The Nature Photography Thread

[reptileparadise]

Cheers all;

@ Drache; It took all morning to find pretty ones. They lose color soon after emerging from the ground.
What I find interesting is that quite a few are 'spotless' this year. Maybe a different ssp?

I don't know, I only know shroom basics (and P. semilanceata...but thats a whole other story)

[drache]

@ Drache; It took all morning to find pretty ones. They lose color soon after emerging from the ground.
What I find interesting is that quite a few are 'spotless' this year. Maybe a different ssp?

I wonder whether it has something to do with soil and microclimates
the ones I saw as a kid hardly ever had as many spots as the ones in your photos - most of the time it was only a few spots, or a cluster

[guidofatherof5]

While heading home from picking my kids up at school I saw this poor hawk in the roadway.
Road kill is not a fitting end to such a fine animal. I grabbed it and it will be buried on our property. It also gave my kids a chance to see one close up.

[mustang]

wheres the head? i think its a female coopers hawk but cant be 100% sure without the head.

[guidofatherof5]

wheres the head? i think its a female coopers hawk but cant be 100% sure without the head.

Let's just say it wasn't very photographic.
It was just too graphic

[charles parenteau]

Poor eagle ...its great for your kids its someting you don't see every day ,Im fascinate by all bird of prey and how strong they are...beautiful animal.

[guidofatherof5]

Found this little jumping spider out by the front door. I hope he finds a warmer place to be since the weather is turning cold for the season.

[GarterGeek]

That is so neat! I'm normally not a fan of spiders, but I really like jumping spiders and daddy-long-legs. Somehow neither of those spiders give me the (irrational) willies like other spiders do. Most of the jumping spiders around where I live have green, shiny, jewel-like appearance.

I saw a jumping spider try to take out a wasp once - Very exciting, the only problem was that there was a glass window between the spider and wasp. The wasp was crawling on the outside and the spider was crawling on the inside. It was pretty funny.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, jumping spiders are the coolest. Occasionally I find one about the size of a dime. Jet black with red spots and really hairy. They're like mini tarantulas! The dead hawk is definitely a coopers. Very common in my area. Poor little guy.

Good news is that peregrine falcon and bald eagle sightings in my area are on the rise. A peregrine swooped down the other day and tried to snatch some mourning doves that were feeding at my bird feeders. Scared the crap out of me. I'm used to kestrels doing that, but when the much larger peregrine did it, I darn near crapped myself.

Also saw 8, yes, 8 adult bald eagles flying fairly low overhead. Looked to me like they were headed for the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge just north of my location.

Here's a pic of mourning doves below my feeder, along with a Eastern Grey Squirrel (introduced to the west. Our native western grey squirrel is nearly extinct)

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Please do not eat the Amanita muscaria! These were on my college campus in a ring around a Santa Catalina Fern-leaf Ironwood tree.