Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Decorated Leaf
The light was lovely by the time I got to the little pond by the office on Tuesday after work and the dragonflies were out in Virginia numbers…lots of Amberwings and more Blue Dashers than you see at three such ponds in Maine. On the other hand that was about it. There were a couple of Slaty Skimmers, but no other “large” flies. Still we takes what we can gets 🙂
This Blue Dasher posed nicely and I love the light in the leaves…in especially like how the dasher is cupped by the light.
Canon SX50HS. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Program with my usual modifications. Processed in PicSay Pro on the 2013 Nexus 7.
Monarch in the Glade
The other day while hunting dragonflies along the Mousam river at Old Falls Pond I looked up to see this Monarch sitting on a bush about 10 feet away, perfectly backlit for a shot. In a normal situation that is easy reach for my Canon SX50HS and the 1800mm equivalent I shoot most bugs with, but this was the day I had forgotten the SD card in the Laptop after processing the morning’s images and I was left with only the 18x reach of my Samsung Smart Camera. That is a measly 432mm equivalent field of view. The Samsung does have Intelligent Zoom, which scales back the number of pixels captured rather than enlarging pixels to fill a larger frame and simulate a longer lens. It has two steps: 10mp and 5mp. I ran it up to the end of the 10mp range, which should be something like 600mm equivalent field of view. I am actually quite pleased with the results…not pleased enough to leave my Canon at home on my bug hunts, but pleased enough to be confident that the Samsung will deliver in a pinch, even for the occasional tel-macro.
Program with -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Strange Beauty. Happy Sunday!
Or maybe the beauty of the strange. This Great Golden Digger Wasp was one of many insects enjoying the thistle blooms yesterday at my local dragonfly ponds. It is certainly interesting for its contrasting color alone. And then the textures: furry and hard and gossamer wings. And the form. Those huge black eyes, the waving antennas, and that unlikely waist. None of it is conventionally beautiful, but the sum is certainly eye-catchingly compelling.
I did not always see the beauty in wasps. I am coming to it though, through my study of dragonflies and damselflies. After two years with the Odonata, now I look closely at every bug!
Canon SX50HS. Program with my usual modifications. 1800mm equivalent field if view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom.
And for the Sunday thought. In order to see the beauty of the Great Golden Digger Wasp you have to get beyond the fact that it is a bug. And a wasp at that. For many humans that is simply too much to ask. Our horror of the creepy crawlies is too deep-seated. And any wasp is seem as a potential threat. And I mean, let’s face it: The Great Golden Digger Wasp is just so strange…so alien…so very other. The eyes alone are the stuff of nightmares. And yet I am convinced that being able to see the beauty of this creature is a spiritual “step in the right direction.” It is an act of insight that prepares us to see the beauty in each other…which is, of course, a spiritual necessity. (And sometimes that is no harder than seeing the beauty in this wasp.) On a deeper level it prepares us for the realization that all that lives is beautiful because it lives…because it is an expression of the one creative life that lives all creatures…another expression of the loving life that creates us all.
So take another look at the Great Golden Digger Wasp. Seeing its beauty is a small step, but it is a step in the right direction.
Power Moth on Pickerelweed
I was really hoping, when I took the photo, that this blue pond plant had a lovely name, like Water Hyacinth, and that the bug was, as I originally assumed, a Skipper, so I could have a euphonious title (I head the word “euphonious” on a British TV comedy this week…and I have been, apparently, looking for a excuse to use it :). “Skipper on Water Hyacinth”. Now that is euphonious!
Unfortunately in the interest of accuracy, this is just common Pickerelweed, but, as some compensation, it is a Powder Moth of some kind…so we have some nice alliteration to contribute to a mellifluous title, even if it is not truly euphonious (yes, I have been at the thesaurus trying to find the spelling of euphonious. I always enjoy a little thesauric browsing before breakfast).
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Program and Macro focus (as opposed to the Macro Mode). I used Intelligent Zoom which increases the normal 18x zoom on the camera and maintains image quality by reducing the number of pixels captured at higher zoom ratios. This was a 10mp image (down from the native 14mp) at something in the 500mm equivalent field of view range. I then cropped it slightly for increased image scale. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Halloween Pennant
I have been looking for a Halloween Pennant for several years now. I mean, who could see them in the dragonfly guides and not want to see one, and photograph one, in real life. They are at the extreme north east of their range here on the coast in Southern Maine, but they are listed on the Odonata Central list for York County. I had hope. But I had no bug! Until last weekend when I found a single specimen at Roger’s Pond along the Mousam River in Kennebunk. Roger’s Pond is not nearly as productive as the Quest Ponds when it comes to Odonata, but I have found several dragons and a few damsels there that I have yet to see anywhere else.
I went back yesterday on my lunch-hour scooter prowl, and there was a second Halloween Pennant…this time in better light and closer, perching on the tallest stalks left in the mowed margin of the pond instead of on rushes out in the water. I know it is a second specimen because the first I saw was slightly worn…with an obvious notch out of one wing, and the colors somewhat faded. Yesterday’s bug was fresh and spectacular. What more could any odonatate ask for. (Yes, in my secret life, I an the Odonatator! 🙂
Canon SX50HS at 2400mm equivalent. Program with -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Hand-held of course. Transferred to my Samsung Galaxy S4 via the RavPower WiFi disk and card reader, and then processed in PicSay Pro. (I am getting ramped up to spend two weeks in Europe without my laptop.)
Cedar Waxwing
There appear to be more Odonata this summer than last. The overall numbers of each species seems higher and I have seen several new (to me) species. Of course the other thing that seems higher is the number of birds hunting the same ponds I hunt 🙂 I guess it stands to reason.
Last week I found a small flock of Cedar Waxwings hunting the pond at Quest. They were flying out from the trees at the edge of the forest and taking mostly the little dark dancer females of which we seem to have an inexhaustible supply. Taking them out of the air of course.
Canon SX50HS. Program with my usual modifications. 2400mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom.
Superhero Frog!
Maybe it was the full moon rising, but the woods at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport were full of tiny frogs and toads on Sunday. Well, not full, but I did see two American Toads and three Wood Frogs…the smallest Toad was about 3/8 inch long, and the largest Wood Frog was still under an inch. Since both of these species grow to 2.5 inches, these certainly qualify as tiny Toads and Frogs! The fellow at the top here is the largest of the Wood Frogs. I especially like the “Masked Avenger” look…which, considering the size of the frog, is particularly funny. Kind of like a toddler dressed up as Spider Man for Halloween. Cute. With luck this specimen will grow to full size…to make the world safe from the tiny bugs that live in leaf litter 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with my usual modifications. 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical plus 2x digital tel-extender). f6.5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom.
Awesomeness on wings!
You might remember from yesterday’s Sunday Thought post, that I was about to set out on my scooter in search of whatever awesome I could find…most likely having to do with waterfalls, dragonflies, and deep forest. I was thinking of Emmons Preserve along the Batson River where it tumbles down over some ledges in the forest in Kennebunkport. This time of year, there are Ebony Jewelwings there, one of our most striking damselflies, and you just never know what you will find along the trails that wander down from the dirt road to the river and back through the woods. And I decided, on the ride there, that I would poke around the meadows that boarder the preserve, since the dragonflies are moving away from the water to hunt the fields these summer days.
When I got there, of course, the folks at the Kennebunkport Land Trust, who manage Emmons Preserve, had anticipated me. I had forgotten that they had made a trail around the meadows that surround the Land Trust Office. It was perfect: a nice wide mown strip along the edge of the meadows, all the way around, with little side trails surrounding isolated copses, or up along the edge of a little pond I had not known was there. There were lots of dragonflies: Meadowhawks mostly, but a good variety, including a Mosaic Darner (that’s a family of dragonflies) that I have yet to positively identify.
And there was this amazing butterfly. I was well over 2/3s of the way around the meadows and had seen it in flight many times. Big and orange and very fritilleryish. I had about despaired of its ever landing, when I came back out of a side trail to the forest on the far side of the far meadow and found it on the Knapweed.
I believe it is a Great Spangled Fritillery, though it could considerably be an Aphrodite Fritillery. Both are about the same size, and have very similar patterns, and both are possible in southern Maine. I settled on Great Spangled as simply being the more likely.
Canon SX50HS. Program with my usual modifications. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom.
Oh, and clearly I did find the awesomeness  I sought. Lots of dragons…Ebony Jewelwings as expected and a new an new Darner!…Great Spangled Fritillery!…several tiny toads and Wood Frogs, a smorgasbord of mushrooms in odd shapes and all sizes, and the water tumbling down in the dappled light of the deep forest among moss and ferns. Very awesome!
Spring Peeper??
This is, as you can maybe tell from the mown grass it is in, a very small frog. At first I thought it might be a very young Pickerel Frog, but I am thinking it is actually a Spring Peeper. Anyone with more definite knowledge could easily talk me out of the identification. I would even believe a convincing argument that it is a toad. Â If I had put a quarter down it would have completely covered the frog, and a nickle would have covered the body. If you are viewing this on a monitor or laptop, the frog in the image is probably 3 to 4 times life size (depending on your viewing screen). It was making hard work of moving through the grass. It basically had to climb over the stalks.
Canon SX50HS. Program with my usual modifications. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom.
Powder Moth on Meadowsweet. Happy Sunday!
The helpful folks at Project Noah’s Maine Moths Mission identified my moth as the Power Moth (Eufidonia notataria). Project Noah is an internet based network of nature observers who submit “spottings” of wildlife of all kinds, including photos and location information, from bugs to bears. When you post a spotting, it is simple to check the “help with this identification” button. Under Project Noah there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of “missions”…targeted requests for spottings of a particular kind for a particular region.  The Maine Moths Mission is one of them, and it seemed an obvious place to look for an id of a moth I had never seen before. I had the id within an hour of posting. (Project Noah has mobile apps for both iPhone and Android as well as the website… search for “Project Noah” in your app store.)
I could find little information on the moth itself, beyond its name and place in the scientific order. I still have no idea how it lives or why it lives. But it is, to my eye, a beautiful creature, from the lacy pattern on the wings to the fringe at the wing edges. The fact that it is on Meadowsweet, one of my favorite trail-side flowers of this season, is a distinct bonus, and, in the case of this image, adds to the beauty of the composition.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Smart Auto…macro mode. 24mm equivalent field of view. f3.2 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Cropped for composition and scale and processed on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone in PicSay Pro. Auto Enhanced by Google+.
And for the Sunday Thought. The Samsung WB250F was a pure indulgence. I love my Canon SX50HS and I could just as well have taken this image with the Canon. I did not need another camera. But I am certainly having fun with it! As a piece of photographic technology it is amazing…from its Smart Auto modes, to its excellent “no tripod required” in-camera HDR and dedicated Macro and Panorama modes. Fun. As a piece of connected technology it is even more amazing. With the touch of a few controls I can wirelessly transfer the images to my Galaxy S4 for processing and sharing (or I can do limited processing right in-camera, and upload them directly to Facebook or Google+ Photos, or email them to myself). I can share a fully processed image in a matter of moments after it is taken. From wherever I have phone service. Amazing. And so much fun!
Project Noah I just discovered yesterday while researching my Powder Moth. What an idea! A national network of dedicated nature observers and photographers feeding sighting data on all kinds of life into a central data-base where they…and the whole scientific community…can have easy and instant access. And the concept of Missions, to focus the collections, is brilliant. We are on a mission to record all the Moths of Maine. Yes. I can identify with that! And think of the possibilities. With the mobile app, you can upload an image of whatever you see and enjoy quick (if not instant) help from hundreds of enthusiasts and many experts. The day of “I don’t know” is fading fast. What I don’t know is now out there in cloud, just waiting for me to access it. My mind no longer ends at my own senses and my own experience and memory. I can almost instantly tap into the knowledge of thousands of other keen observers, stretching back a generation or more.
Of course, at times, I will only find the limits of what we, as a species of observers, know, or have shared. What does the Powder Moth eat…well, whoever knows that…if anyone does…has not made that available in the cloud just yet. 🙂 (Or not that I can find.)
And what does this all have to do with the spirit? It is the Sunday thought after all. The technology of the connected cloud is giving us a taste, right in the world of time and space, of what we experience in the spirit, behind the world of time and space. It is the core experience of the mystical in all religions…and the root of faith. We are all one. All one mind. All one experience. All one love of life and eagerness to learn and to share. And yet we are totally individual. One eye (I) in the eye (I) of all.
We are the namers of creation. We are the numberers. We are the mind that sees and shares. And we are each one and one in all. And even a technology assisted taste of that is a good thing! Happy Sunday!