The Nature Thread

Here is an ok shot of my favorite bird, The Pileated Woodpecker. This species of woodpecker is the size of a crow and its favorite meal is carpenter ants. A breeding pair requires 75 acres or so with plenty of rotting wood. It makes an amazing cackle not unlike Woody Woodpecker so you know when one is near.

Birding folks I speak with note the difficulty in seeing this magnificent bird but if you hike with me, you'll see and hear them every time. Why? Because abandoned mining localities are generally found away from people on large tracts of wooded land, perfect habitat. This one flew in front of my car yesterday at the Croton Magnetite Mine in Brewster, New York.

OK, I'll admit going in that this is a slightly goofy take on the thread.

A week or so ago I went to our local weekend farmers' market and dropped by the truck of an old guy who sells tasty apples. In looking through his wares, I immediately saw this guy in the Fuji basket and bought it to take home. The moment I saw it, I started thinking compositionally zoned minerals.





Now, I'm pretty sure this was somebody's idea of an experiment with taping up an apple to make it color up differently in the sun, or soemthing equivalent. The seller was honestly surprised when I showed it to him, though, and bringing it home amused me immensely.

My kids have been clamoring to eat it for days and we finally put it to the knife tonight. Tasted the same no matter where you nibbled it...

D.

Don,

That sure is curious. You may need to post to www.apples.com.

David,

Last week I saw a pileated woodpecker banging away on my telephone pole. There is no mistaking a pileated woodpecker.

I live within the Seattle City limits. We have a 40 mile buffer zone of blacktop and shopping malls yet we now have black bears, deer, cougars and bobcats lurking in the bushes. Along with the usual varmints. So far, I haven't seen a weasel, but they are very sneaky..

My dog and I were recently attacked by an actual "gang" of racoons. They were on a shed roof right at my face level. My dog is so fearsome that they fled.

The wildlife biologigists tell us that we humans are encroaching on wildlife habitat, but the opposite is true.

They are coming to town where the eating is good and easy. Dog food, pekinese, and fat kittens.

Many cougars have been outfitted with radio transmitters. When mapped by computer, their locations form a thick circle around the city limits in nearby places like Microsoft's Redmond campus.

I took this picture while returning from Virginia City this summer. We were heading in to grab a bite to eat at a local casino, and apparently this bear had the same idea!



When we pulled in, the bear was walking on all fours down the sidewalk like he belonged there. So we followed him around the back where he went straight to this dumpster to have a look. I'm still not sure who's encroaching on whom, but we are all getting mighty cozy, that's for sure!

Corie

That's an amazing picture, Corie. The bear looks as though he is some late night emplyee working the third shift.

Here's an excellent photo that I took of a scaled quail near Lake Meredith in Colorado. A zoomed cropped in version of this photo won first prize at the county fair there. There isn't much mineral wise in that region that I have found, just some botryoidal hematite concretions, some massive calcite from canal dredging operations. Lake Henry nearby does have occasional nice translucent to transparent sheets of gypsum, variety selenite, that are exposed on shore from wave action. They split wonderfully into thin sheets with a knife blade.

Hello, all!

Last week we spent 4 nights in Mineral and Esmeralda counties, Nevada, taking advantage of the wonderful fall weather and finding some good specimens. We camped three nights at this spot, elevation about 8,200 feet, with warm days, a bright moon and enough clouds on Friday to create this wonderful sunset.

Cheers!

Steve

Hi David, hi All,

at the "Johann am Burgfelsen" Adit, Wittichen, Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, (...loc-1928) when I had took up a stone I was greeted by a snake, Vipera berus, a quite poisenous one. I let the stone fall and was happy to been came out without damage. (And I imagine, the snake was also happy!)

Near Clausthal (...loc-21652) are growing Epipactis helleborine, an orchid. (See photos)

And there is the Schönflechte. (Sorry, don´t know the latin name for this symbiosis of a fungi and an algae.) (See photo.)

Greetings from Goslar

Georg

Come and visit our karst :) it gets even more beautiful.

(attached photo, not the link ^^)

[picasaweb.google.si]#



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2011 07:33PM by Blaž Vičič.

Hi Georg, beautiful flowers and fauna. Thanks for posting.

Blaz, I could stare at that scene for hours!

Just now discovered this thread, so have never contributed before. When I go out on mineral collecting trips, I look for the natural wonders around me, and take photos when something impressive catches my eye. Here is one of a calypso orchid growing up through a pile of dead leaves and underbrush near one of my favorite collecting sites, Shellrock Mountain, Hood River County, Oregon.

Great to see those orchid pictures - orchids are an other interest of mine, and it's always making my day when I encounter them. The season is over this year for doing that, but here is an old picture and a link to a blog from 2008...




nature blog in 2008

Here is another one from Shellrock Mountain. This is flowering currant about two feet from the amethyst zone at the base of the cliff near Interstate 84.

Great pictures all. I've been stalking this thread for some time and admiring them all. I don't have the brain capacity left to remember all the species names, but I know the first one is the Blue Columbine from the mountains in CO. The others are from CO as well. What a fun trip.

Love the blue columbine! There is an iron mine that I visit every spring to see it's red cousin growing in the cracks of an old foundation.

An update on our Bush Turkey pic of a couple of months ago.
Its now nesting season, and our friend has choosen to build his nest not far from our home. Here are a couple of pics of him eating some food I have given him, he is on top of his nest, which measures 5 x 5 x 1.5mtr.
Interestingly the male alone builds the nest and maintains it. A female comes along and If she likes the look of him and his nest, she will lay one egg, and leave, never to be seen again.
In the nesting season the otherwise drab red and yellow color on his neck, become very vivid, and the yellow bottom section, becomes enlarged hugely.
Now all he has to do is protect the nest for the next month, against large goanna lizards, who want to eat the eggs. .....Greg

Here's our cat hamming it up.

Photo Crasher!

Really like your turkey, Greg. And your cat Jay.

Thats a good one Jay!:D

-Rowan Lytle

son: -picks up huge loose amethyst cluster- "Is this what we're looking for?"
father: "Holy #$@%!