BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

The World Beyond BetterMost => Anything Goes => Topic started by: Andrew on July 09, 2006, 10:13:48 pm

Title: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 09, 2006, 10:13:48 pm
Here's a log for anyone to post their local nature observations in, and hopefully our pictures too.

We live all over the world on this forum and our local geography, plants, animals and weather are so different.  But most of us live busy lives in cities, and don't make time to connect with our local natural environments as much as would be good for us. 

I know a lot of us were really affected by the beauty of the nature cinematography in BBM.  And there were evocative nature sounds too. There have been postings about the far-off bird call in one of the mountain scenes, a sort of high-pitched but descending JEEEeeeeeeer  That was a red-tailed hawk, a bird distributed all over the country, so that I often see and hear it here in Boston, though we have come to associate it with the West because of that way the call has of suggested vast open spaces.

Here's a picture of a red-tailed hawk(not by me):
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/redtailedhawk.jpg)

It's a quiet time of year for birds in Boston, especially songbirds which are much quieter than in the spring.  I always take my binoculars out anyway when I go for a walk around the ponds and woods near my house since you never know what you're going to find.  Tonight, at dusk, it was a great blue heron at the edge of the water:

(again, this picture is not by me)
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/blueheron.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 10, 2006, 09:45:08 pm
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/Houstonia-caerulea-Quakerladies.jpg)

These tiny pale blue flowers, each on the tiniest wire of a stem, are called Quaker ladies, or bluets.  I always see them on sunny banks next to a path in the woods.  Today I spotted them on a lunchtime walk at a wooded park near my office.  I am lucky to have woods and water near my work and near my home too.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 14, 2006, 09:44:57 pm
Here's a tiny white flower, Spotted Wintergreen, I found blooming in the same woods near my office, in dry soil under a pine.  It's always nice to find a woodland wildflower that waits until July to bloom when most of the others have gone by.
 
If I know the name of plants like these I look them up on the Net to find a picture to confirm the identification - and to steal to post.  Small flowers like this are very difficult to photograph successfully yourself, or they have been for me.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/wintergreen-chimaphilamaculata.jpg)
 
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 14, 2006, 09:59:32 pm
Tonight on my walk near my house I saw a night heron in the same spot where I had seen the great blue heron just a few days earlier (see my first post for a picture).  Night herons are lot smaller than great blues.  There never seems to be more than one heron on any one pond. 

A few weeks ago I saw a night heron at another pond near my house.  Suddenly it flew off.  I looked around to see why and there was a great blue in its place.  Clearly the bigger bird had just come in and claimed the fishing spot by eminent domain.
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/nightheron.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on July 14, 2006, 10:07:37 pm
Just wanted to send you a few pics of the visitors who come to feed in our backyard morning and afternoon......

The white ones are sulphur crested white cockatoos...the green multi-coloured ones are lorikeets.......
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on July 14, 2006, 10:11:25 pm


I'll try again with the pics of the white cockatoos....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 15, 2006, 04:55:33 am
What fabulous pictures, Katie.  I really can't imagine living in a place where you could expect such brilliant visitors to your bird feeding station!  In town in Boston it's almost all house sparrows, with just blue jays and cardinals showing up from time to time for color.

Do the lorikeets and cockatoos each come at regular times?  You said morning and afternoon as if there were a lunch crowd and a dinner crowd.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on July 15, 2006, 06:56:15 am
Hi Andrew, glad you liked my pics....

All the birds come morning and afternoon....the same birds.....if we are inside and dont see them, they sit on our outdoor furniture and wait until we come out...some of them will eat out of our hand.......its lovely when they bring in their babies, and we spend many hours outside watching them, with the littlies siitting there with their beaks open while mum feeds them...

One of the white cockatoos, is one that we had as a pet, and he got out one day, and went off to join a flock, but he comes back every day, and still lets us pat him...he has a wife now, and he has brought back his babies too....

Heres a pic of me with him.....and also a pic of the lorikeets on the outdoor table...

and ive added another one, that i have posted on different threads here before, of my son adam, who volunteers to help injured and orphaned wildlife...here he is bottle feeding a baby kangaroo...

hope you like them...
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 15, 2006, 09:28:13 pm
I got a sudden hankering to see some of the Wyoming wildflowers Jack and Ennis would have been lounging among during those times the sheep didn't need much minding.

So here's a closeup of Scarlet Gilia:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/scarletgiliacloseup.jpg)

and this is the whole flower spike:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/scarletgilia1.jpg)

For contrast, here's a Dwarf larkspur:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/delphiniumnuttallianum.jpg)

Both flowers are up in the mountain meadows of Wyoming.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: fernly on July 15, 2006, 11:10:32 pm
Andrew, thank you for starting this nature journal. Your and Katie's pictures are just beautiful.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on July 16, 2006, 06:10:15 am
I can say, 'I agree they're beautiful, fernly', because I didn't take any of them.  I have just been finding pictures on the Net to show the animals and plants I saw near where I live (or in the case of the Wyoming wildflowers, wish I could be there and see).  Katie actually took hers, and  that does add another dimension.  Pictures have great power.  Now that I have seen Katie's son nurturing the baby kangeroo that scene has become something I can always draw on, as if I had been there.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 06, 2006, 12:26:37 pm
I'm so pleased I was able to find this picture to memorialize something that happened to me at a time when I wasn't carrying my camera.  And I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to take a picture this clear, least of all with one hand.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/dragonflyinhandcloseup.jpg)

I have been noticing dragonflies speeding and hovering over every patch of grass all this summer, here in Boston.  Even at Fenway Park, when I looked through my binoculars to take a closer look at how David Ortiz manages his swing, there were huge dragonflies just a few feet from the bat.  I was thinking, one of those beautiful insects is going to get it for sure.

A few days later as I was crossing a busy traffic island between Quincy Market and Christopher Columbus Park on the Harbor, my eye fell on a dragonfly lying on its back on the asphalt, about to get stepped on.  I grabbed it up by the abdomen and carried it over into the park, then set it down right side up on my palm.

It was alive, it must have been stunned by a passing windshield.  It was standing on its own legs on my hand, still stunned.  I could see the tiny abdomen panting two breaths per second, fat-thin-fat-thin-fat-thin.  I had no idea a dragonfly's breathing would be so visible.

And then came an extraordinary half hour in which I sat watching and it sat recovering.  It was clearly happy just where it was, grateful to be in a still place.  I examined it closely and could see no damage, either to wing or leg or body.

I had time to study the complex veining of the wings.  This made me think of a house with additions over the years.  There was the basic original wing, then something must have happened in evolution and the main structural veins suddenly had a bold new idea and went zigzagging off in a new design to support a lateral add-on with a different pattern.  And the other more dutiful genes came along and filled the new wing spaces with regular useful square ribs like house framing.  The clear material between the veins glistened whitely here and was invisible there.

The body color was intense and jewel-like, but the color was the more brilliant for grading out of a browner green which set off the emerald.
 
It appeared to have two big eyes, of course, but I knew that each was composed of thousands of individual eyes.  I could just see a softness or roughness around the edge of the reflection of the sun in each orb which showed that the surface was not completely flat but made of unimaginably tiny knobs.

I looked and looked, and it didn't move.  It didn't mind my breath on its neck.  Its breathing was still fast, mine was slow and trancelike.

The sun was starting to go down and I knew I had to go home on the subway.  I wanted to leave it in the grass, near its food supply.  I gently shook my hand, then tried putting my palm down near the grass to let it walk off if it was not ready to fly.

And it didn't want to let go.  Each of the tiny feet was gripping its savior's skin with what looked to the naked eye like a thumb and one finger.  It was holding on for its life.

Minutes passed.  I knew this extraordinary thing would likely never happen again in my earthly existence.   I finally pried it up as gently as I could and set it in the grass.

It immediately sputtered and curled up, as if twisted in rage or grief at this second disruption.  I watched a while longer, hoping to see it recover, but the dark was gathering and at last I could no longer make it out.

May it recover and live long, and capture many another mosquito.   And may I have another opportunity in my tiny short life to intersect with another creature's different life, to see with my two eyes, a fraction of what that splendid being could see with its sixty thousand.  In this universe, whose vastness of time and space we can speak of but not imagine, the difference between its lifespan and ours is unworthy to be measured.


 
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 06, 2006, 02:44:33 pm
Andrew that is beautiful....thank you

I don't have your gift for words but here is my moment...you know there are a lot of people who don't 'get' this stuff...and I have told this before and seen peoples eyes glaze over...(even over the computer...LOL)

I live on a farm...on one end of the farm we have the 'nursing home'-small paddocks for old or sick animals...I was down one day cleaning out water troughs and refilling them...takes a while, sometimes you could pull your hair out wanting it to hurry....but sometimes it is a beautiful day and you can just relax...knowing there is nothing you can do while you wait but just be.

One day I was leaning there watching the water running into the bucket and the lovely shapes the water made when I noticed on the top of the fence I was leaning on there were tiny baby praying mantis...infinitely tiny...and clear! they were like incrediably fine spun glass; true works of art...exquisite and a sight I never will see again...

another moment...actually very mundane but still a memory that I have that is precious...I was sitting on the side of a hill waiting for another water trough to fill. It was late in the afternoon and the sunlight was coming at an angle....across the pasture dragonflys spun and swooped; thousands of them. catching the light looking like fireflys...

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 06, 2006, 03:04:10 pm
That's a beautiful picture of your horses by the water, Jess.  I'm so happy you have that water.  I hope that means there is enough for your animals at least?  Where people are leaving, is it because they were marginal economically with their farms and this is just pushing them over the edge?  I need to go back and read in your thread to see what you have said about it.

Just saw the new one of Buddy.  A fine horse and a fine picture.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 06, 2006, 03:05:08 pm
ok these are some flower pics I made..(yes I am taking up the whole computer! ;D)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/home/36e2d52f.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/home/Img_0062.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/home/ac7b64c3.jpg)

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 06, 2006, 03:11:26 pm
at the first of last year the big round bales of hay were 35-40 dollars for good horse quality hay...today we are paying 100-115 and the hay is horrible...stemmy and rotty looking (horses will dig thru spreading it out looking for something palatable)...some suppliers will no longer sell to anyone except their old customer...the local feed stores are limiting their customers to buying 25 bales (small ones) at a time. and telling them that there is no guarantee there will be more.

It is lasting too long...some of our local lakes are down 2-3 FEET..one local lake is 6 feet down...

Prices for cattle are dropping in proportion to the rise in feed prices and a lot of farmers are afraid their cattle will be worthless if they try to hold on...some people are letting their animals starve and the local rescue operations are swamped...
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 06, 2006, 03:21:56 pm
How terrible to have the animals suffering for it.  In New England we had so much more rain than usual I couldn't go out and watch birds this spring, it was always coming down.  Or go out and mow my little city backyard as the grass got longer and lusher.  And yet they say it's not because of El nino this time, I'm not sure what the explanation is...other than suspecting it's because of Meddling with Nature.

Those are great daylilies, I planted a ruby red one this year but it's its first year and I'm not expecting a bloom.  I don't recognize the flowers in the bottom picture.

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on August 08, 2006, 08:27:20 pm
Here is the dotted gayfeather or liatris spectata, which is a wildflower blooming right now in the Rocky Mountains. It looks much like the cultivated liatris, but is shorter.

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h33/Front-Ranger/blazingstar_butterflies.gif)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 13, 2006, 11:36:00 am
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/migratinggeese.jpg)

We've been having beautiful cool, dry air from Canada the last few days.  More like the last week of August or early September.  The birds and animals are taking notice.  Last night in the darkness I heard the Canada geese flying over fast near the ground, with that coordinated

 honkhonk honkhonk

 between the males and females.

Is the end of our brief New England summer coming so soon?

I know that there will be more hot weather, so this interlude is a kind of dream of what is about to come, a warning to make better use of my time outside.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 13, 2006, 12:02:02 pm
I have a part time job at a company with a big gravel parking lot. This bird and her mate made a nest in the gravel along one side. The owner of the business put the boards near it to warn the drivers not to run over it. She laid three little spleckled eggs that matched the gravel almost exactly. If we went to look at them the parents would get off the nest and run a ways. Flop around with one of their wings flopped out like they were injured something fierce! LOL! Good parents!

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/groundbird.jpg)


Well something got their eggs. So she laid four more. Unfortunately it was just too hot and in spite of them standing bravely over the eggs with their wings spread trying to shade them; they never hatched and eventually they gave up.

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/nest.jpg)

But I am so taken with them. With the willingness to keep going. To try again. I know it is instinct but I think it is a good lesson for us too....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 13, 2006, 12:18:16 pm
It's also exciting that they are still finding a place to nest even in the human-altered habitat, and even though they are not always successful.  Here's a very brief audio clip of the Kildeer (it takes a minute to load) - but not the distinctive kilDEER call which gives it its name.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/songwav.html (http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/songwav.html)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 13, 2006, 02:12:28 pm
Actually around here it is a better place than the wild. Fire ants are killing so many ground nesting birds. We are very aggressive fighting them because we deal with food products. Fire ants are incredibly aggressive and build HUGE mounds. They kill things as big as calves and foals. There have been cases of mounds riddling pastures so badly that tractors have been swallowed. There have also been cases of fire ants killing people in nursing homes.

You don't have fire ants do you? (Not yet I mean)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 16, 2006, 12:02:33 pm
I just hijacked Jess' image of a tiger swallowtail in her yard from her Jess's Feed Store thread

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found this in my yard this morning...it was very still so I took a picture of it!
(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/mariposa.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 16, 2006, 12:10:47 pm
(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/maribelly.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 16, 2006, 12:16:04 pm
And here's a Polyphemus moth Jess found...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ok apparently we have turned into the butterfly graveyard....this is one I have never seen before. It has pink and purplelines! and if you look you will see small round dots on the wings? those are clear! You can see thru them...It is not as showy as the first one but it is bigger and I think I like it better

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/pinkieflutter.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on August 16, 2006, 04:47:41 pm
This is the yucca glauca or Spanish Bayonet that is blooming now in the Rocky Mountains. It's also called soapweed.

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h33/Front-Ranger/Yuccaglauca-yucca.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 18, 2006, 10:41:35 pm
I found this in my yard this afternoon...

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/itsalive.jpg)

and it was ALIVE!!

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/stillalive.jpg)

but it wouldn't sit still for its close up!!  >:(


cross post from the Feed Store!

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on August 19, 2006, 10:05:45 pm
Ooo, a spicebush swallowtail.  We've got them in New England too but I've never seen one.  So, it looks like this one likes sweet william!  my book just mentions sassafras and spicebush as food plants.  It's good to see you at least have enough water to keep your flowers alive, Jess.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on August 19, 2006, 10:32:02 pm
*Jess breaking her arm patting herself on the back!*

At the end of fall last year the oil company that is drilling on the land beside us fouled our well. I wrote letters and threw a wall eyed fit and they drilled us a new one!! yippy skip...much deeper than ours was and it is GUSHING water...we are still being conservative but we are watering our lawn and flower beds. we don't have a sprinkler system set up in the pastures.

so we are sitting pretty good...at least all the critters will not go thirsty!
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on September 15, 2006, 09:06:29 pm
Took this photo yesterday, and thought I would share it with all my mates overseas.....

This bird is a KOOKABURRA....a native bird of australia........it is a protected species...makes a sound like someone laughing.....sometimes you here them communicating, and it sounds like there are 100 people outside laughing.....they are a very placid bird, and will eat out of your hand if they get used to you.....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on September 15, 2006, 09:08:11 pm
Took this photo yesterday, and thought I would share it with all my mates overseas.....

This bird is a KOOKABURRA....a native bird of australia........it is a protected species...makes a sound like someone laughing.....sometimes you here them communicating, and it sounds like there are 100 people outside laughing.....they are a very placid bird, and will eat out of your hand if they get used to you.....
Took this photo yesterday, and thought I would share it with all my mates overseas.....

This bird is a KOOKABURRA....a native bird of australia........it is a protected species...makes a sound like someone laughing.....sometimes you here them communicating, and it sounds like there are 100 people outside laughing.....they are a very placid bird, and will eat out of your hand if they get used to you.....


Would help if I attached the photo......
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on September 15, 2006, 09:34:48 pm
How incredible to live in a place where those just fly around live!  I think these are the birds whose call Hollywood always used to put in the jungle movies.  They have one or two in the outdoor bird pavillion at the Boston zoo.  Now that I find out they are so friendly, I'm tempted to do something that would get me in trouble with the zoo staff!  (like try to feed them)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on September 15, 2006, 09:50:07 pm
Yes you are right Andrew, we have often wondered why they use the Kookaburra laugh as noise in jungle movies, when we know, that there would be no kookaburras there....but the sound is similar to monkeys calling too, so that might be what they are tryint to depict........

Not sure if they would eat out of your hand at the zoo.....what happens here, is if they get familiar with people who feed them reguarly, they will come in every day and take the food...usually minced beef, or any meat....when they pick up the food in their thick beak, they shake it, and you can hear their beak rattle...they often follow my hubbie around when he is mowing, to come down and get any grubs that might come up in the shortened grass.....

They are truely a beautiful fluffy bird....brown and white in colour....some have a blue streak down their back wing......

That one I took the photo of yesterday, was at a picnic spot at the beach..there was a pair of them...obviously well fed from picnic left overs......

Glad you liked the pic....
Title: A kookaburra song
Post by: moremojo on September 15, 2006, 09:55:36 pm
Hey, guys--

Your talk of kookaburras reminded me of an old song that my mother taught my sister and me as children. We used to sing it often during long car trips, so I associate it with many happy memories of my youth. I can't begin to imagine how my mother and her family came to know what I assume had to be an Australian song, but know it they did. I unfortunately can't remember most of the lyrics, and just a smattering of the tune, but the first line goes something like this:

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree..."

Do any of you know this song?

Reminiscing fondly,
Scott
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Fran on September 15, 2006, 10:01:24 pm
Kookaburra
Written by Marion Sinclair

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra!  Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Easting all the gum drops he can see
Stop, Kookaburra!  Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop, Kookaburra!  Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey, that's me.

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail
Gets a boo-boo in his tail
Cry, Kookaburra!  Cry, Kookaburra!
Oh, how life can be.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: moremojo on September 15, 2006, 10:05:48 pm
Thanks, Fran! You have been the source of so many wondrous tidbits lately! :D

Interesting how the song obviously migrated at some point out of Australia. Would you happen to know anything of its history?
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Fran on September 15, 2006, 10:08:32 pm
I found this online:

"This song was written in 1936, and introduced at a Scout Jamboree in Melbourne, Australia.  In case you're wondering, a kookaburra is an Australian bird, and a 'gum tree' is what Americans know as a eucalyptus. The 'gum drops' that the kookaburra eats in the song are beads of the resinous sap."

I'm guessing it spread via the Boy Scouts organization.  BTW, I learned it as a Girl Scout.

There's nothing like a blast from the past, right?

Fran



Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: moremojo on September 15, 2006, 10:11:40 pm
Interesting...I had assumed the song was somewhat older than 1936. That was just six years before my mother was born.

Thanks again for all the info!
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on September 16, 2006, 06:53:41 am
Gee thanks Fran.....nothing like learning about an Aussie song, about an Aussie bird, from a Yank........I didnt know the history of the song, but we all used to sing it here as kids.....dont know if the kids sing it still now at school.....i hope they do....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: delalluvia on September 16, 2006, 10:40:02 am
I found this online:

"This song was written in 1936, and introduced at a Scout Jamboree in Melbourne, Australia.  In case you're wondering, a kookaburra is an Australian bird, and a 'gum tree' is what Americans know as a eucalyptus. The 'gum drops' that the kookaburra eats in the song are beads of the resinous sap."

I'm guessing it spread via the Boy Scouts organization.  BTW, I learned it as a Girl Scout.

There's nothing like a blast from the past, right?

Fran

I was a girl scout too and remember singing that song as well.  Thanks for the informational tidbits.

And that was a great pic Katie.

EDITED TO ADD:  I guess I thought that the gum drops in the song were real candy gumdrops, otherwise why would we want to eat eucalyptus resin drops?  Or is that like a delicacy or something done by local folks in  Australia?
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Fran on September 16, 2006, 10:45:46 am
If you're wondering what a kookaburra sounds like, there is a sound link online.  I couldn't get the link to work right, but you can find it this way:  Google "kookaburra lyrics."  You'll see at least two references to the NIEHS Kids' Pages for the song.  Once you get to the Kookaburra song lyrics, under the photo of the bird is the sound link.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: opinionista on September 16, 2006, 11:52:09 am
Nice thread! Here are a few nature pictures of Puerto Rico, where I'm from

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/cuevas-camuy.jpg)

This is Camuy's cave. Well a small part of it that is open to the public. It's actually a huge cave, with a river that runs through it. You are not allowed to touch anything while there. If you wish to see the rest of the cave, a visit can be arranged with Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources. However, before actually visiting it you have to take a training course about safety measures, how to walk there, respect the environment, learn some rappelling, and such.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/manglar.jpg)
This is "Manglillo" a mangrove swamp beach at the south of Puerto Rico. You can actually swim there if you aren't afraid of fishes, turtles, manatees and other sea creatures. It's a actually a safe beach, no sharks or anything there. The water doesn't smell funny either. It's regular sea salted water.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/tortugas.jpg)

Some sea turtles at Culebra, east of Puerto Rico. They nest on some beaches, and people organize events to help the youngs get safe to sea.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on September 17, 2006, 01:14:30 am
Nice thread! Here are a few nature pictures of Puerto Rico, where I'm from

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/cuevas-camuy.jpg)

This is Camuy's cave. Well a small part of it that is open to the public. It's actually a huge cave, with a river that runs through it. You are not allowed to touch anything while there. If you wish to see the rest of the cave, a visit can be arranged with Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources. However, before actually visiting it you have to take a training course about safety measures, how to walk there, respect the environment, learn some rappelling, and such.


all your pictures are beautiful...but this one is truly spectacular..thanks for sharing it with us
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: ffrn on September 17, 2006, 05:28:23 am
I've posted these before in Jess's Feedstore thread but thought they may fit here too.  This is my front gully and if you look carefully, you can see a wallaby.

(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/gallandeer/Wallaby113.jpg)

This is about as close as I could get before she took off with her joey and hopped through the fence.

(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/gallandeer/Wallaby213.jpg)

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on September 17, 2006, 07:31:56 am
Oh yes, those pictures from Porto Rico are really beautiful......

And Jocelyn, thanks for the aussie touch......I dont know if you are like us, and it might amaze the people from other countries on here, but when we see a kangaroo in the wild, we always stop and watch it, whether it is in our back yard,(if we live on a property), or in the bush on the side of the road....it is still a lovely sight to see them in their mobs out in the wild.....and to some of us, still very unique......contrary to what a lot of overseas visitors envisage,  when they think we have kangaroos jumping down the main streets of our towns.....as we know, that doesnt happen....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: opinionista on September 17, 2006, 10:01:49 am
I'm glad you guys liked my pictures. I no longer live in Puerto Rico, but I visit frequently since my family is still there. Here are a few other pictures. I'm just showing the wild part of the island.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/riocamuy.jpg)

This is the river that runs through the cave showed in my previous post. The Camuy River.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/yunque.jpg)

This is a small water fall at the Yunque Rain Forest at the east of the Island.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/yunque2.jpg)

Another view of the Yunque Rain Forest. We tried to take a picture of the Puerto Rican parrot when we were at the rain forest. The parrot is different to the ones you regularly see around, but they're hard to see. I'm going back in december, maybe I'm lucky and I come back with a picture!

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/nataligv_2006/culebra.jpg)

And this is one of my favorite beaches, Flamenco Beach in Culebra Island which belongs to Puerto Rico.


All pictures were taken by my sister and a friend of ours. Don't worry, I got permission to post!  :D
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on October 02, 2006, 10:25:46 pm
Just wanted to share some pics in this thread of my day at Australia Zoo yesterday....if you want to read about my day, its al in Katie77...just an Ausssie Sheila in the Daily Thoughts forum....

Anyway, heres one of a croc in action...and the others are of the koalas....just wanted you to see how they make themselves comfortbable in the fork of the trees to go to sleep (which they seem to do 23hours a day)....got one awake, as you can see....

Hope you enjoy..
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on October 15, 2006, 04:04:13 pm
Some pictures of fall colors near where I work in Andover, Massachusetts. 

The first is a cultivar of ash which gets a lot redder than many others:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/IMG_0089.jpg)



This is a red maple in an oak forest.  The oaks turn a warm muted russet by mid-November, but by then the maples have dropped their leaves.  For now, the oaks are still in summer green
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/IMG_0085.jpg)



New England is famous for its sugar maples. The shape of sugar maple leaves is familiar from the Canadian flag, whereas red maples have leaves more like two-thumbed mittens.

According to Thoreau's journal, because maple syrup was so much more plentiful than honey in his time "they manufacture honey now from maple syrup, which you cannot tell from bee honey, taking care to throw some dead bees and bees' wings and a little honeycomb into it."  (Feb 13, 1853) Today maple syrup is more expensive than honey, unless perhaps you go to Vermont and buy a gallon container of the syrup.

Sugar maples tinge gradually from green to yellow to orange to a little red on the same tree, the more advanced colors coming on the tips of the branches where there is more sun.  Even individual leaves can look airbrushed with two colors.  The one in the picture got a lot of sun all over, so the green is hidden inside in its own shade:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/IMG_0092.jpg)



And here is a red maple against the sky.  The stems of the leaves are usually bright red even in the summer, as if to warn us to enjoy the short New England summer while we can.  They are fond of moist locations, but do well in ordinary drier sites too.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/IMG_0090.jpg)

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: moremojo on October 17, 2006, 08:27:35 pm
Andrew, your beautiful maple-tree photos remind me of a reference I read recently in a book I bought this past weekend. This book is a children's book about the the Haudenosaunee, the confederation of Native American peoples more widely known as the Iroquois. Though a text oriented towards the needs and interests of children, I found the book a good introduction to a subject which interests me, and I have deemed it a worthwhile investment.

The Haudenosaunee were originally comprised of five nations, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca. They were known to the British and British colonists as the Five Nations ('Iroquois' was an Algonquin term for these peoples that was appropriated by the French; these nations themselves referred to their confederation as that of the Haudenosaunee, or "the people of the longhouse"). In the early eighteenth century, the Tuscarora, an ethnolinguistically related tribe from the Carolinas that were fleeing poor relations with European settlers there, asked to be admitted to the confederation and were accepted. From this point, the British referred to the league as that of the Six Nations.

The Haudenosaunee were a highly developed culture, materially comfortable and enjoying a government of considerable sophistication and efficacy. All members were looked after and all had a productive, active role in the community and larger society. Intricate networks of clan kinship bound members of one nation to those of the others, further fostering the sense of fraternity that permeated the league. Clan kinship derived from the women, and the women chose the chiefs who would represent a particular community at league meetings, also having the authority to remove chiefs from office if they were deemed ineffective or negligent. The Haudenosaunee had no concept of land ownership; the land belonged to the community, and the people saw themselves as custodians of the land, whose bounty was to be shared by all. In all aspects of life, the Haudenosaunee were a radically democratic society, much more so than the early American republic (upon which much of the constitutional foundation was inspired by the Haudenosaunee example).

At any rate, I could go on with more detail on this fascinating society about which I am still learning, but right now I wanted to point out that the Haudenosaunee had six major annual festivals, and one of these was the Maple Festival in the spring. Maple syrup was collected and made into delectable foods to be enjoyed by the whole community. Communal feasting, game-playing (the Haudenosaunee developed the game of lacrosse), and visiting served to bolster the strength and love of the people. And this is what these gorgeous New England maple trees brought to my mind.

Edit: Correction of a minor typo.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on October 27, 2006, 04:39:59 pm
DId they have any festivals in the fall, Scott?

I just wanted to show off this picture of a Sphinx moth with penstemon.

(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210035/sphinx-penstemon.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: moremojo on October 31, 2006, 11:04:22 am
DId they have any festivals in the fall, Scott?
Yes, the Harvest Festival was usually celebrated in early October, and consisted of four days of song, prayer, dance, games, and feasting.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on November 09, 2006, 09:26:22 pm
I don't know exactly where to put this, but I wanted to write down some information about the wildflower Columbine, because it is mentioned in a crucial part of the story, when Ennis punches Jack on their last day on the mountain. Here are some salient points about this beautiful flower, which is also the state flower of Colorado, my home state.

The columbine is called the flower of cuckoldry as well as the patron flower of the holy spirit, which is represented as a dove. Its botanical name is Aquilegia, which comes from the Latin Aquila, "eagle" because its spurs are like eagle's talons, or it could have come from auilegus, which means water carrier or water container. Greek jars for holding liquids were often pointed at the  base and buried in the ground to keep the contents cool. Spurs, like all horns, also symbolized cuckoldry.

In old paintings and tapestries, the columbine symbolizes the dove of peace or the Holy Spirit, and some think the Holy Spirit is the missing feminine portion of the deity. In medeival times, it was thought that lions loved to eat the columbine.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on November 09, 2006, 10:26:20 pm
in one of the earlier discussions of columbines Amanda wondered if the English name was connected to the French colombe, and I replied,

Yes, columbine means little dove.  From the shape of the petals, probably - the long tails are something like the long neck of a dove, the wider part like the body.
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/whitecolumbine.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on November 10, 2006, 02:15:36 pm
Thank you for the lovely columbine photo, Andrew. The native columbine, which is the state flower of Colorado, is a beautiful blue color, (Boneless blue) the same shade as Jack's eyes.

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on November 26, 2006, 09:39:38 pm
I went out this morning with my splendid Swarovski binoculars and my much less splendid Canon camera, in the hopes of getting a picture of either the wood duck I saw yesterday at dusk, or the snowy white albino squirrel of Friday. 

Nature was playing her favorite game of all time with me - closing her right hand and putting it behind her back, bringing her left from behind her back and opening it.  Neither the squirrel nor the wood duck were where they had been, or at any of the spots they might have been expected.  But I walked into a mad party of singing, feeding, darting birds in bright sunlight at the end of one of the ponds. 

The star of the lot was a brown creeper - an incredibly inconspicuous bird I have been lucky enough to see only three times before in my life.  They walk up tree trunks, their intricately patterned backs camouflaging them perfectly from a distance but their bellies shining white if you can see the bird from the side.  They are so skittish, they are seldom on a single tree for more than a few seconds.  I have still never seen one for longer than the instant it takes to identify it, then it flees because it thinks identification is tantamount to capture.  Today I was so lucky as to be able to see the creeper once in the morning and once about an hour later, on another trunk part way around the pond.  This painting suggests some of the pattern on the back, but nothing of the dazzling white of the underside in bright light.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/betterCreeper-Brown.jpg)

The creeper must have appeared because it felt invisible in the crowd.  There were goldfinches, the brilliant yellow of summer turned a subtle living buff, slate-colored juncos just showing up in bands for the cooler weather carrying on with high-pitched sputtering, an infinitesimal but perfectly shaped golden-crowned kinglet, a downy woodpecker, a mockingbird, restless mobs of robins roaming around looking for easy plunder, blue jays, white-throated sparrows with their sweetly resonant single warning note, a song sparrow that was too busy feeding to sing, chickadees pecking at the open hollow ends of broken weed stems, a warmly red-brown Carolina wren around a fallen log, titmice with big black eyes and tiny bills.

Something about the carpet in the air all these little birds were weaving with their constrasting songs and their darting flights, made me think of the Sufi poets.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/conferenceofthebirds.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c112/youbetjack/BirdsongRumiColemanBarks-1.jpg)


There was a moment of hyperreality as I stood perfectly still among these excited specks of life, surrounded by a storm whipped up by not by wind but by crystal morning sun falling silently out of a still vast blue autumn sky. 

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on November 26, 2006, 10:17:02 pm
well I don't have a story...but here are some pictures trying to convey the colors of the season here in Texas...

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/fall2.jpg)

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on November 26, 2006, 11:13:37 pm
(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/bigtree.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/liltree.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/reflect.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/walloftrees.jpg)

Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on November 26, 2006, 11:17:44 pm
Thank you Jess for putting these pcitures here, We've got the real Americal here!  Thank goodness there are still places in your state that look like they did a hundred years ago.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on November 27, 2006, 05:36:38 pm
Here's a photo of the official Colorado columbine growing by my hot tub:

(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210035/columbine.JPG)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on November 28, 2006, 08:13:21 pm
ok I thought this might be interesting:

the river in summer (east)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/IMG_0109_1.jpg)

the river in fall (east)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/rivereastfall.jpg)

the river in summer (west)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/IMG_0108_1.jpg)

the river in fall (west)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/riverwestfall.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on November 28, 2006, 08:18:39 pm
and here are some pansies!!

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/purple.jpg)

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/yellow.jpg)

In Texas, if you have a garden with flowers you have to have Pansies in the winter...It's the LAW!!  :P
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Katie77 on December 03, 2006, 04:38:24 am
I took these pics today......its at a lagoon in a big park in my town.....we often take our grandkids to "feed the ducks"....we used to take our own kids here, many years ago......

Not sure if you have these birds over there.....our black swans, which are actually the sympbol for Western Australia (Heath's home state)....and pelicans.......

They are all quite tame here at the lagoon, and fly in when someone is there with some bread for them to eat....
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on December 03, 2006, 11:51:30 pm
Nice to see these pics with lots of snow on the ground where I am!! I made a short trip outside today to admire the Christmas lights that my husband put up and the full moon.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on December 04, 2006, 08:25:07 am
(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/tree.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Front-Ranger on December 09, 2006, 03:15:20 pm
More about the Columbine connection to the dove: From The Once and Future Goddess, "Christians later adopted the dove as a sign of the Holy Ghost, but originally the bird stood for Sophia, God's female soul." The dove was also the emblem of Aphrodite/Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, during Greek and Roman times.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on January 06, 2007, 09:17:06 pm
It was a gloriously wrong day today in New England, reaching 69 sunny degrees F in Boston.  Wild sloths could not have kept me indoors.  I threw on T-shirt, shorts and sandals and spent the day hiking around first toward Jamaica Pond then at Stonybrook Reservation. 

These pictures were loaded up to Phillip's new find DivShare, then I copied and pasted the fullsize .jpg name, clicked on the picture button here and edited 'img' to 'img width=700' since I prefer them just to display at full width, as opposed to having to click on a thumbnail.



(http://www.divshare.com/uploads/files/2007/01/06/29802/IMG_0156.JPG)

(http://www.divshare.com/uploads/files/2007/01/06/29804/IMG_0153.JPG)

(http://www.divshare.com/uploads/files/2007/01/06/29805/IMG_0160.JPG)

(http://www.divshare.com/uploads/files/2007/01/06/29808/IMG_0161.JPG)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on January 06, 2007, 11:09:08 pm
yes, it WAS a beautiful day...

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/enjoyingtheday.jpg)

oh that felt SOOOO good...

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/awwww.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on January 25, 2007, 08:42:32 pm
ok this is not the greatest picture in the world...but I like it...the colors...white and black and blue..

(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2/etexjess/IMG_0525_1.jpg)
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: Andrew on January 25, 2007, 10:01:04 pm
You posted that picture of winter trees and clear sky in the right topic, Jess, if you wanted someone who appreciated simplicity to see it.  This is the thread the Quaker made.
Title: Re: Nature journal
Post by: injest on January 26, 2007, 01:01:39 am
 ;)

I figured if anyone would like it or get the feeling behind it you would...it was a nice day...