Snow Geese

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The Line-Up.
Will the Guilty Goose Step Forward?

Farmer Brown says that eating in the cut grain fields is OK, but stay out of his wife's garden. If the guilt party doesn't step forward, he will start checking footprints and DNA from the feathers left behind at the scene of the crime in the garden.

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)

Photographed between Dallas and Marshall, Texas.
It was a cold, foggy February morning.
(Click on the line-up and scroll back and forth to view the guilty)

We watched them for a while, and they always stayed in a long tight line as they grazed along. They were lined up perfectly parallel to the wind direction. You know how a cold, damp East wind in early Spring will cut through you to the bone. Obviously, they put the toughest birds on the end to break the wind.

Notice the dark morphs which were once considered a separate species, the "Blue Goose".

Troy and Martha

Editors note to the Guilty Goose: "Don't do it, Farmer Brown's wife has something in mind concerning foie gras." Click here to see what it is and read some history of foie gras.

Posted for your viewing enjoyment and
for those visiting from Camera Critters.

Where's Waldo

Sky Watch Friday

Wally's in a solid red shirt today.
Where's his red/white striped shirt?

A photograph of an old shipwreck near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

There is a beautiful sky and sunshine on the way!

Skeleton of a Once Majestic Ship
Typical cloudy skies but beautiful day
Click on the photo to look for Wally. ;o)

I certainly hope the adults got the youngsters all rounded up after the field trip was over. It looks like they were having a good time and probably didn't want to leave.

For other SWF posts,
see Tom's new SkyWatch site here.

Note: For all of the adults with no children,
Click here to learn more about Wally (or Waldo if you are in the US or parts of Canada).
No, this is not an official 'Wally' print. It just reminded me of that with all of the blue shirts looking alike and one lone red shirt standing off by himself.

Troy and Martha
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Caterpillars

Monarch Butterfly Reproduction

Monarch Caterpillars

The mating period for the overwinter population occurs in the spring, just prior to migration from the overwintering sites. The courtship is fairly simple and less dependent on chemical pheromones in comparison with other species in its genus. Courtship is composed of two distinct stages, the aerial phase and the ground phase. During the aerial phase, the male pursues, nudges, and eventually takes down the female. Copulation occurs during the ground phase and involves the transfer of a spermatophore from the male to the female. Along with sperm, the spermatophore is thought to provide the female with energy resources that aid her in carrying out reproduction and remigration. The overwinter population returns only as far north as they need to go to find the early milkweed growth; in the case of the eastern butterflies that is commonly southern Texas. The life cycle of a monarch includes a change of form called complete metamorphosis. The monarch goes through four radically different stages:

1. The eggs are laid by the females during spring and summer breeding months.

2. The eggs hatch (after 4 days), revealing worm-like larvae, the caterpillars. The caterpillars consume their egg cases, then feed on milkweed, and sequester substances called cardenolides, a type of cardiac glycoside. During the caterpillar stage, monarchs store energy in the form of fat and nutrients to carry them through the non-feeding pupa stage. The caterpiller stage lasts around 2 weeks.

3. In the pupa or chrysalis stage, the caterpillar spins a silk pad on a twig, leaf, etc., and hangs from this pad by its last pair of prolegs. It hangs upside down in the shape of a 'J', and then molts, leaving itself encased in an articulated green exoskeleton. At this point, hormonal changes occur, leading to the development of a butterfly (metamorphosis). The chrysalis darkens (actually becomes transparent) a day before it emerges, and its orange and black wings can be seen.

4. The mature butterfly emerges after about two pupal weeks and hangs from the split chrysalis for several hours until its wings are dry (often in the morning). Meanwhile fluids are pumped into the crinkled wings until they become full and stiff. Some of this orangey fluid (called meconium) drips from the wings. Finally (usually in the afternoon) the monarch spreads its wings, quivers them to be sure they are stiff, and then flies away, to feed on a variety of flowers, including milkweed flowers, red clover, and goldenrod.

Monarchs can live a life of two to eight weeks in a garden having their host Asclepias plants and sufficient flowers for nectar. This is especially true if the flower garden happens to be surrounded by native forest that seems to be lacking in flowers.

ABC Wednesday Round 3 is here.

Troy and Martha

Lewis and Clark Bridge

Across the Columbia River


The Lewis and Clark Bridge, which is a cantilever type, spans the Columbia River between Longview, Washington and Rainier, Oregon. It is the only bridge spanning the river between Portland and Astoria, Oregon, and is located 66 miles (106 km) from the Pacific Ocean. This photo was taken from the west along U.S. Highway 30.

Lewis and Clark Bridge

The bridge was open on March 29, 1930 as a privately owned bridge named the Longview Bridge. The $5.8 million cost was recovered by tolls, $1.00 for cars and $.10 for pedestrians. At the time it was the longest and highest cantilever bridge in the United States. The state of Washington purchased the bridge in 1947 and the tolls were removed in 1965 after the bridge was paid for. In 1980 the bridge was rededicated as the Lewis and Clark Bridge in honor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The deck was replaced in 2003–04 at a cost of $29.2 million.

View of Bridge Construction from Inside
Martha shot this through the front windshield.
Remember in an earlier post, the moral to the story was,
"Keep the Front Windshield Clean"

The bridge is 8,288 ft. (2.5 km) long with 210 ft. (64 m) of vertical clearance. The main span is 1200 ft. (366 m) long and the top of the bridge is 340 ft. (104 m) above the river. It was designed by Joseph Strauss, engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.

For a sense of scale and perspective, notice the large red cargo ship on the Columbia River and the herd of Black Angus cows in the pasture.

River Traffic at the Port of Longview and Bridge

Map showing the location of the Lewis and Clark Bridge, Longview, and Columbia River.

Topo Map

Have you ever crossed this bridge?
Have you ever crossed this river? Where?
Leave a comment.


For more Bridges, head over to Runes TX-Blog

Photos by Martha
Map by Troy
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Alaska Sunday XVI

Trip Log - Part I

May 20 - May 31

This is the first month's log of our trip which Bilbo Baggins would have titled,
"There and Back Again - The Beginning".

Quite a few people have asked me in e-mails about our route, known as 'The Drive from Texas to Alaska and Back'. There is not much commentary included in this log, just sequential locations, dates, and mileages when available. The Alaska Trip Log will be divided into four months (parts) and posted on the next four consecutive Sundays. Past and future posts of Alaska Sunday (apart from the trip log) will have more detailed information and more photos of each specific area.

UPDATE: The log will contain 2 weeks per post. I didn't realize how time consuming it would be to look at trip records, mileages, and sorting photographs for each post. Not to mention deciding which photographs to post.

So here is a condensed version of the trip, with a few photos out of the 18,000 that we kept. A few of the photographs have been published, but are re-posted here to give a flavor and progress of the trip, and to see the landscape change.

Be sure to click on the photographs for full screen views.

5/20 Ft. Worth,TX to Santa Rosa, NM 498 mi
5/21 Santa Rosa, NM to Flagstaff, AZ 495 mi

Painted Desert - Arizona
Enriched colors due to
Perfect angle of near horizontal light and a rain shower

5/22 From our Campground in Flagstaff to Grand Canyon and back to Flagstaff, stopping at Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs along the way. 445 miles

Marble Canyon - Colorado River
from the bridge over the river at Lees Ferry
Those small yellow dots on the river are the large tour rafts

Vermillion Cliffs (a Stitched Panorama)
Note Hwy 89A (bottom right) for perspective & scale

Grand Canyon in the Rain
North Rim

5/23 Flagstaff, AZ to Bakersfield, CA 480 mi

Mojave Desert
Looking Toward Death Valley

5/24 Bakersfield, CA to Oakhurst, CA 200 mi

5/25 Yosemite (Adventure in the Sierra Nevada High Country) 124 mi

Half Dome - Yosemite
Glacier Point Road
Perhaps Ansel Adams stood on this very spot
and made a Black & White Photograph

5/26 Oakhurst, CA to Redding, CA 332 mi

5/27 Redding, CA to Trinidad/Arcata to Klamath, CA 190 mi of serious winding road

The Pacific at Trinidad/Arcata
Hazy Day
Time to turn North on Hwy. 101

5/28 thru 5/31 Coastal Redwoods, Fern Canyon, Pacific Overlooks, and Area 460 mi

The Pacific at the Klamath River
A Perfect Day

Fern Canyon
A Magical Place of Five-fingered Ferns
(Enlarge and scroll up and down)

Please comment and tell us which photograph you like best and why.

3224 miles logged during the 12 days of May
Next Sunday's Trip Log will be for the Month of June....
Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska
A lot of ground to cover and sights to see in the next 30 days.

Photographs by Troy and Martha

Aberrant Oak Hairstreak

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If you look closely while on your walks, you will encounter some individual critters that just don't match the norm.

This is an aberrant "Northern" Oak Hairstreak (Satyrium favonius ontario). Their range is from the New England states down to Central Texas. The 'southern' variety is confined mainly to Florida.

They are found along woodland edges. Some of the field guides list them as scarce, but the 5000 acre Ft. Worth Nature Refuge always has a good number of Oak Hairstreaks. This aberrant individual has the extra wide white bands and we occasionaly see some of these beauties (maybe 1 out of a hundred).

Oak Hairstreak (Satyrium favonius ontario)
On Milkweed

Troy and Martha

Click here for last Wednesday's post of lots of Texas' rare butterflies,
and a few common Texas beauties thrown in.

Posted for the viewing enjoyment for
those visiting from Camera Critters.

Name the Newt

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Those looking for Skywatch Friday today,
Scroll down one post after reading this.

Between August 1-15 they are conducting a "Name the Newt" contest over at Transient Light Photography for their new mascot. The winner will be announced September 1 on their Web site. That lucky person will receive a matted presentation of the September Print of the Month. Click on the link above or click here.

That's a great deal. I have already entered.

J. W. Moore is what I consider one of the Master Photographers of our time and he has an understanding of light matched by very few photographers past or present. When I think of B/W, I think of Ansel Adams, and when I think of color and the use of light, I think of Elliot Porter and Jim Moore.

Here's the Mascot

Red Eft

Don't just go over there to enter the contest, stop and read a couple of articles and view some of his great work. Go back tomorrow and read a few more posts. Bookmark this site for sure.

Troy

PS: Scroll down for "A day at the Beach" and lots of "Texas Rarities Butterflies"

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Sea Oats

Sky Watch Friday


We would like to share a photo that we made last fall on a trip down to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. It is a photograph of Sea Oats which grow on the eastern coasts of the U.S, Mexico, and the Islands of the Caribbean. I have been trying to photograph them for years, but I could never find a stand of Sea Oats that really suited me. What I had been looking for was a grouping of the oats leaning in a steady quartering wind to show some dynamic motion and add interest to the scene. I finally found it! An added bonus was the beautiful, mature fall colors set against clean sand and an interesting sky.

Sea Oats (Uniola paniculata)
Nikon D200, 90mm
1/400 sec, f/10, ISO 200

The sky is a typical marine layer which has lifted and can't decide whether to rain or break. It had showered much earlier in the morning. The stiff breeze was drying out the surface of the sand and creating small ripples in the surface (seen in the enlarged photo). Not seen in the photo are the grains of sand skittering across the upper beach above the tide line, reshaping the landscape, and pelting me mercilessly. Oh, the trials a photographer must endure to get the perfect picture....

Can you smell the clean, fresh ocean air? The temperature was a perfect 75-80 degrees. We drove along the beach at the water's edge for about 10 miles in our 4wd Toyota 4Runner. This area, called Boca Chica, is south of South Padre Island, and is separated from it by the channel at Port Isabel. This photograph was taken about one mile from the Rio Grande River, which forms the Texas/Mexico Border.

We had lunch in the 4Runner, facing the Gulf of Mexico, with the front wheels just being caressed by the incoming waves. What a view!

This is the same area and trip where we photographed the Oyster-catcher shown in a previous post. Click here to see this magnificent bird with his haughty stride, strolling on the beach. Martha photographed him as we drove past.

Troy and Martha

Note: Sea oats are well suited to saline environments, and are often used in soil stabilization projects, because their long root structure firmly holds loose soil. Sea oats are a protected grass in most states along the East Coast.


For other SWF posts,
see Tom's new SkyWatch site here.
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Butterflies

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For your enjoyment - color and pattern.

Some beautiful, some colorful.
Some plain, some rare.
(Click photo to enjoy)

Blue-eyed Sailor


Blue Metalmark


Blue Metalmark (underside)


Cloudless Sulphur


Crimson Patch


Dogface


Dorantes Longtail


Guava Skipper


Laceys Scrub-hairstreak


Large Orange


Little Wood Satyr
Violas form

Long-tailed Skipper


Lyside Sulphur


Mexican Fritillary


Orange Sulphur


Painted Lady (underside)


Painted Lady


Phaeon Crescent


Phaeon Crescent (underside)


Red-banded Hairstreak


Red-bordered Pixie


Silver-spotted Skipper


Sleepy Orange
looking like a leaf

Southwestern Texan Crescent


White-patched Skipper


White-striped Longtail

For those that made it to the bottom of this post and are interested in butterfly identification, I recommend Butterflies of North America by Brock and Kaufman. I keep looking at Half-Price Books for a couple of extra copies, but nobody wants to get rid of theirs. My old one is getting really worn.

Comment and let us know your favorite butterfly, color, or pattern.

Photos by Troy and Martha

The letter B today can be seen over at Denise's
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Art in Nature

Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, creations, and expressions that are appealing or attractive to the senses or have some significance to the mind of an individual. The word "art" may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However, it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art.

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art. If a thing is produced by Nature and stimulates the visual senses, is it considered Art? A painting of a great Sunset is considered Art. Is the Sunset itself Art?

Is any form which stimulates the visual senses to be considered Art? Can the following photograph be considered Art? Or is the object itself the work of Art.

Transformation

© Martha Mullens 2008

Photographed by Martha at the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens.

Qualities seen here that might stimulate the visual senses are form, texture, and color. An additional factor to consider is the placement in the dappled sunlight.

What do you like about this piece of Nature's art. Or is it just a piece of firewood. What do you see?

Photography by Martha
Post and Critique by Troy

For other interesting photography visit Katney's.

Muncho Lake and Light

Alaska Sunday XV

I am going to take time out from the regular Alaska Sunday Travelogue and show two photos that were taken only a couple of minutes apart at different focal lengths and slightly different light conditions. The lighting changed during those few minutes and the matrix metering interpreted the scene differently. I always shoot raw so I was able to make some small adjustments to the photos before saving them in tiff format.. The reason I wanted to show these and bring this to your attention is an interesting post over at Transient Light Photography. Read this at your peril. It will cause you to rethink your approach to scenic (or other) photography. It is not about equipment or software but discusses "light".

Muncho Lake is a highway services community in northern British Columbia, Canada, located at Mile 462 on Highway 97, the Alaska Highway, within Muncho Lake Provincial Park. A person could spend a lifetime in B.C. engaged in hiking, photography, camping, skiing, canoeing, fishing, exploring, prospecting, or just admiring nature (Sorry if I left out your favorite pastime. Leave it in the comments.). Follow the British Columbia link to learn more about this fascinating Province or check out the BC Interior link. Rocky Mountain Girl is from the B.C.Interior. Check out her blog here.

I won't bore you with technical details, but just be aware that the two photos which are vastly different in appearance, are only very slightly different in handling technique and light capture. In the second photo the light was blocked by a darker cloud which caused the exposure to differ slightly. For instance, the small change in light and scene contrast cause the clouds to appear to have darker bases among many other small noticeable details.

Grandpa used to say, "Grain and oats is what makes the Mare go".
Well, light is what makes photography go.

Yes, that is the un-retouched color of the lake with its high copper content.
Depending on light angle of light, it can appear dark blue, turquoise, or green.
(Click on the photographs for better views)

Plan your photo shoot. Even if you are "just taking snapshots", watch the lighting, direction of light, and color balance and experiment if necessary to achieve "that perfect shot". Make every photo a perfect photo.

Troy

Troubled Waters

SkyWatch Friday

Don't you hate it when you are trying to photograph a reflection of reeds against the sky,
and a big Alligator swims by and disturbs the water.
(Click on the photo to get a better view of troubled waters and a rippled sky)

Rippled Reflection

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

The new SkyWatch site is here.
Thank you Tom

For some great Alligator photos visit Klaus at Virtua Gallery.

Troy and Martha

Amberwings

A study of the
Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera)

A small, stocky, golden dragonfly of the Central, Southern and Eastern U.S.. One of the smallest in North America.

The male usually has entirely amber wings with reddish stigma (the small colored area near the tip of the leading edge of the wing). The full and correct name for the stigma is Pterostigma. The female stigma is usually dark with some reddish coloration. In the female the body has similar coloration and the wings lack much amber coloration. The wings in the female will have variable amounts of dark patches. In Southern populations, both sexes often have more spotting.

They usually perch horizontally on the tips of emergent plants usually along the shoreline. Both sexes are considered wasp mimics. When perched, they often move the wings and abdomen up and down in a wasplike manner.

Click on the photos for better looks at their variability.

Female
Note the excessive dark patches and brown stigma.


Female
Dark patches replaced with small amber patches on the hind wing.
Note the two-toned eye.


Male
Fully amber wings and red stigma


Male
Note the chevron markings on the abdomen.


Female
Beautiful example of average coloration.

The old style ABC wednesday is here.
Thanks Denise.

Troy and Martha
Texas Travelers