Coffee Beans (Coffea Arabica)

Wars have been fought and people killed over these little beans. Millions of dollars are at stake to satisfy the caffeine thirst of the world...



imported raw coffee beans (coffea arabica)



Coffee being roasted in a 1959 era roasting machine

Clean Energy – Leaf And Water

An assignment to illustrate the idea of green energy, or clean energy. 



water drop on green leaf

Parastic Fly (Pyrgota undata)

This amazing looking creature is a large member of the fly family, but with a with a unusual life cycle. Flying mostly at night, they will chase june beetles in the air and while in flight, lay a single egg on the beetle. 


Imagine this thing chasing you with graspers out, ready to grab on.



parastic fly (Pyrgota undata) in flight


The egg will shortly hatch and the larva will drill into the beetle. Once inside they begin to feast until the beetle is dead.



parastic fly (Pyrgota undata) portrait

Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius)

When people hear that I work with bats frequently, they usually assume that I have to go into a lot of caves. And while bats are often cave dwellers, they are also at home in a variety of other habitats. 


For instance, below a southeastern myotis emerges from a tree hollow in Central Texas at dusk.



Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius) emerging from tree hollow



Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius) detail


Bats are usually content to find a tiny place they can squeeze into, where southern exposure keeps the environment warm and they feel safe.



Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius)

Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)

I love how frogs can have just their eyes and nostrils above the water line while the rest of them is hidden below the surface. 



juvenile southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala)

Vietnamese Mossy Frog (Theloderma corticale)

These frogs will wedge themselves into piles of moss and effectively disappear, blending into the lumpy green landscape. Of course, it helps to be lumpy and green when employing such a trick – hence the warty looking specimens below...


vietnamese mossy frog (Theloderma corticale)



vietnamese mossy frog (Theloderma corticale)



vietnamese mossy frog (Theloderma corticale)

How George Costanza Dresses: Morning Mist

It's so hard to work in a pop culture reference in nature photography.








morning mist – themally heated water at sunrise, yellowstone national park

Colorful Wasp (Sphex habenus)

Wasps are noted for their reproductive sculduggery. Most depend upon a host insect of another species, and they engage in various forms of kidnapping and poisoning to make this happen. The host is usually kept alive in a state of paralysis until newly hatched young are hungry and ready to eat. There are a thousand variations of this tale, and the complexity involved can be astounding. It is the stuff of horror films.


From IMDB entry for Ridley Scott's ALIEN movie:  The alien's habit of laying eggs in the chest (which later burst out) was inspired by spider wasps, which are said to lay their eggs "in the abdomen of spiders." This image gave Dan O'Bannon nightmares, which he used to create the story. But spider wasps (pompilidae) lay eggs on their prey, not inside them, after which the wasp maggots simply snack on the sting-paralyzed spiders. O'Bannon may instead have been thinking of either ichneumon wasps or braconid wasps. The ichneumon drills a single egg into a wood-boring beetle larva, whereas braconids inject eggs inside certain caterpillars. Both result in fatal hatch-outs more alike to O'Bannon's alien.


This particular wasp is known for going after katydid nymphs. It is large and colorful with a painful sting.



colorful male wasp (Sphex habenus) (Family Sphecidae)

Ornate Ichneumon Wasp (Thyreodon sp.)

This wasp was huge with beautiful orange antennae and orange striping on the abdomen. What really caught my eye was the violet iridescence of the wings. I'm not sure what these would look like under ultraviolet light (the spectrum that many insects see the world in), but the wings look mostly black until the light hits the surface just so.


ornate ichneumon wasp (Thyreodon sp.) with iridescent wings

Black And Yellow Mud Dauber Wasp (Sceliphron caementarium)

Wasps are often gangly, delicate looking creatures. Why they have the thread thin stalk leading to the abdomen is mysterious, but there is a whole group called "thread waisted wasps". While wasps will kill other insects to feed their young, it is not unusual for them to nectar on flowers like a bee.


Below a mud dauber wasp takes off from a salt heliotrope flower.


black and yellow mud dauber wasp (Sceliphron caementarium)

Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus)

Wasps carry a vicious reputation for a generally mean disposition. It is well deserved. Of course, not all wasps are aggressive or quick to administer a painful sting, but it is wise to give them some distance unless you want to find out for yourself.


As warning, they typically flag themselves with gaudy colors - which makes them rather attractive to photograph...



Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus)

Skate Face (Raja rhina)

A skate is a type of flat fish that feeds along the ocean bottom. They have a curious face-like structure on their underside, that is purely anthropomorphic. The eyes are not actually eyes, but olfactory sensors, perfectly placed to mimic the structure of a human face.



detail of the underside of a young longnose skate (Raja rhina)

Pollen Detail Of White Trillium (trillium Ovatum)

Extreme close-up view of the pollen gathered on the anther of a white trillium (trillium Ovatum).


pollen on white trillium (trillium Ovatum)

White Trillium (trillium Ovatum)

This lovely native flower makes a brief appearance during spring in the west. The first trillium that pops up is always breath taking - soon to be followed by a small explosion of little white blooms. 


Many flowers have more than one common name, however this one has more than usual:  pacific trillium, trinity flower, western trillium, western wake robin, wakerobin, western white trillium, white trillium.



western white trillium (trillium Ovatum)


The white trillium bears distinctive 3-petaled, white flowers in spring above its dark-green leaves.



western white trillium (trillium Ovatum)



white petal of the western white trillium (trillium Ovatum)



pollen covered anthers (trillium Ovatum)


Below - a cut away view of a western white trillium flower (trillium Ovatum) showing the long stem, subterranean bulb and roots.



cut away view of a western white trillium (trillium Ovatum)

Winter Forest

Douglas fir trees clad in a light dusting of snow. From Lostine Ridge in the Wallowa Mountains.

Oak and Palmetto Forest

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia. 


oak and palmetto forest

Atmosphere

Coast Range, looking west as moisture blows in from the Pacific.



atmosphere

Pacific Madrone Tree (Arbutus menziesii)

A favorite tree unique to the west coast. Beautiful in shape and color...



pacific madrone tree (Arbutus menziesii), shaw island, washington.


The bark of the madrone is constantly peeling off in paper thin pieces.



peeling bark of a pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii).

Grasshawk Dragonfly (Neurothemis fluctuans)

I love the color palette of this dragonfly. 


grasshawk dragonfly (Neurothemis fluctuans)

Termites In The Air (Reticulitermes flavipes)

Thousands and thousands of termites filled the air on a warm, humid day. This phenomenon, while filling every homeowner with a sense of dread, is something to see. Hoping to get a photo of the colony from which all of the airborne termites were emerging, I took some time to locate the source, but by then, the emergence was mostly finished. This species must have contact with the soil to survive, so they are unlikely to inhabit a wood structure with a good, concrete foundation.


From AnimalsDiversityWeb: R. flavipes reproduce in swarms. Swarming occurs when a colony reaches a certain size and when temperature and moisture levels are favorable. Usually this occurs on warm days after rainfall. Some researchers speculate that swarming occurs after rainfall because the ground is moist, which make it easier to create a new nesting site (Benavides, 1988). Alates, winged swarmers, fly from their native nest until they hit a "fracture point" in the air. This causes their wings to fall off (Benavides, 1998) This flight is not considered a mating flight because R. flavipes are only sexually attracted to their mates after their wings have broken off (Light, 1922). Once they find a mate, which takes a while because the female is choosy, they walk together to find a suitable nesting site. They mate after they've built a "nuptial chamber" in their new nest (Benavides, 1998). At her peak a queen will lay an egg every 3 seconds, or 30,000 a day. She will lay 10's of millions of eggs during her life



subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) workers and winged reproductives



subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) beginning their reproductive and distribution flights.



subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes) workers and soldiers in decaying wood

Canyon Bat (Parastrellus hesperus) – What's In A Name?

Naming creatures of the wild is no easy task. When Carolus Linnaeus (1707 - 1778) famously created the classification and naming conventions we still use today, animals were labeled using a mishmash of greek, latin and common names that varied from region to region.


The truth is that classifying and naming animals is still a great challenge to this day.


A case in point: the western pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus hesperus) is now to be called the canyon bat (Parastrellus hesperus). Biologists had good reason to do this in 2006 after genetic tests revealed that it was unrelated to the eastern pipistrelle.


I still stumble whenever I have to say the bat's name outloud...



Canyon Bat (Parastrellus hesperus)

Bat Bug

Bats are notorious for having a variety of critters that live on or around their bodies. One of the ideas postulated as the reason for bats frequently changing their roost sites is that parasites rapidly become a problem. 



western small-footed bat (Myotis ciliolabrum)


Below, a bat bug (family: Heteroptera) ectoparasite feeding on part of the wing of a big brown bat.



bat bug (family: Heteroptera)

More Fun With Parasites

A few posts back I mentioned the carrion beetle (Nicrophorus carolinensis). In keeping with the theme of parasites*, I am sharing another view of the same beetle with a detailed view of a few extra passengers.



carrion beetle (Nicrophorus carolinensis)


Watching the beetle, I could see the little white mites skittering across the beetle as it walked and flew about. It must be quite a ride for the little insects. Below is a detailed view of the same image with the mite clearly visible on the neck, and few more on the chest. It would roughly be equivalent of having a full size crab wandering around on a human.



carrion beetle (Nicrophorus carolinensis) detail with mites


I posted these images to Flickr for hosting here, and a fellow Flickr alaskanent user posted this comment:

Nice shot! The mites are not parasitic however. They are mutualistic in some cases (beneficial) and in others commensalistic (the mites benefit but the beetles are neither harmed nor helped) and only in rare cases do they actually qualify as parasites. The mites eat fly eggs, thus cleaning carcasses of competitors so there is more food for the beetles.

Vivid Dancer Damselfly With Passengers

This image was in a recent presentation I did, and a member of the audience commented that it must be female because of the "eggs" near the end of the tail. In truth, these are not eggs. I did not notice them when I was taking the photo, but the camera makes it cleanly visible.



vivid dancer damselfly (Argia vivida)


Take a closer look



parasitic mites on the tail of a damselfly


They are mites, not eggs.


Every living creature seems to have to contend with one kind of parasite or another. Some are internal, and some are external. In this case the mites are probably tapping into the blood between segments in the exoskeleton.


I have seen damselflies covered from head to tail in mites, so by comparison this is a light load.

Fan Palm (Livistona endauensis)

In Malyasia there is a rare, endemic palm that survives in a few small patches. I was on the trail to another destination, and it was something of a grueling climb. Leeches were all over my arms and legs. My guide pointed out the palms, and even though it was threatening to rain – and the light was fading (and hiking these trails at dusk is a bad idea because of the bengal tigers who's prints were clearly visible all along the trail), I decided to take a few moments to set up my tripod and compose a few frames...




Livistona endauensis, a very rare fan palm tree




Livistona endauensis in the malaysian jungle



tiger footprint nearby

Photography As Adventure

I went to a talk featuring Susan Seubert, a photographer I have always admired. One point she hit on, that rang true for me, is that photography provides an enriching life experience that is hard to match. It may not be easy, it might even be heart wrenching – but it provides an impetus to meet incredible people, hear amazing stories, and travel to places that are new and challenging.


There are hundred different ways the camera can lead to exploration, from life on a miniature scale – to a grand landscape. From learning something new and technical, to appreciating the simplicity and color of a garden flower.


It is something I am thankful for, and acutely aware of how lucky I have been to travel this path.



ecuadorian cloud forest



winter forest in the oregon coastal mountain range



endau-rompin national park, malaysia



hart-mountian national antelope refuge

Aimless Shooting

I always seem to be balancing multiple projects at the same time, and while I like being busy – I occasionally miss being able to simply let my mind go and find an interesting subject at my leisure. It becomes something of a creative exercise, and while traversing a winter forest recently I made time to slow down and wander a bit. The weather was cool and wet, and the light was drab so something of interest was not immediately obvious.


My mind wandered, and my eye roamed. It was wonderful.


decaying leaves on the forest floor

Ancient Elk In Rock Art

A petroglyph etched into the stone by native americans perhaps as long as 2000 years ago. There are quite a few bighorn sheep, but one obvious bull elk with an impressive rack.



ancient rock art depicting elk and other animals

Elk Living, Elk Dying

Making it to adulthood does not mean an easy life for an elk. Life in the wild is a constant test of fitness. Dodging disease, injury, predators and the like is a full time job. Oh, and then there is hunting season.



Roosevelt elk at night (Cervus canadensis roosevelti)


In the west wolves are returning and cougar populations are growing. The timberland that was once a refuge is now a potential trap. Pack wolves roam the open country looking for the any sign of weakness.



rocky mountain elk in timber (Cervus canadensis nelsoni)


If an elk is lucky enough to make it to old age, then the winters become the true test. A harsh winter will kill many adults - usually the older ones.



red-tailed hawk feeding on a winter killed elk


bleached elk bone