The Nature Thread

Sometimes nature isn't very helpful. I was doing fieldwork in Cyprus in October when I had a run-in with a hornet. I had just parked and was getting my stuff out of the boot (or 'trunk') when a hornet decided to investigate my bag. I didn't want it getting into the car so I shut the boot. The hornet paused for a few seconds and then turned around and went for me. I spent a few minutes fending it off with my field-slips before managing to jump into the car and slam the door in time to stop it getting in. Ten minutes later I was still in the car held hostage by the hornet which I could hear banging off the roof and into the windows. After a few minutes pause I thought it had gone, so I opened the door a tiny bit to check. Suddenly there was the ferocious droning of its wings like a chinook helicopter. I managed to keep it out and then drove fast down the dirt track (in my wee Nissan micra hire car!) to get it off my tail. Scary eh?

I really love the photo of the misty lake. It reminds me of a recent walk up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh where the mist lifted just as the sun was setting. It made for a pretty good photo-taking opportunity. This one was taken by a friend of mine:



Amazing to think that that's in the middle of a capital city.

Sticking with the Iceland theme (of above), here's a photo of an algal stream *thing* in the Laki National Park in August 2011. This is on top of one of the 1783/4 Laki lava flows. The slopes on the right are fissure cones from the AD934 Eldgjá eruption (the Laki flow pretty much filled up the valley).

One of the things that was cool about this is that it's miles off the beaten track and somewhere few people are likely to ever get to visit. Normally you aren't allowed to stray off the main track in the park because the vegetation takes so long to recover, but we had permission to drive to this site (which took an hour).

A view of a nice brook I encountered in Kent, New York over the weekend.

A devil encounter...

Regards
Steve

Awesome thread this !!

My family and I finding the perfect picnic spot. Note the waterfall in the background, that was the determining factor for the children. We had a picnic in the beautiful Mt Wilson, NSW, Australia and then we collected some incredible red and yellow quartz (citrine) from a little place near Walang, NSW. I will take some photo's of them and post here within a day or so.

Caught in compromised position!

Adularia ( Addie ). Our mineral cat, usually laying in a flat.

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

I often go fossicking over in the Flinders Ranges and I always run into a few of the locals...



Mother Kangaroo with a Joey in her pouch



The rare Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby



A flock of Emus



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2012 10:35AM by Trevor Dart.

View of mount solitary and the ruined castle from landslide lookout, Blue mountains,NSW,Australia.

Interesting sandstone formation at landslide lookout.

Coral fungus near Horseshoe Falls, Hazelbrook,Blue mountains.

Hi Andy, great pictures and wildlife! Is that layered rock formation possibly a stomatolite colony fossil ?
Happy Hunting for rocks, minerals and wildlife photos in the New Year !!
Steve.

Thanks for continuing to post, everyone.

Trevor, love the locals in your area!

Here are a few photos from our NZ, Australia trip. The photography turned out to be better than the mineral collecting.


New Zealand river network from 39,000 feet.


Are there any salt water crocs out here?


Yep!


These guys were as curious about me as I was about them. When they approached, I retreated to the car.


The Dingos were not what I had expected. We were introduced to one tame pup that thought that my arm was a chew toy.


The highlight of the trip, for me.


Rain forest stream


The rain forest

A few more from my part of the world...



Sturt Desert Peas in full bloom


Crested Wood-Pidgeon out on the nature strip near the front of my house in Broken Hill


Canis Familiaris - Toby. Our Australian Kelpie on our back verandah.

Steven, the sandstone formation shown in Andy's photo is caused by preferential weathering of rings of slightly softer sandstone. This could be due to iron oxide (liesegang rings) cementing the grains together to form slightly more resistant bands. They are probably not stromatolites as the Hawkesbury Sandstone is Triassic in age and formed as sand dune complexes above sea level. What you seek is commonly found in the Flinders Ranges, 1500 km to the west of Sydney. Here the rocks are the right age for the large stromatolite fossils and most of the sediments were shallow marine in origin.

Here are some of the stromatolite fossils found in the Trezona Formation - 600 million years old. As seen in Brachina Gorge, Flinders Ranges.

The picture of the pigeon reminds me of an incident many years ago on the slopes of Mount Meru in Tanzania. I've always been an avid birdwatcher. In one tree I spotted several Bar Tailed Trogans and one of the most beautiful pigeons I had ever seen. For those familiar with the Rock Dove of the inner city, you might understand my excitement. I moved in for a closer look tilted my head up and received the surprise of my life as the pigeon "unloaded" all over me. Although many folks in my group assured me it was good luck, I just didn't see it that way.

Nice pigeon, Trevor.

Thanks Steven! Sorry, just got back to it now.Happy hunting for Natures many wonders too!
Trevor's right about this not being stromatolites.Great shots of the stromatolites by the way Trevor!
At one time much of the Blue Mountains was covered in basalt lava flows, these having mostly eroded except for a few basalt capped mountains in the area. The iron originating in the basalt is thought to have leached into the sandstone, concentrating in the bedding planes formed in ancient sand bars in what was once an estuary and part of a massive river delta and also forming concretions and iron stone tubes, these being more resistant to weathering. There are numerous beautiful examples of ironstone formations throughout the mountains.

Some really great pics guys!

A tuberous Drosera.
Some type of mucus like slime mold?Incidentally this stuff works well as a living tissue culture medium especially for growing Drosera leaf cuttings.
On my way to check out old oil shale and coal mine relics.The black oil shale carves nicely.

Katoomba, NSW.

Harald I am with you. I also look for good mushroom places when I go out for collecting. I found my best Boletus edulis ( a group of 4 perfect shrooms, no worm inside!) when I was looking 3 hours for the small outcrop at Moos/Gastein valley. :)
Martin

Shroom spotted while returning from an evening fossil hunt, near Hobart, WA. In a patch of salmonberry, Rubus spectrabilis, no idea of the shroom species, just liked the form.

Bob

Great thread, definitely some breathtaking moments here. Thanks all for continuing to contribute fantastic photos.

Just thought I would share this video if you like that sort of thing.

These are time lapse photos taken from the observatory in Spain, on El Teide.

Enjoy,
stephanie

[vimeo.com]

Well, Stephanie, that video certainly "one-ups" all of us amateurs who have contributed to this thread. One word sums it up. Spectacular!

Glad you liked it Mickey, there are also other videos to view such as "The Aurora", "The Arctic Light" and "The Water".