are starting to show up and pass through but it's still too cold for the amphibians. You can bet your boots I'll be posting pictures of those when I get out to find them. Soon I hope...soon. Great shots BTW Newt.

[stargatedalek]

Poor birds had such a nice early fall not as many of them left this year as most. A scary thought indeed.

[Newt]

I went for a nocturnal wade down a little creek that feeds into the Tennessee River.

First, a slug about the size of my pinky, crossing a gravel road.


Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus). This was the best shot I could get; this fellow was uncooperative, charging through the briars no matter how I explained that I just wanted to take his picture.


Several fish were hanging out in a very shallow, silt-bottomed pool just below the beaver dam. Here's a male Fantail Darter (Etheostoma flabellare).


And here are two Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus). One of my favorite fish.


Can you spot the salamander? It's a larval Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera). If that's too easy for you, try counting the caddisflies.


Heptageniid mayflies, pleurocerid snails, plenty of caddies, and even a darter!


This darter's a bit less cryptic; it's a male Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum), not yet in full nuptial dress. There's also a small, out-of-focus sculpin.


A larger, slightly less blurry sculpin. This is the Banded Sculpin (Cottus carolinae).


A school of algae-grazing minnows - Largescale Stonerollers (Campostoma oligolepis).

[Newt]

This is one of a pair of Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) who came surprisingly close to me.


But not as close as this female redhorse, who came right up to my foot. She was one of several redhorses at the mouth of the creek.


And here's a male, showing off his tubercles. I think these are Golden Redhorses (Moxostoma erythrurum)


Here's a darter pretending it's a loach: the Logperch (Percina caprodes). This guy confused me - the pattern is much different from the normal logperch tiger-striping - but according to the Fishes of Tennessee this is typical night-time patterning for this fish.


Are you sick of American Toad pictures yet? Too bad!


In a shallow, turbid, pollen-scummed pool in an ATV track: Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans).


Ranid frog eggs (probably Southern Leopard Frog, Lithobates sphenocephalus).


Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) eggs.

[Doug Watson]

I went for a nocturnal wade down a little creek that feeds into the Tennessee River.
Can you spot the salamander? It's a larval Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera). If that's too easy for you, try counting the caddisflies.

Wow, you could do a nature show just from that creek or is it crick. That is what I love about the South and the semi south the sheer volume of wildlife. Great shots.
Yes I saw the salamander and I count 6 caddisfly larva.

I have only seen Rainbow Darters in books we have them up here near Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence but I haven't been lucky enough to see one live yet. That one would look good in an aquarium. I used to have other darters, killifish, mudminnows, log perch and sticklebacks and crayfish in an aquarium that I caught in the Ottawa river and some creeks but that was a long time ago.

I haven't spotted amphibian eggs in years.