~ SL on pics Spam ~
View allAll Photos Tagged specific
Chiffchaff - Phylloscopus collybita
The common chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia.
It is a migratory passerine which winters in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa. Greenish-brown above and off-white below, it is named onomatopoeically for its simple chiff-chaff song. It has a number of subspecies, some of which are now treated as full species.
This warbler gets its name from its simple distinctive song, a repetitive cheerful chiff-chaff. This song is one of the first avian signs that spring has returned. Its call is a hweet, less disyllabic than the hooeet of the willow warbler or hu-it of the western Bonelli's warbler.
The common chiffchaff breeds across Europe and Asia east to eastern Siberia and north to about 70°N, with isolated populations in northwest Africa, northern and western Turkey and northwestern Iran. It is migratory, but it is one of the first passerine birds to return to its breeding areas in the spring and among the last to leave in late autumn. When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes. These trees are typically at least 5 metres (16 ft) high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants. Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it; for example, the willow warbler (P. trochilus) prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler (P. sibilatrix) prefers less undergrowth. In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees. It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats. There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London. These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.
Population:
UK breeding:
1,200,000 territories
UK wintering:
500-1,000 birds
This is an example of the Hibiscus Syriacus Blue Chiffon (Rose of Sharon). The double Rose of Sharon blooms are very similar to many other varieties of hibiscus.[...]. One example of a hardy species is the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus).
[...] the Rose of Sharon is simply one specific type of hibiscus. So, to put it quite simply, all Rose of Sharon flowers are hibiscus, but not all hibiscus flowers are Rose of Sharon. dengarden.com/gardening/The-Planting-and-Care-of-Varietie...
Blooming in my Vancouver balcony garden
Trees in winter
With the arrival of winter, and often at the end of autumn, a new problem arises with trees. This specific "winter" problem is associated with the accumulation of wet snow and the formation of frost on the branches and trunks of trees. "Freezing rains" - phenomena occur under certain combinations of weather conditions: sleet, wind, fog, sudden changes in temperature with a "transition through 0 degrees". Such a significant load on the branches and trunks of trees can lead to emergency situations:
1. Breaking off and collapse of large branches. Typical for poplar, aspen, willow, linden, oak. To a lesser extent for pines and elms.
2. Breaking the forks of co-dominant trunks. Most often found in the above tree species with V-shaped forks. Less typical for U-shaped forks of birch and spruce.
3. Bending under the weight of snow and ice, with possible breaking of the trunks of inclined trees.
I found the trees without obvious problems :)
Switzerland, May 2021
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.
I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.
But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.
It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.
I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.
Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).
Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.
No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.
Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).
But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.
And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.
Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.
Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.
As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊
The whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow". The specific hybridus is Latin for hybrid; Peter Simon Pallas thought it might be a hybrid of white-winged black tern and common tern, writing "Sterna fissipes [Chlidonias leucopterus] et Hirundine [Sterna hirundo] natam".
This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details.
C. h. hybrida breeds in warmer parts of Europe and the Palearctic (northwestern Africa and central and southern Europe to southeastern Siberia, eastern China and south to Pakistan and northern India). The smaller-billed and darker C. h. delalandii is found in east and south Africa, and the paler C. h. javanicus from Java to Australia.
The tropical forms are resident, but European and Asian birds winter south to Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.
The scientific name arises from the fact that this, the largest marsh tern, show similarities in appearance to both the white Sterna terns and to black tern.
...there are enough flowers here for you to nibble on and frolic through without eyeing up the ones in my hair! I had the best time scampering about this beautiful sim today...I mean, truly, what is not to love?! There are horses and flowers and trees, all of the things that make my heart pittery pattery happy! I made an adorable new friend as I traipsed through this cheery meadow, and he is perfect in every way, except for his penchant for the specific type of flowers I was attempting my to wear in my hair!
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Clef%20des%20champs/55/149/23
I hope everyone is having a beautiful week! Thank you all for letting me jump back into the Flickr fabulousness with you again after my little two month break!💕🐴
If I was to show you a book on a specific topic, and it had details and photos to contribute to its distinct message to get across its topic clearly, and then I said that no one wrote this book, it just appeared out of nowhere, would that not be ridiculous, because you can tell by its structure etc that there was a mind behind its creation. Like wise but in a much more profound way the things we see in nature with its complexity and order, shows beyond any doubt the existence of a mind that's way beyond our finite understanding, yet clearly discernible by what's made.
Dandelion seeds 1 second exposure using natural light
(We have a new granddaughter..!!! 'Hope' born last night)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NJiasWrLc
Check out the lead guitar break at the end by this 6 yr old
Dobra reservoir with Dobra castle ruins
Second reservoir in the Kamptal
The Kamptal begins at the border to the Mühlviertel and extends 160 kilometers to the mouth of the Kamp and the Danube. The Kamp flows through an impressively beautiful part of Austria and actually one would think that a reservoir or even three of them would not fit into the concept, but that is wrong in this specific case.
Kleiner Feuerfalter (Lycaena Phaeas)
Lycaena phlaeas, the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or gossamer-winged butterfly family. According to Guppy and Shepard (2001), its specific name phlaeas is said to be derived either from the Greek phlego, "to burn up" or from the Latin floreo, "to flourish".
Merci pour la visite, les favoris et les commentaires!
Muchas gracias por su visita, favoritos y comentarios.
Thank you All for the nice comments and the feedback.
✌
Rhododendrons are ornamental shrubs with bell-shaped flowers and wide, evergreen leaves. They can be difficult plants to grow as they require specific conditions to flourish. Rhododendrons prefer well-draining, acidic soil and thrive in dappled shade with mild temperatures.
Taken at Brueckner Rhododendron Gardens
Have a beautiful Friday everyone!💝 HFF!
Thank you for your visits, kind comments, awards and faves. Always greatly appreciated.
Copyright 2021 ©️ Gloria Sanvicente
Dunlin - Calidris alpina
The dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a small wader, sometimes separated with the other "stints" in Erolia. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–2. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific alpina is from Latin and means "of high mountains", in this case referring to the Alps.
It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa, southeast Asia and the Middle East. Birds that breed in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic migrate short distances to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, although those nesting in northern Alaska overwinter in Asia. Many dunlins winter along the Iberian south coast.
An adult dunlin in breeding plumage shows the distinctive black belly which no other similar-sized wader possesses. The winter dunlin is basically grey above and white below. Juveniles are brown above with two whitish "V" shapes on the back. They usually have black marks on the flanks or belly and show a strong white wingbar in flight.
The legs and slightly decurved bill are black. There are a number of subspecies differing mainly in the extent of rufous colouration in the breeding plumage and the bill length. Bill length varies between sexes, the females having longer bills than the males.
The Canada Place Sails of Light are illuminated each evening from dusk to dawn, with seasonal vibrant colours. They also offer local charities and non-profit groups the opportunity to build awareness for their cause or organization by illuminating the Sails of Light in colours themed to the specific cause. May 3, 2022, the colour red puts the focus on Asian Heritage Month
I think this 'two-in-one animal'-mural is made by Cee Pil, but I'm not sure.
Here you can see another of his mural, using this specific style.
Happy Wall Wednesday ;-)
Street Art, Ghent, Belgium
Explored July 4, 2023
#MacroMondays
#Feather
Plume grass is an extremely rare type of grass that can only be found in the deep sea in light-flooded caves (illuminated by the just as rare but permanently glowing deep sea rainbow) or above the clouds. I couldn't verify the origin of this specific bunch of plume grass, because it had materialized itself on my photo (aka living room) table out of nowhere. OK, joking aside, "nowhere" is a small paper bag that I keep in my original MM box (numerous boxes have followed since) in which I've carefully stored this feather ever since I found it on the ground in front of an outdoor owl cage/compound at the Tierpark Berlin back in 2017. The owl inhabiting said cage had eyed me suspiciously all the time plus its plumage colour and pattern were very similar to that of this feather, so it was pretty sure that owl's feather.
The feather, or rather the part of it I'd found (it looks as if it had broken off because the quill is missing), is very fluffy and delicate, and it has a white/light brown zigzag-like pattern. The entire length of the feather is 6,5 cm/2,5 inches, and the (upper) part of the feather that you can see in my image has a length of 2 cm/0,78 inches and a width of 4 cm/1,5 inches..
Since a feather is all about airiness, freedom, and a creature soaring the sky up above I thought I'd use a bright blue backdrop for a change. I still didn't know how to add a little more vivacity to the feather itself, since while beautiful it isn't exactly colourful with its muted tones that suit a predator well as camouflage. My makeshift colour filters didn't work too well for the scene I had in mind because they coloured the backdrop as well. But the sunshine came to my rescue. I keep all sorts of stuff on the window sill, like a sundial, and also rocks and crystals, and among these "dust collectors" also is a huge, diamond-shaped glass crystal. Its facets conjure lovely rainbow-coloured light reflections onto the wall and the window sill when hit by the sunlight at the right angle. And when I noticed the sparkle, I thought "That's it, hooray!" :) Not that it is easy to direct the rainbow sparkles to a specific subject, it was a lot of hit-and-miss, but in the end, I once again had a few images to choose from. I also took a few images of a plain white feather that actually reflects the rainbow light much better, but since I had to make a choice, this image made it mainly because of the white bokeh balls in the upper right corner (probably light reflections from the glass crystal as well) because they reminded me of sunlight shining through a very clear water surface (or of a small fleecy cloud), illuminating a beautiful "underwater scape".
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Okavango Delta
Botswana
The Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) is a large bird native to Africa. It is a member of the bustard family, which all belong to the order Gruiformes and are restricted in distribution to the Old World. It is one of the four species (ranging from Africa to India to Australia) in the large-bodied Ardeotis genus. In fact, the male Kori Bustard may be the heaviest living animal capable of flight. This species, like most bustards, is a ground-dwelling bird and an opportunistic omnivore. Male Kori Bustards, which can be more than twice as heavy than the female, attempt to breed with as many females as possible and then take no part in the raising of the young. The nest is a shallow hallow into the earth, often disguised by nearby obstructive objects such as trees. The specific epithet kori is derived from the Tswana name for this bird - Kgori.
#MacroMonday
#Sound
For "Sound" it had to be my violin. If I don't play it (and I know I should, but, oh dear, the overcoming!), I can at least honour it with a bit of Flickr sunshine from time to time. Maybe I should work on my "scratch resitance" (sound-wise), it might help me to get over the first caterwauling hours of exercise after so many years of not practicing ;-)
This, you've guessed it, is a small part of the F hole, about 2 cm / 0,78 inches wide. I decided to go for a slightly more "obscure", kind of vague low key look with a very shallow DOF, because when it comes to music, sound in general, it often is not very clear at all why we like a song, a specific sound, or why we positively hate it. Sound, music moves us, either way.
I have a busy day today, so I can only stop by here today occasionally, I hope to catch up with you later! HMM, Everyone, and have a nice and safe week ahead!
Für das Thema "Sound" musste es meine Geige sein. Wenn ich sie schon nicht spiele (ich sollte, ich weiß, aber die Überwindung!), kann ich ihr wenigstens von Zeit zu Zeit ein wenig Flickr-Sonnenschein gönnen. Vielleicht sollte ich an meiner (klanglichen) Kratzfestigkeit arbeiten, um, nach so langer Zeit des Nichtspielens, die ersten Stunden des Katzenjammers zu überstehen, bis es wieder rund klingt ;-)
Dies ist, Ihr habt es schon erraten, ein Teil des F-Lochs. Ich habe hier bewusst auf geringe Schärfentiefe gesetzt, um den Charakter von Musik, von Klang generell zu verbildlichen. Wir können ja oft gar nicht definieren, warum wir ein Musikstück mögen oder einen bestimmten Klang geradzu hassen. Musik, Klang bewegt, so oder so.
Ich habe heute viel zu tun und kann hier nur gelegentlich reinschauen. Ich hoffe, heute Abend wieder mehr Zeit für Euch und auch den MM zu haben. Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, passt gut auf Euch auf!
My husband built this birdhouse back in Alaska to specific sizes for swallows. Chickadees used it two years in a row. It stood high on a metal pole away from interlopers.
Then we moved here, birdhouse included, and finally, tree swallows! Sounds like quite a few hungry ones inside.
Photo today by my husband, Howard Marsh, using his D4 and my 500mm f/4 on the Manfrotto monopod.
The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC.
Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse.
There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.
Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, possessing an excellent sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down, with younger horses tending to sleep significantly more than adults. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under a saddle or in a harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.
Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods", such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods", developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses.
Horses and humans interact in a wide variety of sport competitions and non-competitive recreational pursuits, as well as in working activities such as police work, agriculture, entertainment, and therapy. Horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, and pharmaceuticals extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. Humans provide domesticated horses with food, water, and shelter, as well as attention from specialists such as veterinarians and farriers.
For further information please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse
Months after I've last been to the Cristei Meadow, many things have changed around.... including the appearance of many new birds. Yellowhammers, woodpeckers, greenfinches....but my eyes were locked on a specific bird; the Red-backed Shrike.
Moduza procris - the Commander
Doi Suthep-Pui NP, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Order : Lepidoptera
Family : Nymphalidae
Sub-Family : Limenitidinae
Genus : Moduza
Species : Moduza procris procris
I have recently uploaded a new set of Thailand pics on my website. Mostly butterflies but a couple of other things as well. Please have a look - bugs-alive.blogspot.com
There is also a specific factsheet for the above butterfly -
All my insect pics are one shot, hand-held macros of live insects in the wild.
While I am curious about the formation of the lines on the slope, a Flickr friend from Malaysia was specific about the bitter coldness there or thereabout in winter. Nowadays, I suppose more people are concerned about the isolation here and I'm not too sure if folks there have access to the internet, or even to Amazon ?
Dohnanyi plays Beethoven
Tempest
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNJhcVY8tI&list=PLAC65F6C5C6...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNJhcVY8tI&list=PLAC65F6C5C6...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GPBRr2c_n0&list=PLAC65F6C5C6...
Andante Sonatas 30&31- 1959
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLz5PhzYeYU
Like most audience, I was first attracted to Dieskau and then I switched to Hans Hotter and thereafter to French tenor Gerard Souzay and I'm still exploring :
Gerard Souzay. Schumann & Schubert
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sh8HFVwc-I
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrKkdIp85DY
Faure
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRrdWhKuwQ4
Elisabeth Schumann, Schubert - 48 Lieder : Ave Maria, Die Forelle...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5E_BicQmR4
www.classical-music.com/article/best-recordings-schuberts...
Peter Schreier : Serenade, Schubert
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaq-6U7ZJt8
Elley Ameling
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JygxOQK0rYg
Chen Sa plays Beethoven 'The Tempest' , 2011
This little flat-faced longhorn beetle is a cool-looking character. They are nocturnal by nature so it was neat to find one out during the day. This species is not host-specific and it lays eggs on several different kinds of trees, including basswood and ironwood, and larvae feed on wood tissue inside the trees. Unfortunately, Astylopsis macula has been found to carry around spores from the butternut canker fungus, leading to the demise of one of our favorite woodland trees here in the Driftless Region.
Aloe arborescens, the krantz aloe or candelabra aloe, is a species of flowering succulent perennial plant that belongs to the genus Aloe [...]. The specific epithet arborescens means "tree-like". Aloe arborescens is valued by gardeners for its succulent green leaves, large vibrantly-colored flowers, winter blooming, and attraction for birds, bees, and butterflies.
Description
Aloe arborescens is a large, multi-headed, sprawling succulent, and its specific name indicates that it sometimes reaches tree size. A typical height for this species is 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) high. Its leaves are succulent and are green with a slight blue tint. Its leaves have small spikes along its edges and are arranged in rosettes situated at the end of branches. Flowers are arranged in a type of inflorescence called a raceme. The racemes are not branched but two to several can sprout from each rosette. Flowers are cylindrical in shape and are a vibrant red-orange color. Wikipedia
Tateyama is a large volcano. The name does not refer to a specific peak but to the group of peaks associated with the volcano.
Murodou (室堂) as well as Midagahara (弥陀ケ原) and Bijo-daira (美女平) to the west are a sequence of lava plateau.
Murodou (室堂) is located at an altitude of 2,450 m. There is a transfer station between Tateyama Tunnel Trollybus and the bus service to/from Bijo-daira (美女平) near Tateyama town proper. There is a network of trails marked by poles to explore the volcanic terrain in Murodou including hotsprings, ponds, religious buildings etc.
Tateyama is directly hit by the northwestern monsoon in winter. There is no weather station in Murodo as it is completely closed down from December to early April due to heavy snowfall. Unazuki weather station, not far from Murodou in the the Kurobe-gawa gorge, records an average annual precipitation of 3,587 mm. Murodou is supposed to have more precipitation. Wettest months are December and January.
This photo was taken at the end of April.
You can ski in Tateyama until June. There is no lift but instead you can take bus to climb back to Murodou.
I’d like to dedicate this shot to a good friend of mine William McIntosh. I have spent the last 4 months shooting as much as I can with Bill and trying to gleen info from him about his weather prediction skills and gain some insight about his frame of mind about photography. He is a master of weather prediction IMHO and I have always admired his tenacity which has netted him some absolutely fantastic captures from Yosemite National Park and the Pacific Northwest. Bill contacted me during the week to see if I was up for a Banzai run to Yosemite Valley as he was predicting a passage in the storm which would provide a high probability of misty/snowy conditions like seen in many of his postings from there. Of course Bill was right on the money as was shown from some of the webcams provided there. But unfortunately I had to decline as I was starting to get sick with the Flu and didn’t want to drag him down with me. Today he contacted me again to see if I was up for some shooting at Corona Del Mar but I was still trying to fight off the Flu and as painful as it was had to opt out again. Later, today, as I was digging through my folder of processed photos I found this shot and the pain of declination returned. Sorry Bill, I was more worried about getting you sick then worsening my own condition. LOL. Thanks for the invite my friend and hope you had a great day at CDM. If you would like to see William’s amazing photography, you can visit his stream here.
www.flickr.com/photos/mtsacprof
Tale of the Take…
This is a side view of the arch found at Corona Del Mar, If you wanted to get a full view through the arch you would need to scramble along the cliffsides base there at a specific tide level, I say specific because if you time it incorrectly you wouldn’t drown but you would have to spend a long, cold night on the rocks or call the Coast Guard to come “fish” you out which carries along an $800 dollar or better rescue charge. I’m still hoping that Bill will show me the specifics of entering here at a time that would be safe to enter and exit during the sunset. See what I mean about his tenacity. :)
Please come over and check out my other photos, you might find something else you like. :)
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my photos, and as always, your views, comments, faves, and support are greatly appreciated!! Have a great weekend everybody!! :)
Please do me a favor and follow me on my other social sites found below:
500px | Facebook | Flickr | Google+ | Instagram | Youtube
Copyright 2016©Eric Gail
Collier’s Reserve
Southwest Florida
Audubon International Signature Sanctuary
USA
Four Spotted Pennant dragonfly found by a lake in Collier's Reserve located in southwest Florida near Naples. Collier’s Reserve is designated as the world's first Audubon International Signature Sanctuary.
Four Spotted Pennant (B. gravida) is an abundant and widespread species.
The species occurs in sixteen states in the USA. These are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
Preferred habitat is mostly lakes, often those with relatively low odonate diversity. Also at large coastal marshes in Texas and may be on large drainage canals and artificial lakes. Tolerates high alkalinity and perhaps some salinity.
The species is abundant in Everglades National Park and a variety of coastal national wildlife refuges, also state parks, national forests, and other preserves. There are no species-specific conservation measures in place or needed. - Wikipedia
When you just "drop into" a specific year's archive, you never know what your claws will surface with. (Like a penny arcade, remember?) Well, I didn't remember that my Dragonfly years went back to 2009-2010, but yes, and they coincided with my first wildflower foray.
What did surprise me was that ... I was good! The cameras were the SX10 and the SX20. I do remember that the lenses were excellent for closeup work. (It would be another year or two before I had a camera - the SX40 - with sufficient focal length for birding.) Composition was a real problem when I started with dragonflies and damselflies. Backgrounds could be just water but with the sun bouncing off. At other times, the backgrounds could be duck weed and all manner of acquatic fauna that made for messy shots and poor depth of field.
It was the SX40 that got me away from insects and flowers. After all, anyone with a digital camera could capture decent images of birds, but birds are far ranging (they fly) and, therefore, more time consuming than dragonflies or snapdragons.
Anyway, this was one of my first "pond-based" dragonflies, a Blue Darner near Heather Farm's larger pond. (After seven plus years of birding, I would return to odonates in 2017-2019.) My first dragonfly was, by the way, a female Variegated Meadowhawk found in tall grasses on the south side of Mt. Diablo, fairly distant from any water. But I got hooked. With the SX40, if it moved, I'd shoot so my photography was "all over the map," literally and figuratively.
Sometimes we’re able to plan a specific photograph, and leave almost no room for coincidences or misfortune. Also, sometimes we just explore some locations and see whatever the day and the light gives us (probably my favorite!). But there are times where you just happened to be at (or very nearby) a location that you want to shoot for some time and you just have to accept the given circumstances at the time. This is the type a lot of hobbyists like myself have to deal with every now and then, and so it was the case at this quite beautiful spot at Zierikzee. On a time window of only half an hour I was trying to make the most of this ‘golden hour’ that never came. The sun was going down behind the tower, just on the right side, but I didn’t even see a glimpse of it. So the result was a nice moody sky, but a very dark subject. Then rain started pouring down and I had to look quickly for a shelter. But after a few minutes, the rain stopped and suddenly some beautiful reflected light from the clouds behind me appeared on the city gate. I was amazed by the difference it made to the scenery and although the wind was blowing significantly, I was able to get a nice reflection by using a 6-stop nd filter. So at the very last minute I luckily came away with a decent photograph. Eventually I was a bit late for the sports tournament I participated in, and where I had to be in the first place. But hey, you’re a photographer or you’re not!
Thanks for having a look! All faves and comments are highly appreciated!
Kungsholmen, Stockholm.
Geranium macrorrhizum is an aromatic perennial with attractive soft leaves and pink or purplish flowers. The specific epithet macrorrhizum refers to its large rhizome.
Native to Europe (from France to Greece and Romania), where it is found in the southern Alps, Apennines, Balkan Peninsula and Carpathians.
www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/geranium-ma...
I just found this a fascinating bird to watch. I don't know the specific species but I hope one of my flickr friends will enlighten me....
Those sideburns were spectacular!
The other day a friend was commenting on the clouds that appear along the Sunshine Coast vs those in Alberta. Ostensibly, those that take shape over the ocean vs those that develop in the prairies. We both came to the conclusion that although the topic of clouds was the same, the resulting forms were often different yet unique to the landscape. (so to speak)
In this image there are two distinct clouds forming in the distance, both over the ocean and developing over a distant island. Pender Island to be exact. One, filling the sky at a higher level, while the other stretching for miles at a specific height catapillaring along the ocean.
After photographing Prairie clouds for the last 26 years, I have noted in my photos they are often quite wispy, or perhaps appearing like giant whipped potatoes in a thunder cloud, or just plain leaden, covering the sky. They too come in many forms, but for the most part, look distinctively different. And, isn't it fun to just watch them as they move inexorably across the sky creating their beauty for us to photograph.
An early morning shot of a full to bursting Mevagissey harbour
You do not have the right to copy, reproduce or download my images without my specific permission, doing so is a direct breach of my copyright
Kaziranga National Park
State Of Assam
India
The barasingha (Cervus duvaucelii), also called swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal. It is extinct in Pakistan and in Bangladesh.The specific name commemorates the French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel.
The swamp deer differs from all the Indian deer species in that the antlers carry more than three tines. Because of this distinctive character it is designated barasingha, meaning "twelve-tined." Mature stags have 10 to 14 tines, and some have been known to have up to 20.
In the 19th century, swamp deer ranged along the base of the Himalayas from Upper Assam to the west of the Yamuna River, throughout Assam, in a few places in the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Eastern Sundarbans to Upper Sind, and locally throughout the area between the Ganges and Godavari as far east as Mandla.
Swamp deer are mainly grazers. They largely feed on grasses and aquatic plants. They feed throughout the day with peaks during the mornings and late afternoons to evenings. In winter and monsoon, they drink water twice, and thrice or more in summer. In the hot season, they rest in the shade of trees during the day. - Wikipedia
As it was so windy, the beach was a lot less busy than usual at this time of the year so I had plenty of time and space to get some interesting beach reflections.
You do not have the right to copy, reproduce or download my images without my specific permission, doing so is a direct breach of my copyright
Can't be more specific - I didn't get a look at the abdomen. I don't think the eyes don't look right for a familiar bluet, but beyond that I don't know.
Dogwood 2019 - 52 week challenge - Week 8 Composition: Leading Lines. It is easy to use Leading Lines to show depth in an image or guide the eye to a specific spot in the image. Instead, this week use leading lines to show the concept of infinity.
House found in central Tokyo.
(Unfortunately, the sign is not information about that specific house but the general area.)
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
It has not been a great summer for butterflies in this area. I don’t know how much of a role an early blast of heat played, but species that I am used to seeing were either not around or were around much earlier than expected, in smaller numbers.
This was a late day lucky find. Like birds, butterflies have species-specific ways of flying: wing movement and arcs of flight tend to be tied to a species. This Black Swallowtail was moving around in the sun, looking for a perch, and I saw it pretty quickly. The question, as always, was getting close to it without flushing it.
Again like birds, they seem to notice they are being chased, so I use an adapted bird-focused strategy: I walk away from the butterfly, and then find where the best line and sun is and approach. I look for a camera position in an oblique way, taking a casual walk as if I had not noticed the creature. You lose some this way, but direct approaches have not panned out well for me.
This butterfly set down for a couple of minutes on this less than photogenic wildflower, which was, it turns out, in a small sea of poison ivy. And the butterfly was about a foot off the ground. I wear clothing and knee-high rubber boots for ticks and poison ivy, so I was able to set up my monopod at the right height while doing the goofy circuitous walk and then approach and kneel down. As always, I went to where I thought I could get a decent image, secured two, and then crawled a bit forward on my knees. Two images and crawl again.
The Swallowtail was not feeding, as is evident in the image. It was resting, and likely on its way to find a secure location for the night time.
In a summer of very infrequent opportunities this was a pretty fun half hour. And by crawling on my knees backwards I was able to leave the Swallowtail on this very plant, images secured.
It is always interesting to see what captures are my last for a specific area. For this past trip this was my last capture made in Moab area at Arches National Park after my last sunrise at this location. By this time in the morning I had installed the CPL filter on the lens.
Such beauty there in Utah ... and very hard to leave behind.
Riverside of the Nigorizawa that flows into Takase Reservoir.
It is like Sai-no Kawara (賽の河原), which means the riverside between this world and the next, where the souls of children who died prior to their parents are believed to stay. They are forced to build stone cairns that are to be broken down by resident ogres when they are completed. They start over to build new ones to be broken down again. The process continues forever…. It is a Japanese version of limbo.
Here in Nigorizawa, a huge volume of white granite sand carried by the stream forms a large expanse of sandy plain. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings) wrongly forecasted the volume of incoming sedimentation, and it turned out after the completion of the dam that it would fill the reservoir in decades (^_^;
Now a troop of dump trucks are carrying out the sand every day. They must continue forever like the souls of deceased children in Sai-no Kawara. It is also challenging the financial sustainabilty of the hydropower plant.
I heard the sand from Takase Dam is not suitable for construction material due to light specific gravity. Only possible use is for creating artificial beaches.
The Takase-gawa is a tributary of the Shinano-gawa that flows into the Sea of Japan at Niigata City located 250 km to the northeast. The Japan Sea coast in Niigata prefecture is now suffering from coastal erosion. Many good beaches disappeared over the past decades. It was caused by the construction of dams in its upstream.
To a certain extent
Walking on certain days,
is cumbersome,
to a certain extent.
Might be because of
lack of specific aim,
or just of physical strength.
In itself, that does not make
a difference.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In zekere mate
Het lopen valt me
op sommige dagen, zwaar,
in zekere mate.
Kan komen door ontbreken
van een specifiek doel,
of van fysieke kracht.
Op zich, maakt dat niet
uit.
monoprint, size 22x26 cm, www.meurtant.exto.org
All photos copyright 2015-2024 by Yarin Asanth. Please note the copyright. The photos are property of the photographer Gerd Michael Kozik! No further use of my photos in any form such as websites, print, commercial or private use. Do not use my photos without my express written permission !
The same procedure every year. Two applications are required to fly a drone in Thailand. A kind of driving licence or personal licence from the CAAT and a specific drone licence from the NBTC. Both applications require a lot of paperwork, forms have to be filled out and uploaded, photos with serial numbers, entry documents, an insurance confirmation, a residence address. If all goes well, the application to the CAAT has already been approved before the trip and so the application can be submitted to the NBTC with the entry stamp on the day of arrival. Ideally, processing will take less than half a day and you will then be sent a transfer order. The fee is 224 baht including bank charges. In the end, you have two certificates that allow you to fly a drone legally. I wouldn't do it without the certificates, because if the worst comes to the worst, you are covered, especially in the event of an accident.
A wonderful scenery between Ao Nang and Railay, a special the view from above!
Poached Egg Plant's scientific specific goes back on David Douglas (1799-1834), the great botanical explorer of the American West (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/54122518007/in/photoli...). Think, too, of the Fir Tree which carries his name in English. It was named for him in 1833. Here in the Hortus it's being visited by an avid Furrow Bee.
In the modern day, the WP is known for its massive holdout of searchlights. However, a good chunk of the Feather River Canyon is dominated by newer Safetran signals. This specific section between Keddie and Oroville does have a couple of survivors still holding on though.
While most people are familiar with the searchlights from Keddie eastward, in the main section of the canyon both the Paxton and Belden sidings are still being protected by searchlights. Having never shot either them before, my friend and I figured why not try to shoot a CN by the Paxton searchlights. After shooting the train at Keddie, we raced to Paxton and had plenty of time to set up while the CN crawled its way to us. Eventually, it finally showed up, passing the signals at well under 10 mph. While we wanted to also shoot this train at the Belden searchlights, getting to either end of the siding requires hiking, and we were not gonna risk potentially jeopardizing the other shots we had in mind for another pair of searchlights. Regardless, we were happy with our shots at Paxton and that was good enough for us.
the family portrait and family album quietly assume a significant place as a witness to our eyes :-)
Bill Thompson
The Environment Matters! Resist the Despicable Ignorant Orange Cockroach and his Cabinet of Stooges and Buffoons!!
saguaro cacti, saguaro national park, tucson, arizona
In psychiatry, the term means a specific and unique mental condition of a patient, often accompanied by neologisms. In psychoanalysis and behaviorism, it is used for the personal way a given individual reacts, perceives and experiences a common situation: a certain dish made of meat may cause nostalgic memories in one person and disgust in another.