This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: What Is It?
I had a few ideas for the challenge and quickly settled on one although I can’t really explain why I picked an autumn subject in spring.
This one’s quite easy.
A Fly Agaric fungi growing on Bickerton Hill in southern Cheshire.
The Fly Agaric fungi growing amongst Silver Birch trees on Bickerton Hill.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Walkabout.
A few photos from some of my walks around the neighborhood over the past few weeks.
Some interesting tree bark with Cedar trees and blue sky providing blocks of colour in the background.
Paper Birch trees against a blue sky with some nice wispy clouds.
Colourful green moss and orange Lichen growing on a boulder.
A giant blue butterfly garden ornament against a blue sky.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts: Awareness challenge.
I thought of a few types of awareness, animals are generally much more aware of their surroundings and potential threats than most humans.
This Red-breasted Nuthatch is checking the sky, aware of the possibility of predators overhead.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced many people to stay at home has probably made some people more aware of their surroundings. I quickly became aware of how much bluer the sky in this part of Ontario was with so few aircraft flying.
I’m aware of how bright the neighborhood Paper Birch trees look against the deep blue sky.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts: Razzmatazz challenge.
What I didn’t know is thar razzmatazz is a colour, variously described as pink, rose, purple or crimson depending on the source.
This ambiguity and the “razz” at the start of the word made me think raspberry and of the North American Purple Finch. I have suggested in the past that Raspberry Finch would have been a better name. Now I’m wondering if Razzmatazz Finch wouldn’t be another option.
Some male Purple Finches photographed on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario over the past few years.
The Weekly Prompts: Boundaries challenge got me thinking about the variable boundaries wild birds and animals put between themselves and humans.
The reason I say variable is because most species will keep their distance from humans. The more erratic and noisy the behaviour of the human the wider the boundary between them.
On the other hand, some understanding of animal behaviour and some fieldcraft will allow you to get within a few feet of many species. I have had wild birds and mammals approach me so closely that I couldn’t focus the lens I was using on them.
Portrait of a female Wilson’s Phalarope taken at Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. A flock of six Wilson’s Phalaropes landed close to me when I was photographing some American White Pelicans. I laid down in the sand and wildfowl poop at the edge of the lake and proceeded to spend some time with them. When I was lying down the birds started ignoring me. This female was so close I couldn’t get all her body in the frame. Some of the birds wandered so close I couldn’t focus on them.
This European Rabbit was photographed in Shropshire, England. I was surprised how relaxed some Rabbits were at this location. I know there was a Red Fox hunting them. I did wonder if they were so relaxed because they knew that the Fox wouldn’t be around if there was a human in the area.
A juvenile Red Knot resting on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton during its autumn migration. I had gone down to the shoreline for the sunrise and discovered two Red Knot. I spent long enough with them that they started ignoring me allowing me to photograph them feeding, bathing, preening and resting.
This Eastern Chipmunk was photographed in our yard in Ontario, Canada. The various birds and mammals got so used to me lying in the grass that summer that they started ignoring me. I had Chipmunks running across my legs while squirrels and birds landed in the Cedar branches a few feet away checking out the human in the grass.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Wheels.
Having been digitising my slide archives for a few months I thought about some of the colourful wheels found on old steam traction engines and farm tractors from my years living in Cheshire, England.
Yellow wheels. A traction engine at a steam rally in Cheshire.
Red wheel detail. A steam traction engine wheel at a steam fair.
Orange wheels. A competitor in the Cheshire Ploughing Match in the 1980s.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: What is it?
Having been digitising my slide archives this winter I had a few photos suitable for the challenge.
In the 1980s BBC Wildlife magazine used to hold a monthly photo competition. Each month they would publish a photo of a mystery nature subject and the first person drawn from the entries to correctly identify the species would win a years subscription to the magazine.
What is it? No one correctly identified this photo so the magazine didn’t have to give away a subscription that month. The answer is below.
What is it? This is the inspiration for Velcro, or hook and loop fastener as it is more correctly known according to the company that makes Velcro. These are the burrs, or hooks, on a Lesser Burdock seed head. The burrs/hooks are what cause the seed heads to attach themselves to clothing and animal hair.
The first photo is a close-up of the clumps of hair on the body of a Ruby Tiger Moth caterpillar. Possibly the caterpillar in this photo although the captions on the slide mounts don’t include a date so I can’t be sure.
