wildlife – Page 66 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Things Are Just Ducky #3 ( A Duck On The Run)

The rest of the flock looked on as George zipped by as fast as his webbed toes would carry him. The rest of the flock all looked into the bushes but there was no fox. They strained their ears but there was no yipping of a coyote. They glanced skyward but there was no hawks.

Again the unmistakable sounds of flat feet slapping wet sand approached the flock and sure enough here came George in a blur of feathers. Back and forth George ran in no particular pattern. And he was quacking like crazy!

Finally, his best friend Ralph jumped out into George’s path and spread out his wings in an effort to stop the frantic George. Ralph winced slightly expecting to be knocked down by George. “What are you running from?” Ralph asked. “Not running from, running to.” George replied as he huffed to catch his breath. Ralph knowing that his friend was prone to unconventional thought processes adjusted the question. “Okay then, what are running to?” “To get finished of course, now let me through!” George insisted with a panicked quack. Ralph, still obstructing George’s progress, continued to press the issue. Finally, George broke down and quacked off a long list of goals that had to be done. “Are you actually accomplishing anything by darting around in a panic?” Ralph queried. “A little bit.” George replied as he continued to try and find a way around Ralph. As Ralph interrogated George it came out that George had the bright idea to start several projects at once in an effort to accomplish more in a shorter time span. But all of his tasks were on opposite sides of the lake. He was running back and forth trying to maintain what he started with little impact on the overall goal and calling it “multitasking”.

Multitasking is a bit of a buzzword in the modern world. As individuals have more and more demands placed on their ever diminishing time the expectations are to split the focus and accomplish more. But it’s an illusion. Multitasking is a poor attempt at function stacking. Think of multitasking as trying to run a load of laundry and dishwasher at the same time while taking a shower. Most of our homes simply don’t have enough of a hot water supply to handle it all at the same time and none of the tasks are accomplished effectively. Where as function stacking is more like carrying out the the trash and coming back with the mail. The two tasks are parallel but don’t require the same resource simultaneously. It’s a more effective use of resources.

So, whatever happened to George? Well, Ralph being the awesome friend that he is not only helped George to get organized but he and a few more from the flock pitched in and took over some of the things that George had started.

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The Elated Snapping Beetle (Nature’s Jack-In-The-Box)

Color Photography, wildlife

Elated Snapping Beetle 52410 — Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is untitled but there’s plenty of titled images on my blog that are for sale. Just cruise the archives and if you see something that you like use the contact form to request prints.

Have you ever been out watching nature and that distinct feeling that nature was watching you back? It it looks like the tree in tonight’s feature image has grown a set of eyes, well, there’s a good reason why. Hiding in a crevice of the cork is the elated snapping beetle. It’s one of the largest insects native to the Appalachian Mountains. And, it has a few tricks up one of six sleeves.

The large eye spots on its thorax are thought to be there to detour predators. After all, they do resemble the large sad eyes of a cartoon character begging not to be eaten. But if that fails to work. It falls down and plays dead. Depending on its thick armored shell for protection. At least for a few minutes. It rolls over onto it’s back and curls up it’s antenna with it’s legs folded. Then at some point it changes the game and goes into Jack-In-The-Box mode. With a loud click it pops up into the air! Even as a full grown adult it’s enough to stun you when you’re not expecting it. It’s able to do this because of the hooks and notches on its shell that turn it into a spring.

The one in the photo is about average size for it’s species. About two inches long. They’re harmless to humans so I picked it up and let it play dead in my hand.

The Elated Snapping Beetle in my hand for a size comparison.

They belong to a group of beetles that bore into trees and live as larvae. Some members of the group are believed to live as a larvae for 50 years or more!

While the Elated Snapping Beetle has no bioluminescence that I’m aware of they are a first cousin to the tropical headlight beetle who’s eye spots are more foreword and produce enough light that they have been used as an emergency light for surgeries. They’re also related to what we call lightning bugs in Appalachia. ( fireflies in other places)

I was a little excited to see this one because I had not seen one of these giant clicking beetles since I was a kid. I’m sure that they have been around but I had not spotted one.

Other members of the group can be pretty destructive. One prime example would be the powderpost beetles which can be as damaging as termites. Dutch Elm disease is transmitted by wood boring beetles and the North American Chestnut is nearly extinct because of wood boring beetles.

However, there’s a bit of innocent fun when a young boy dares his friends to touch the dead beetle and it pops up at just the right moment.

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The Skipper & The Rose

Color Photography, wildlife

Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Skipper On Rose 51819″and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.

A sweet scent, a soft rain and fluttering wings greet me as the big blue truck rolls into the driveway. The rain had already slowed down to the odd droplet here and there as I stepped gently towards the flower. Almost on queue the little skipper butterfly walked up over the edge of the bloom and posed. With one flip of her wings she playfully rose into the air. Her aerobatic dance spoke of pure joy at the return of the sunshine. I was intrigued by her agility in the air. She lopped the loop and dove back down beneath the bloom and popped up where she started. I couldn’t help but chuckle while murdering “Show-off” under my breath. But who could blame her for being proud of her skills? As she fluttered her wings to groom the rose into producing more nectar I decided that it was time to unload the truck and leave her to her meal. My mountain is full of life and life is joy incarnate.

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Things Are Just Ducky #2

Color Photography, wildlife

George & Ralph In The Sun — Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “George &Ralph In The Sun” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article. All of the photos are my original work and are available for purchase.

George and Ralph waddled up out of the puddle to warm themselves in the sun a bit. They noticed that their neighbors, the geese, had just gotten home from a foraging excursion out in the forest.

Papa Goose is very tall!

George happens to notice how tall Papa Goose is. “Y’know Ralph, Papa Goose is very tall.” George comments. “So.” Was Ralph’s only reply. “Well, he’s also pretty successful and people say it’s easier to be successful if you’re tall.” George continued as he held out his short duck leg for emphasis. Ralph snickers a bit and says, “Well, it’s pretty obvious that a duck will never be as tall as a Goose.” George thought for a few minutes and stretched himself out as tall as he could make himself while emulating Papa Goose as best as could. “Maybe not. But I can be as tall as I am.”

George stands as tall as he can.

Ralph hid his face in embarrassment at his friend’s antics. “We’re ducks and we have our place on the lake and it’s not for us to be tall.” He said. But George didn’t listen. He continued to reach for his goal and while he never got as tall as Papa Goose he was in fact the most successful duck on the lake. But it wasn’t because he was tall. It was because he was dedicated to his goal and he didn’t give up when Ralph thought it was impossible.

Tonight’s story was inspired in part when the duck that I’ve named George really did look straight at the Goose pictured and tried to emulate the Goose.

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The Water Falcon

Color Photography, wildlife

The early morning sun breaks over Gauley Mountain to wake up the three rivers area. As my big blue truck rolls by I noticed something odd perched on a piece of driftwood out in the middle of the Kanawha River. I had to rub my eyes and blink a few times. We had always joked and called that partially submerged log “The Gauley River Monster” because of it’s resemblance to the famous Scottish cryptid. But this morning it actually seemed to move it’s head. I pulled into the parking lot of the Glen Ferris Inn and in typical redneck fashion wheeled into a 180 back up the road. I keep a small set of binoculars in the console. I knew that there was no way possible that the log had grown a living head overnight and just needed to see what it was. It’s neck was long like a goose but it’s beak was pointed like a heron. Except that it seemed to have a hook on the end like a bird of prey. The legs were short like a duck and it even had webbed toes. Skin around the face seemed to have bumps and scales like a buzzard. I found myself asking God if he had parts left over from other birds when he built this one. Then it spread out it’s wings began to dry them in the sun. This day I only had my cellphone as a camera and the digital zoom just didn’t bring the bird in with enough clarity to make me happy. But it did access Google and I found a match. It’s a cormorant! I have been around lakes and rivers my whole life but had never seen this odd dinosaur looking critter before.

The bird is considered to be pest by modern day fisherman. However, in Asia they use the cormorant as an aquatic falcon. The bird is given a collar to prevent large fish from being swallowed and then it’s released into the water to dive down. It’s been found that a cormorant can dive as deep as one hundred and fifty feet! The birds return to the raft and wait for the fishermen to remove the stuck fish. They don’t seem to be harmed by this and it actually looks like they bond with the owner.

The ones here are pretty standoffish though. Even my 400 mm lens can barely bring them in for a photo.

A local cormorant standing on the “Gauley River Monster” which is fully submerged in this photo.

I have stopping in these spots on a fairly regular basis and trying to catch them doing something other than standard out on that log. Then finally one morning I caught the feature image. The cormorant took off from its perch and flew in circles slapping the water with his wings. I’m not sure if it was trying to flush out prey or just playing and enjoying being a bird but it was a spectacular show. I have watched a few days and this seems to be something that they do often.

I also thought that because of its reputation as a pest in North America that it was a non native species but they are found all over the world.

The literature on these birds is quite extensive, especially in the cultural references. I could write pages and pages just covering all the little threads on Wikipedia alone but as life would have it time is the limiting factor in everything. And it’s time to metaphorically turn my big blue truck back onto the highway and look for the next subject to photograph.

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