Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Newt]

Nice shots of your mutants, Doug! 

Your squirrel pictures reminded me that I never posted any pics of the squirrels I saw in California back in May, and that in turn reminded I never posted anything at all from that trip. I shall have to rectify that!

[Viking Spawn]

As a postscript to the Turkey story back in the 80s I was appearing at a Wildlife Art Show in Buckhorn Ontario and they had a live Wild Turkey on display to help launch their reintroduction in Ontario so I knew about the story. What I didn't know was it all started with only 274 Wild Turkeys. It has been so successful they have now exceeded their historical range. I found the following background info while looking up the Smoke Phase.

"In 1984, Ontario received 274 wild turkeys from various U.S. states in exchange for river otters, partridge, geese and moose. A total of 274 turkeys were released at a number of locations throughout southern Ontario. As those flourished, the MNR began trapping the turkeys and moving them further away from their original drop points, establishing new populations. The 80,000 to 100,000 turkeys that now call Ontario home are all descendants of those 274 turkeys released in the province, just 27 years ago."

Almost a 100,000 from only about 30 individuals?  Now THAT is what I call a success story!!! 

[Newt]

Guys, listen. I. Now. Have. A. Waterproof. Camera.

I'm so excited! 2016 is going to be the year of underwater photography for me! Prepare for the deluge!

(Sorry for the pictureless and therefore useless post. I just can't hold my excitement in! Pictures soon, I promise!)

!!!

[Doug Watson]

Guys, listen. I. Now. Have. A. Waterproof. Camera.

I'm so excited! 2016 is going to be the year of underwater photography for me! Prepare for the deluge!

(Sorry for the pictureless and therefore useless post. I just can't hold my excitement in! Pictures soon, I promise!)

!!!

That does sound exciting! My 2009 Canon recently bit the dust so for Christmas I gave myself a new one. My old one had a 10X optical zoom and the new one has 60X optical zoom so looking forward to getting some shots I may have missed last year. But we are finally getting snow and how, up to 35 cm all at once so if I get any shots now hopefully they will be from the ski trails.

[Newt]

Nice! My girlfriend has a Nikon with similarly ridiculous optical zoom, and it takes some very nice pics. You just have to be extra careful of shaking at high zoom - a tripod is almost a necessity.

I wish we'd get some snow. We had a very light dusting a few weeks ago, and it's been freakishly warm and rainy ever since. It was above 70 F on Christmas Eve! It's not right, I tells ya! The poor dumb plants are all acting like it's spring; they're going to be in for a rude surprise. But it does give me an opportunity to take some underwater pics without getting frostbite. Anyhow, I look forward to seeing your snowy shots.

[Gwangi]

Nice score on the camera Newt. I also got a new camera, a GoPro Hero 3+. I can't wait to dunk it in a few streams and ponds, especially once the amphibians start breeding.

Christmas Eve around here was surreal. Temps were in the low 70s. Peepers were out singing and I even turned up quite a few red-backed salamanders and red-bellied snakes. So here I am wearing a t-shirt, driving around with the window down, looking for herps with Christmas music on the radio. I guess I know what it feels like to be a southerner now, I kinda like it. Now it's cold and we got hit with some freezing rain last night but the forecast for the rest of the season is supposed to be well above average around here.

[Newt]

I guess I know what it feels like to be a southerner now, I kinda like it.

Welcome to the dark side! Put on your favorite Waylon Jennings record and enjoy a celebratory meal of pulled pork, pickled okra, collards, and sweet tea! 

Those GoPros are neat; I'd like to get one someday.

[Gwangi]

I guess I know what it feels like to be a southerner now, I kinda like it.

Welcome to the dark side! Put on your favorite Waylon Jennings record and enjoy a celebratory meal of pulled pork, pickled okra, collards, and sweet tea! 

Those GoPros are neat; I'd like to get one someday.

I already enjoy the pulled pork and sweet tea. I doubt I'll ever get into collards. I've seriously considered moving south. Winter is nice for maybe a month but it gets old really quick. Plus there's just a greater diversity of fishes and herps down south.

[Newt]

Coincidentally, I just made a spreadsheet of all the cold-blooded vertebrate taxa of Tennessee and Kentucky (to help me keep track of what I have and haven't photographed). 500 species and subspecies of lampreys, bony fishes, amphibians, turtles, squamates, and 'gators! And we don't even have a coastline!

So yeah, come on down.

[Gwangi]

Coincidentally, I just made a spreadsheet of all the cold-blooded vertebrate taxa of Tennessee and Kentucky (to help me keep track of what I have and haven't photographed). 500 species and subspecies of lampreys, bony fishes, amphibians, turtles, squamates, and 'gators! And we don't even have a coastline!

So yeah, come on down.

Oh lets see...70 species of reptiles and amphibians, 167 species of freshwater fishes. So we have a total of 237 between those groups. Although I'm using older books as references here so things may have changed since, it's a ballpark number though. And while I appreciate the diversity we do have and the unique species that live here it's a far cry from your southern diversity. Tennessee is the place to be for freshwater fishes.

[Newt]

All right, I've begun putting my new camera through its paces. It's an Olympus TG-4, part of their waterproof, shockproof Tough series. As this is sort of a camera review, the shots you see here are not cropped, adjusted, or otherwise modified except for being resized.

First, some relatively wide shots:

Turkey vulture on appropriately-decrepit tobacco curing shed


Inside of shed with boat


Limestone outcrop with supporting tree


You can't tell here, but the cottonwood stump on the right is massive - over 5 feet in diameter


Stream channel meandering through Red River alluvial deposits


A more upland section of the same spring-fed stream

[Newt]

A little bit closer now...

Dried remnants of some Asteraceae inflorescences


Fresh Asteraceae inflorescence, confused by the strange weather


Honey locust with honeysuckle and lichens


Hackberry bark, like a tiny, corky, vertical badlands scene


Rodent-ravaged acorn


Sweetgum fruit


Sugar maple key with deflated puffball on mossy log


Unlucky buck

[Newt]

Closer still - these shots were taken in "microscope" mode, which gives the camera a minimal focusing distance of 1 cm.

Sedum


Ebony spleenwort sporangia


Assorted bryophytes

[Newt]

The neglected kingdom: Fungi!








Lichens

[Newt]

I know, you guys came to this thread to see animals. Well here they are!

Coccinellid (I think this is Harmonia axyridis, but I'm too lazy to make sure right now)


Beetle larvae




Field cricket nymph


Bagworm on honey locust


Isopod and millipede (you can really see the shallow depth of field here; the isopod is enough taller than the millipede that its back is in focus, while the poor 'pede is not)


Another isopod


More millipedes




Centipede


Opiliones, or, as I grew up calling them, "granddaddy longlegs"

[Newt]

Common five-lined skink


This may look like a little patch of lichen, but I caught it walking. I believe it's a trash-carrying green lacewing larva.


Some sort of planthopper, maybe?


Snails


This interestingly bristly little fellow seems like he should be easy to ID. I desperately need a good snail manual; suggestions?


Spiders

[Newt]

Finally, some teeny tiny critters. I spent a good deal of time trying to photograph these little 1-2 mm beasts, without much success. I think it can be done, with greater patience and better lighting. This is pretty exciting for me, as previously I have simply passed such tiny animals as unphotographable.

Springtails




A minute spider clambering across a mossy tree trunk




And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't post at least one underwater photo. The combination of turbid water and chilly air kept from fooling around in the water too much, but I did get the camera wet. It works admirably in a few inches of water. We shall see how it does in deeper water at a later date. Here is a blurry photos of cladocerans from a former cattle pond. Again, the poor quality of the photo is due to operator error, not the camera.



All in all, I'm quite pleased with this little camera. Its biggest drawback that I have found so far is its limited zoom (only 4X); this is not an ornithologist's camera. I've been spoiled by the 300 mm lens on my old Canon DSLR. The microscope mode is great. Even if you do not plan to take pictures in the water, it's a great field camera; you don't need to worry about rain and mud, or the occasional drop onto rocks or pavement.

There's still much more to explore. I haven't used the "focus stacking" option in microscope mode, which takes multiple pictures at different focal depths and composites them together in-camera to overcome the shallow depth-of-field issue. Of course, this process requires both camera and subject to be perfectly still, so it's not so appropriate for my usual handheld approach. The camera also records video and allows a fair amount of manual control over things like aperture, exposure, color sensitivity, white balance, etc., which I have not yet played with.

[Doug Watson]

Beautiful shots Newt mind you you are making me "green" with envy as I sit here with everything under around 40 cm of snow.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw that skink. I have only seen them basking or running away from me so to uncover one like that would be special. Did you pick him up or let him be, I hate to admit I don't think I could resist grabbing it and holding it for a while at least.
Up here we called those Harvestmen Spiders simply Daddy Longlegs.
Man I miss the bugs, reptiles, greenery etc. already and I still have to wait at least another three months...

[Newt]

Thanks Doug! I did pick up the skink to get a positive ID - the southeastern five-lined skink is very similar but has different scalation on the underside of the tail. I didn't hold him long, though. There was actually a second skink in a connected burrow just a few inches away; both were under a piece of roofing tin by the old tobacco shed in the first photo.

[Viking Spawn]

Looks like your camera is working perfectly for you!  These shots are beautiful!  All of them!   I need to get back outdoors but everything is just so darn cold now.  I long for spring!   And the Brood V cicada emergence about to pounce on Ohio this year!  Oh the pain!  LOL!