Remnants of Summer

 Our first light cover of snow arrived the other day making it certain that summer's remnants are hard to find. Stepping out the door, I find the hardy Mountain Laurel coated with snow.

It will be many months before I can open the sliding door to see its branches covered with pinkish flowers. Winter will rule the days.

Stepping across the snow covered grass, I am happy to find some color remaining on my grape arbor.  Its withered leaves so nicely echo the redwood stain on the arbor. 

There are more remnants to find at the Kousa Dogwoood.  The birds, chipmunks and grey squirrels have eaten all of the fruit, but to my surprise the leaves are still intact although not the once brilliant green.  Can I call them wine colored?

 

My unplanned photo outing is surprising me with some nice gifts.  Beneath the Kousa  Dogwood in summer there is an abundant display of Oriental Poppies.  The scarlet flowers now are a memory only, as are the hordes of bees.  There are a few dried stalks with just two seedpods still (mostly) intact. 

 

 

Closer to the house there is a large bed of Purple Coneflowers in summer.  We leave the dried stalks standing for Goldfinches to feed upon.

My little explore around the morning's snow lasts only 24 minutes.  (I know this because the camera records the day/hour/minutes/seconds of each image.) Finally, I return to the grapes. The rich leaf colors call me back.  Seems to me the best is reserved for last.

 

I've traveled some great distances for many of my photos, but this little set is among the most enjoyable.

Paul

Short Woods Walk in November

 The other day, I ambled through my friend's  woodland with no other purpose than absorbing sights and smells of a golden fall day.  Passing the small pond, the reflections were eye candy.

The large maple has overlooked this pond from a time when Boy Scouts camped nearby.  I wonder if any of them remember those youthful days?   This spring, Wood Ducks rested there on their trip northward.  Now it is quiet and smells of autumn.

Continuing my ramble, I found a few beech leaves still holding on to their branch in the cold breeze.

Most of the beech have died from a foreign disease.  Now, most are just rotting logs on the ground.  How I miss the giant beech adorned with nuts to feed the deer, squirrels and bluejays.  Unlike the oaks and maples, beech seem to curl up tightly.

Continuing a very slow ramble, something odd captured my attention.  These few chestnut oak leaves that landed turned bottom-side up were consistently dotted with water beads.  

All other leaves were soaked through after the morning drizzle.  I postulated that this oak specie has a waxy surface.  But, knowing my inadequate knowledge, I sought the expertise of Robert Westley at the Cornell Botanic Gardens. His reply revealed that chestnut oaks have specialized hairs,  stellate hairs, on the underside of their leaves.  Now, I have to return with my hand magnifier to see them.

It turned out to be a successful outing. Now, I look at autumn with a new awareness.  The expansive fall landscape images miss a lot of the real beauty that can be right under your feet.

Paul

A Close Look at Autumn

I've been in a form of house arrest with what appears to be pinched nerves in my back since August 28, 2021 and haven't touched a camera until now.  Still staying close to home, as in 20 feet from my front door, I played today with some leaves that this morning's wind and rain deposited on my asphalt drive.  Here are three images that I've edited to capture how I saw them.

Two large oak leaves blew in to grace some burning bush leaves from next to  the asphalt.  The few needles came with the oak leaves.  I like the simplicity of the result.  It seems to me that fall images often get to busy in an effort to show it all.  Never quite works.

In some places, the accumulation was certainly richer.

Again, the oak leaves define the composition.  The burning bush leaves deeper in the bush have a very light green that plays well with the redder ones.  It makes for an interesting color set.  

It is enjoyable to explore the asphalt for a nice composition.  This final image was more  pleasing than anything that I could arrange.

Three months ago, I would have dismissed the idea of being excited to photograph leaves on my driveway.  I can hope this is a return to something better.  But, maybe it pushed me to get creative with what is available.

Kind regards,

Paul Schmitt

A Few Fungi

With some hefty rainfall, the late summer is producing a good mushroom bloom.  A morning outing yielded some nice finds.   Walking a woodland logging trail, I first came upon this pair slender fungi.  They were selected for their form plus the surrounding landscape.

I spent a lot of time working to create a "close-up landscape" with a wide angle lens. The goal is to show the stalk and caps distinctly, and also show their setting in the woods.  The distant trees don't need to be razor sharp to tell you where the fungi thrive. To do this, three images are made on a rigid tripod.  The first two capture the foreground and mushroom stalks in high definition.  The final one shows the distant areas in soft focus.  Stacked together, the final image is under my control much like it would be for a painter.  See how the mushroom caps are defined distinctly against the soft area behind?

Continuing up the trail, these small orange mushrooms attracted me.

The caps are barely dime size.  The complementary orange and green colors are pleasing.  It was simple luck that the oak leaf landed next to them.

I admit to sometimes being lazy when it suits me.  I did not want to unpack my camera bag, so the 6 year old iPhone 8 was enough for this Amanita mushroom. (If I am right about this being an Aminita,  the answer to a sometimes offered question is:  Sure, you can eat it, but expect a nasty death three days later.)  My interest is in the beauty shown, not what is edible.

Here's a trick. To make the subject really big and the distant background soft, turn the phone upside down so the lens is really low.  Tilt the phone back so only the far trees are seen. They will be soft.  Do be sure the camera can focus on the subject.

Here are another few favorites that have found in these woods on other forays. A cluster of  Chanterelles in a mossy bank beneath an oak tree.

Old Man's Beard, likely Hericium caput-ursi.  Some suggest they resemble teeth. 

 

A common, easily identified mushroom,  Russula emetica.  The reddish cap skin is reportedly very spicy, but the "emetica"  warns me not to try it. 

This is commonly called Turkey Tail. It's a shelf fungus.  This was growing on a dead tree, and after the tree fell to the ground, it continued to grow vertically. 

Finally, here is a really beautiful mushroom which I suspect is another specie of Amanita based on the clusters on the cap plus the ring on the stalk. 

 

If this wet weather pattern continues on the Atlantic coastal areas, the fall mushroom season might be very rich in beauty to complement the autumn colors.

Paul Schmitt

My Summer Garden

I am guilty of ranging far and wide for photo subjects.  This month, I've been closer to home.  Actually, I have been home. Previously, I posted about my love affair with House Wrens. I am still hearing the adults in our gardens, and often spot their juveniles following them as they forage.  They are now back in a nest box to begin with brood number two.

My interest now has been directed at our flowers and the critters attracted to the blossoms.  The cone flowers are in bloom now.  I made this photo during some "play time" with my cell phone.  When I opened it in my computer, I discovered a big bumblebee homing in on the closest flower.  Bees do love them.  But, any bee finds them attractive, like the honey bee seen below.

In June, I added a pair of (sterile) Butterfly Bushes with some fear.  Years ago, I was unsuccessful with one.  These two seem to be flourishing as evidenced by their attracting namesake butterflies like this little Skipper.

 

By far, bee balm -Monarda- is our biggest draw.  The native variety, Monarda fistulosa, is popular with of the rrun-of-the-mill insects like bumblebees and honey bees.

But, I have been playing around  before introducing the most spectacular visitor that we enjoy each summer on M. fistulosa and yellow phlox.  It is a clearwing sphinx moth,  Hemaris thysbe.  It is commonly called a hummingbird moth.  We usually only see a few of these in a summer, but yesterday I am sure I saw at least three.  One was missing an antenna and another was slightly less reddish.    Here are my best images.

Note in the final image how crystal clear the wing panels are, appropriate for being a clearwing. 

It requires a lot of restraint not to show another seven images.  The hummingbird moth just creates huge enthusiasm.

I hope this will alert some viewers to look around their area for these fascinating summer visitors.

Paul Schmitt

Note:  For more about these moths, see:

https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/insects-arachnids/hummingbird-moth

My Love Affair with House Wrens

 I have a love affair with house wrens that goes back to a day in elementary school.  My mother, Elizabeth,  announced that I would be skipping school that June day to watch the wrens bring their chicks from the nest onto our back porch railing.  Mom said I'd get more from that than from any teacher.   I sat in the kitchen window and saw them coax the chicks from the box onto the porch railing.  She was right, and my love of house wrens has continued. 

Why do I find wrens so wonderful.  They aren't colorful but they are good singers.  Unlike many birds, they are approachable to varying degrees.  Often, our pair will ignore me when I am weeding beneath the nest box, although this newest pair are more prone to fuss at me if I am within 10 feet.  Maybe next year they will be more tolerant.  

House Wrens are efficient bug catchers and when the chicks get large, they may bring in a catch every 2 to 5 minutes.  This was a unusually large insect.

They frequently sing as part of bringing in food.  I think this conditions the chicks to leave the nest when it is time to fledge.  They announce the food but don't take it into the box.  It seems to be "if you are hungry, come out here now". 

When the chicks are small, the parents enter the box to feed and we speculate on the number of chicks.  But about a week before fledging, the chicks begin to show at the nest hole.

It surely gets crowded in the box for the last few days. Watching closely, I could see above the three obvious chicks the tip of chick number four.  Could there be five? Not unusual for experienced parents.

I watched the box until dark on this day hoping to see the chicks emerge and finally learn how many chicks.  The next morning, about an hour after sunrise, I found the box quiet and could hear the adults singing in the redbud tree.  I missed the event and won't know if there was a chick number five. 

That afternoon, I pulled the box down and opened it to clear out the bundle of sticks.  After a good cleaning, I will dust the box with powdered sulfur - pest repellent- and hang it up for a second nesting.  

One final thought occurred to me.  The nest on the kitchen porch many decades ago was in my mother's clothes pin bag.  It hung from the clothes line strung between porch posts.   It seems to me that the wooden clothes pins looked like an ideal pile of twigs to the wrens.  What did Elizabeth do with the clothes pin bag?  It would have been full of extra twigs, fecal dust, down and feathers.  I am thinking she made a new bag and probably boiled the clothes pins to sanitize them. It was a reasonable price for the lesson it taught me.

When I came in to write this, I could still hear the wrens' song as the adults guided the chicks through their first days outside the nest.

Paul

Surprise!! Cedar Waxwings

 I love Cedar Waxwings.  They are graceful and only voice faint high pitched calls to communicate.  I never go out expecting Cedar Waxwings.  It's unpredictable.  In November of 2011, I started a neighborhood walk, but only got two houses down the street when I saw them stripping berries from a tree.  Hurriedly I backtracked home for a camera with a long lens.  This is my favorite result.

I like to think I can do better now, but as I look at this I still love the scene and the behavior it shows.

Today, the target was warblers or maybe Baltimore Orioles. A few Yellow Warblers were high in the apple trees and never very visible.  I closed up shop and hoisted the tripod on my shoulder for the walk back to the car. But halfway there, there was motion in a small crab apple.  Binoculars revealed Cedar Waxwings, maybe a dozen.  There was good light and they seemed to not notice me.

They dropped onto upper branches that were heavy with blossoms.

Last year at the same trees, I saw Baltimore Orioles in the same trees picking small yellow caterpillars from inside the flower. I expected the same.

It is unwise to assume the different birds have the same habits.

Looking at the bird's beak closely reveals the entire blossom was being eaten.  Above, the waxwing is swallowing the final petal of the flower.  I saw and photographed this repeatedly.

The waxwings did not strip all of the blossoms from a cluster.  Maybe they only choose the sweetest?  With no warning, the bird was off to the next branch.  (Lucky timing by me.)

The flock only left when an early morning walker slipped past me.  They'd tolerated me at only 15 feet, but I had never moved directly towards them and only shifted a few steps each time. 

I had packed up to leave feeling disappointed, but got to the car elated. 

Paul

Bald Eagle Nest- A Work in Progress

Made my first exploratory visit to a Bald Eagle nest that is at eye level.  That's really a special opportunity.   It's going to take time to get the images I want.  Today's results were okay, but fishing seems slow at present due to muddy water in local rivers.  So there was no active feeding in 3-1/2 hours.

Here's an adult at the nest checking on the two chicks.  They are nestled down with only one head visible.

And here are two chicks.

Appears to me that the front chick is the dominant (alpha) one.  I expect they  have another four weeks before fledging.

Paul

A Burst of Spring Flowers

The woodland bloom is getting exciting.  I went out yesterday to search for a warbler at Cornell's Arnot Forest and did not get 200 yards into the woods before the wildflowers changed the plan.  Right along the main forest road was this stately Purple Trillium- Trillium erectum- in perfect condition.

 

While the species name would imply the flower is erect, it is always nodding down.  The trick to a good image of it is to get very low - that is best done by finding plants on a steep hillside.  Seen at right is the usual approach.  In this case, I had to straddle a fallen log on a somewhat slippery slope.  It is a slow process with much care to avoid damaging other blooming plants.

At such a close distance, the lens has a shallow of depth of focus. So, I made six images stepped from closest leaf tip the to the most distant leaf. This, of course, included the purple flower's detail.  The resulting "portrait" came from aligning all six images and selecting the sharper parts of each image.  This is a revolutionary change in how to overcome the inherent limits of optics. See the result below.

I became rather driven to find Purple Trillium clinging to increasingly steep slopes.

 

Inevitably, I found the most marginal of all possibilities.

This was about 50 feet above the valley floor.  It convinced me to find other subjects.  

The beautiful Trout Lily - Erythronium americanum - were also in bloom.  They are only open when the sky is clear so, this was the opportunity I wanted.

Like the Purple Trillium, they are looking downward.  I put my camera down in the leaves and propped it up to get the image.  They are a true ephemera and will totally disappear by mid-summer.

There are other blooms to find that were easier to photograph.  Consider the Virginia Bluebells- Mertensia virginica.  It is a plant of the river woods.  Here's one of my favorite images.

It had been a full morning. As I exited the forest road, I saw an exceptional cluster of White Trillium - Trillium grandiflorum - and had to stop.  Too lazy to unload my camera again, I depended upon my iPhone. 

 

Ten blooms!   The steep bank must be rich and well watered.  

No wonder that spring is my favorite season.

Paul

A Potpourri of Spring Offerings

This late arriving spring still staggers along.  Some of my field effort has been exploring new places.  Up near Cayuta Lake, I visited the newly discovered Allen Preserve of the Cornell Botanic Gardens.  I cannot recall a greater number of Skunk Cabbage anywhere.

It only required a cell phone for this image.  Honestly, I was ranging wide without a camera pack, had to stand in running water and the phone was what I had.  I held the phone about 2 inches above the water and wished for the best.   

Back in Cornell's Mundy Wildflower Garden, I did a stack of seven images to create create this companion image with the spadix clearly visible within the spathe.

 

Why one shot for the first image, and seven for this one?  The wide angle lens in the phone has huge depth of focus.  The lens used on the latter one only has sharp focus for about 1/2 inch.   Each has its place.  I like them both.  (No more Skunk Cabbage this year.  I promise.)

 

Let's look at some itty-bitty birds.  This male Song Sparrow was a bit angry at another intruding male.  I captured him leaping off to make a challenge.

  I discovered a different sparrow while waiting for a Bald Eagle at a beaver pond.  The Swamp Sparrow has a rich rusty-red crest, and is just as vocal as the other sparrow.

No Bald Eagle came within distance that morning, but some days later I did get a little closer when the male returned to the nest.  (I am still working on this for a closer result.)

Spring is also about wildflowers, and a few early ones are coming out now.  This is Sharp-lobed Hepatica.

Finally, the Great Blue Herons are back (and nesting already).  They can be supremely elegant in flight, or truly awkward depending on the moment.  I love the patterning displayed as they set wings for a landing.

It is getting more spring like, and some warblers are arriving.  Hope I can offer a greater variety of images soon.

Paul