The Daily R-r-r-ibbit

Reason number three-gazillion-and-one to stop blowing up mountains: salamanders

   

Untitled video by Joe Milmoe at Vimeo has some familiar faces in it.

The case of the red-tinted tentworms

When I photograph something, I'm very aware of relating with it. But how does that interaction show itself? The image certainly implies interactions: a focus of attention directed to a subject...a waxing or waning desire to photograph it...a reckoning with the technology of the camera...a decision about how to frame the subject of my gaze. Much of all that seems to be done with some conscious awareness and intention. But the complexity, the breadth, the depth of that interaction is only hinted at in the image itself.

When I bring the images up in a viewer -- many hundreds and even thousands over time -- am I surprised by them? For the most part, no. At first glance, what I see is generally what I expected. On occasion, even at first glance, I am surprised by something, but, more often, it's only as I sit with the images and let them penetrate layers of assumption and expectation, that something new, something unexpected emerges.

I had not really thought a lot about this process until a few days ago when I uploaded this image of some eastern tent caterpillars that had recently emerged from their "tent" on a sweetgum tree:

What surprised me was the red tint on this image. I had not noticed anything like this as I took the photo -- neither sweetgum bark nor tent "cats" are reddish. However, I knew immediately how the red wash had become part of the image: I took this photo early in the morning, looking toward the sun that was just barely up over the ridges...and I was wearing a coral-red t-shirt.

In the instance of this particular image, my participation was reflected in a way that spoke more directly to a co-creative process with an "other" -- the sun, the tree, the caterpillars, the camera, my shirt.

For me, eye-to-eye macro-encounters -- especially with species other than humans -- introduce another question: who (really) is doing the gazing? Such are the contemplations of life in Frogpond Holler yet to be born into words...

Girl Chimpanzees May Use Sticks as Dolls | Wired Science

And now for something kind of different on this cold, gray, first day of winter: British primatologist Richard Wrangham, co-author of Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, now brings us a look at the play of girl and boy chimps...

The findings, reported in the Dec. 21 Current Biology, are the first documented evidence of boy and girl primates in the wild playing differently with their toys. Though these patterns’ origins will surely be argued, they add to the constellation of behaviors shared by humans with our closest living relative.

“We find that juveniles tend to carry sticks in a manner suggestive of rudimentary doll play and, as in children and captive monkeys, this behavior is more common in females than in males,” wrote anthropologists Richard Wrangham of Harvard University and Sonya Kahlenberg of Bates College.

via www.wired.com

The Great Wolf and Little Mouse Sister (Video)

Happy Friday, everybody! Here's a great video from the folks at Four Worlds International Institute. This is part 1; check out part 2 here. Check out their YouTube page for more of these.

Unexpected Photo Ops in the Holler Today

Tons of butterflies around today. This red-spotted purple and eastern comma shared the window sill for awhile:

Later I went outside and found this awesome caterpillar on an Echinacea leaf:

[Photos by Cathie Bird]

I posted two images of the red-spotted purple by itself at my photo blog here.

An unexpected encounter in the holler...

It is way past too hot to be outside anymore for awhile, but the butterfly and bee show just outside my window today has been awesome.

A sulfer butterfly has been around the past two weeks. I've gotten some telephoto shots since he or she seems to prefer the flowers in the planter that's furthest away.

Today it came over to the Echinaceas and I got some decent images by leaning out the window:

While I was mesmerized with the sulfer, an unexpected guest appeared right in front of me, seeming to check me out. I overrode an impulse to maneuver for the best shot -- just clicked the shutter and hoped for the best. It was a good choice. Before the camera was ready to capture another image, the hummingbird had flown away:

[Photos by Cathie Bird]

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails in My Echinacea Patch

I've gotten many photos the last few days of all kinds of winged creatures feeding on the 2010 crop of Echinacea purpurea outside my office window. In the past few days I've been interested in some black butterflies. There are three species that I'm still trying to sort through: pipevine swallowtails, spicebush swallowtails and female eastern tiger swallowtails that come in a black model as well as a yellow one. I'm pretty sure that I have not seen a pipevine this year so far, but I believe that I may have both spicebush and black female eastern tigers -- still trying to get a decent picture of what I think is the spicebush swallowtail.

I'm pretty sure this one is an eastern tiger:

                                                                                                     [Photo by Cathie Bird]

I finally figured out to look for the tiger-stripe pattern that is still discernible even on the dark females. Here's a yellow one (not sure if this one is male or female) for comparison:

                                                                                                    [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Some thorny characters in Frog Pond Holler

I started another post this morning -- Stewardship Among Flowers and Thorns -- but it went places I wasn't expecting and it's going to take some time to finish and may be kind of long. I decided to put that one on hold for today and just introduce one of the thorny characters in the holler for future reference:

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

                                                                                  [Photo by Cathie Bird]

This tree was a little difficult to get a lens around. When I tried to get a photo of the whole tree, its masses of white flowers kind of merged into blurry balloons, but I came in a little closer to get this fairly decent image of several branches. It's as awesome from a distance, though, as it is up close:

                                                                                    [Photo by Cathie Bird]

                                                                                        [Photo by Cathie Bird]

The thorns on this tree are stout, and (for this species) appear as un-branched pairs:

                                                                                    [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Black locust wood is strong and slow to rot in the humid, wet Tennessee climate. People of the Cherokee Nation planted and cultivated it to use for nails, bows and darts; white settlers used locust for fence posts and base logs for houses.

Black locust is a species that moves into areas that have been disturbed by human activity. This one grows near a gravel road, pretty much at the edge of the road cut.

I also get hung up on crab apples, blackberries and hawthorns on a fairly regular basis here in the holler. The hawthorn will be featured in my longer stewardship post, and as soon as I get a few more 2010 photos of the other two species, I'll do another post for them.

What's out crawling, flying and blooming in the holler this week?

What an awesome week of life in the holler! I don't know if more things are coming out this year because of the wet winter or if I'm just finding more things because I'm looking harder. Whatever the case, I found some wonderful critters and plants this week.

It's dark, thundery, wet and electric here in the holler right now -- huge waxing and waning storm system moving through much of the day -- so I thought I'd blog for awhile.

                                                                                                        [Photo by Cathie Bird]

I'm pretty sure these are Geranium maculatum, one of two wild geraniums that grow here. The other one is Geranium columbinum, the Long-stalked Cranesbill, which I've also seen in the holler (I think).

While I was photographing several bunches of these, I was able to get closer than ever to this West Virginia White butterfly:

Pieris virginiensis, I think. [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Further down the lane I found these wild strawberries. There were lots of them out, but this bunch hanging over a fallen twig really drew me in:

Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)  [Photo by Cathie Bird]

I also followed this caterpillar for awhile. He was moving much faster than I would have expected him to go and I took many frames, with only about a quarter of them coming out very well. I tried to identify this one online, but no luck yet, though I'm wondering if it might be a species of web or tent caterpillar, since he wasn't far from several trees with webs on them:

                                                                                [Photo by Cathie Bird]

I just happened to notice this wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) on my way back to the house after a walk with the dogs and cats one day. A day or two later I was seeing them everywhere along the lane:

                                                                                      [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Just back from a break. About 10 minutes ago I noticed that all of my pets were back here in the "office" with me. (I really love it when that happens, but it is a little tight space-wise.) I also noticed that the storm was intensifying and my head and ears felt like I was in an airplane, changing altitude fast. Then I lost my satellite connection. Woohoo!

Once I could get back online I checked my weather widget and found some weather advisories that were not there when I started updating my blogs this afternoon. It looks like things could get hairy tomorrow, too. I should be able to get some wild water photos by Monday, by the sound of it.

Tomorrow, I'll blog some more on the week in nature up here. I had a couple of other experiences -- with a black locust tree and a hawthorn of some kind -- that I'll share.

Okay. I'm off to batten down some hatches.

Butterfly Season Opens with a Bang in Frog Pond Holler

Oh, how I love it! No nets, no binoculars, not even a high-powered digital SLR. Just me, my little 8 MP Canon and the butterflies! Captcha, baby, captcha!

The first butterfly I saw in the holler this year was an Eastern Comma, followed within a week or so by a Mourning Cloak that I included in my March 19th post. Then the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails started showing up.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). [Photo by Cathie Bird.]

I found this one while photographing violets right outside my back door, and later got images of one in a cherry tree and a flowering crabapple:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail [Photo by Cathie Bird]

The next flybys I noticed were the smaller duskywings. I think this one is a Horace's Duskywing (Erynnis horatius), my first one ever to photograph:

                                                                       [Photo by Cathie Bird]

Yesterday, I caught this Spicebush Swallowtail on my quince bush. I've seen these many times in the holler, but this is the first one I've photographed:

Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) [Photo by Cathie Bird]

If I have a good butterfly hunting story, it's this one. Last year I spent much time, energy and spur-of--the-moment dashes outside to photograph the fast flying and skittish sulphurs. Finally, on the 30th of October, after most of the flowering plants had ceased to bloom and were shriveling toward winter, I did get a picture of one. I had to take it while leaning out of a window and stretching my Canon's zoom to the max, so it wasn't that sharp. I posted the photo and the story here, and made it a priority for this season to bag a good sulphur image.

For the past week or so I've seen a few sulphurs around, but have learned better than to chase them. Yesterday, while I was photographing the Spicebush and Tiger Swallowtails around my quince bush, a sulphur zoomed in. After flitting around, landing and taking off again if I moved very much, I was able to get these shots off:

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae). [Photo by Cathie Bird]

                                                                             [Photo by Cathie Bird]

So that's been my first big week of the 2010 butterfly season. I've seen some little Blues and a white butterfly of some kind, and maybe a Sleepy Duskywing as well, but no decent photos yet. The plant life in the holler is having a great year after our wet winter, so I'm guessing the butterfly bounty may continue as well. Within the past hour I've seen several butterflies near the window, even as I'm writing this.

By the way, I usually don't include a species designator unless I'm more than 95% sure my identification is accurate. If I decide later that another identification is more accurate, I edit the post to reflect that. I use Jeffrey Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars series as my primary hard-copy field guide, and have made use of some excellent online sources, too.

If anyone reading my blogs ever has a better idea on what species we're looking at, or if you know of good online guides, feel free to leave a comment. I'll be posting these and other photos on my Flickr account and my Earthbytes blog soon.