wildlife – Page 63 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

The Lunch Buddies

It was hot day on the Kanawha River as my big blue truck rolled into the shade for a quick break. In spite of the humidity I opted to roll the window down and enjoy some fresh air. Little did I know that a very important business meeting was going on under the large oak trees. Being a bit of a snoop I turned down the podcast that was planning on the radio and eavesdropped on the conversation. These guys were really excited and chattering like crazy. After some strained listened I discovered that they were about to corner the acorn market! They made plans about how they would enjoy their wealth. The plan was to buy their own tree in the best part of the park far away from the hawks and owls. They have a special place for the chipmunk to come and visit and would give him his own room under the the roots where he could burrow and tunnel to his heart’s content. They would even have room for that crazy old opossossm to hang from his tail. The tree they had picked out had several abandoned woodpecker dens where they each have their own room. All they had to was to continue to collect and store as many acorns as they could carry. They paused only for a moment to update the map that they had drawn on the back of a leaf with an unburnt piece of charcoal recovered from the nearby grill. The map would help them remember where each and every hard earned acorn was stashed. They quickly hid their map in a hollow stump and pushed a large flat rock over the opening. They had finished their lunch early and after a quick game of tag around the oak they imeadiatly went back to work stashing acorns anywhere there was a hole they could commandeer. Suddenly they noticed that the guy in the big blue truck was holding his camera out of the window documenting all of their secret plans. One of them quickly disappeared behind the oak and the other one tried his best to blend into the bark.

Hiding in plain sight — One of the “Lunch Buddies” pretending to be invisible.

Not really wanting to interfere with their plans, I pulled the lens back into the window of the big blue truck and cranked the engine. Before I even left the shade of the oaks I could see the Lunch Buddies in my rear view mirror collecting acorns like crazy. I expect that on my next trip to the park they’ll be be living in the tree of their dreams.

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Things Are Just Ducky #8 The Visitors

Color Photography, wildlife

Merganser Ducks On Peter's Creek — Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Merganser Ducks On Peter’s Creek” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.

George the mallard smiled and gave big friendly wave of his wing as the two tourists swam by. As they quacked a hello he noticed a slight accent. They sounded like they were speaking in Morse Code. Being the good natured Mallard that he was he struck up a conversation. They were here on Peter’s Creek to camp for the summer and explore the Gauley River. George directed them to the most excellent rock a little farther down the creek. There they would find a deep hole with plenty of shad and a pond with an abundance of duckweed was just a short flight away. The visitors floated downstream and found everything just as George said. The rock was the perfect roost for ducks to camp on. There was even a hollow tree on the bank that was just right for two Merganser Ducks to cuddle in during the night and bad weather. During the hot days of summer the visitors would float down the shady creek to the Gauley River and watch the humans float down the rapids in bright colored kayaks. The ducks found it amusing that the humans needed help floating and would occasionally swim up and show them how it’s done.

One morning the Merganser Ducks woke up to see the leaves turning the same colors as the kayaks. It would soon be time to return home. As they flew over George’s park they landed for a few minutes to wish him well and promised to look him up when they returned next Spring.

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Milkweed

Color Photography, wildlife

I come to the conclusion that weeds are just a figment of the imagination. There’s only two types of plants.

1. Those that we know how to use.

2. And those that we don’t know what to do with.

Milkweed actually touches both ends of the scale. It’sgenerally considered a weed because it’s toxic to people, pets and livestock. And while it’s no longer used for its industrial purposes it was considered to be a cash crop at one time. Prior to the development of modern life jackets a sailor’s life may have depended on this underappreciated plant. That was because the seed pods were once used to make tge fillings of life jackets.

Today we recognize the Milkweed as an important host for the Monarch Butterfly. The catipiller feeds exclusively on Milkweed. Special organs in the Monarch Butterfly store the toxins making the Monarch poison to predators. Without the Milkweed there would be no Monarch Butterflies.

Monarch On Ironweed — Adult Monarch Butterflies feed on a variety of nectar but the catipiller eats only Milkweed.

Those beautiful butterflies that we find visiting a variety of flowers would starve to death without the Milkweed.

I remember when I was a kid how much fun it was to sew Milkweed. The seeds are similar to dandelion in that they’re spread by the wind. My brother and I would break open the pods once they were dry and pretend that they paratroopers landing on D-day. Sure enough that the next Spring new plants would pop up wherever we played. Fortnite might be fancier than the old games but you don’t get Monarchs at the end of Fortnite.

This Fall when you see those dry pods breaking open go ahead and scatter the fluffy seeds inside. Sooner or later you’ll have Monarchs as well as a few others.

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A Conversation For The Birds

Color Photography, wildlife

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Robin Eating Honeysuckle Berries” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.

One of my favorite movies was Jeremiah Johnson. The movie staring Robert Redford is a fictionalized version of a true story. There’s a couple of scenes where Redford just freezes in mid sentence and scans the mountains visually because he knew something was wrong. The mountains were silent in those scenes. What tips the mountain man off to danger in the scenes is very subtle. It’s the alert call of a robin.

I have never actually read the book “What The Robin Knows” but it’s often been referred to in other wilderness guides and videos. The book encourages you to pay attention to the sounds of nature. Birds especially. They’re the tattletales of the forests.

The individual calls and their meaning is literally a complete language in and of itself. A person could devote an entire blog to that subject alone. During the course of writing this article I did a quick Google search and found enough material for anyone to learn the basics.

The types of calls are:

Location calls, which helps them to keep track of babies and mates.

Flock calls, which is keeping track of the flock.

Food calls, which communicates that food has been located.

Mating calls, when romance is in the air.

Alert calls, to warn of danger.

I have probably left something out but this is enough to get started.

Something that I like to pay attention to is the “holes” in the bird chatter. This works like sonar for locating predators in the woods. Or even lost people for that matter. During hunting season I let the birds tell me where the other hunters are by paying attention to the holes in the bird chatter.

The little robin in tonight’s feature image is feasting on fly honeysuckle berries. These berries are poison to people but are a staple crop for birds. The little guy was having the time of his life with a whole bush full of berries all to himself! I watched him gobble down a few of the bright red globes before heading out to have my own dinner.

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A Couple Of Mornings With Ring-eye

wildlife

Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Hitting The Bullseye ” because the image contains an arrow and a bullseye. Like all of the photos on my blog this one is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.

It’s a peaceful morning in the Salmon Run area of Summersville Lake. The geese seem to paddle about in their tight knit group. It’s like watching a synchronized swimming exhibition. Everyone turns in time with the others. Everyone except for one that is. This goose is different. I first noticed this particular goose because of its eyes. My wife and I have come to call it “Ring-eye” because of the light ring on each eye.

I'm Special — This photo was taken the exact moment that I noticed the eyes of the goose. You can see in the background that all the other geese do not have the same eyes.

As soon as I saw the ring I softly spoke to the goose. “You’re special aren’t you” I whispered. To my surprise the goose reacted to me by coming closer. The goose still kept a comfortable distance outside of my reach but broke away from the flock to stay close none the less. I didn’t feed the goose because the truth is that the DNR would rather not have them in the recreational areas. But I did continue to speak to it softly. A few days later I returned to the lake for another round of photos and as soon as I stepped out of the big blue truck Ring-eye made bee-line to the shore. This goose remembered me!

As soon as Ring-eye reached the shore he/she Stood in the shallow water and waited for the conversation. I obliged.

A conversation with Ring-eye — Ring-eye waits for conversation to start.

We spoke for a few while I finished my coffee before gathering my gear and seeking the next shot.

I have to admit that I’m kinda curious to see if my friend is still there and remembers me on my next trip.

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