Friday Photography - Click!


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Evening everyone, hope all is well at your end. I’m still a little dizzy from this manically erratic weather we’ve been having, but looking forward to a comfortable evening with friends.

Some music, why not?

[video:https://youtu.be/tZ2_zpTIoOw]

[video:https://youtu.be/P5AuFDHdrrg]

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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Bollox Ref's picture

Some edibles from the garden......

That second shot.... what is it?

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Pricknick's picture

@Bollox Ref
mushroom?

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Bollox Ref's picture

@Pricknick

They made for a very tasty Beef Stroganoff...

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

janis b's picture

@Bollox Ref

It’s whatever you want it to be.

Actually it was just me playing with the camera, moving it in circles around a lampshade, making it as dizzy as I felt.

I really like the soft mysteriousness of your mushroom/lichen photo.

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Bollox Ref's picture

@janis b

It's actually a mushroom..... or is it my brain?

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Socialprogressive's picture

I like the play with light and shadows in the first shot. The second one has me stumped as to what it is.

Some shots from the rose garden in Balboa Park.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

janis b's picture

@Socialprogressive

You must have some magic effect on your subjects to get them to pose so beautifully for you.

I saw more ladybugs this year than I have seen for the total of the 22 years I've been living here. I trust that is a good sign.

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Socialprogressive's picture

@janis b I saw quite a few when I was at the park last week.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

dystopian's picture

@Socialprogressive love yer bug pix SP! I think the lady beetle is one of the Asian Lady Beetles, the introduced ones, which like Euro honeybees, are wreaking havoc with the native species. The fly I think is a Syrphid, 'flower flies' as the group is called. Mostly bee mimics with black and yellow bands, but two wings (Diptera), not four as Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.).
Great pics!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Socialprogressive's picture

@dystopian

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

magiamma's picture

@Socialprogressive
social. Stunning. So much detail. I have finally seen a few bees here. Very scarce this year. Maybe once the borrage comes in they will appear. It's been a cool spring, early summer and many of the flowers are late blooming.

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Socialprogressive's picture

@magiamma
I'm glad your seeing some bees. Hope you see a lot more. That would be a good thing.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

snoopydawg's picture

Did anyone read that? I think they were flying over California and going wherever it is they go to.

I forgot I took this photo of painted ladies on this fun little tree. It was loaded with them but of course I only had my crappy phone camera.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

but I'll look for that info later, thanks.

Your 'crappy' phone camera still recorded the playfulness of the scene!

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snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

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Mysterious Blob Caught on Weather Radar Claimed to Be a Massive Ladybug Swarm

Meteorologists in Southern California got a strange surprise on Tuesday night when they spotted a huge blob on the National Weather Service radar. Appearing to be about 130 by 130 kilometres (80 miles), it was moving southward over San Bernardino County.

"It was very strange because it was a relatively clear day and we weren't really expecting any rain or thunderstorms," meteorologist Casey Oswant of the National Weather Service in San Diego told NPR.

"But on our radar, we were seeing something that indicated there was something out there."

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I love ladybugs. If I see one that looks like it needs help I'll pick it up and move it somewhere safe. They were my grandma's favorite bugs and I think of her whenever I see one. Ladybugs and butterscotch candy.

Smile

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

dystopian's picture

@snoopydawg Yeah SD, I saw the radar animation showing the lady bug swarm, which was massive. My wife and I once ran into a hatch/swarm of thousands, got bit quite a bit by them. Earliest 80's would have been. Was in the socal mountains not far from where this swarm was.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Dawn's Meta's picture

@snoopydawg A weeping hybrid no less. Usually US is Cercis Canadensis or Eastern Redbud, which grow in the mixed deciduous woodlots around DC and Maryland.

They bud even on trunk wood.

Love the photos everyone. Thank you.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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magiamma's picture

thanks for Friday POt

I really like the photo with the shadows, both the color and the composition.
Nice.

The weather here has turned. Now it is getting hot. The nights are still cool because of the marine layer and the valley over the hill is so hot.

A family of Canadian geese... not sure if I already posted these. They are 'overing' here now. These are down by the San Lorenzo River.

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Also adding these from last weeks trip. Maybe someone can identify this snake. It was next to a wall where there were a lot of minnows.
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edit to add photos

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janis b's picture

@magiamma

I wondered if it was a California Kingsnake ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_kingsnake.

I'm sure dystopian can identify it.

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dystopian's picture

@magiamma I am going genus Nerodea (many formerly Natrix), one of the Water Snakes, maybe near Banded Water Snake or somesuch. I would just as soon catch a rattler bare-handed, which I have done. When you make a move on Natrix/Nerodea, you know you are going to get the shit bit out of you every second until you gain control of that head. They are mean nasty snakes. Whereas you can grab King or big Indigo Snakes, and you will (almost) never get bit. I kept a totally peaceful Long-nosed Snake in my 8th grade locker, made sure word got out, never got
broken into.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

magiamma's picture

@dystopian
below enchanted rock. the minnows were trying to swim up stream and hit a dead end concrete wall of the walk way. Snakes were happy.

These were there too
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dystopian's picture

@magiamma Those are Gartersnakes. Harmless, eat mostly little bugs, but will get minnows and small frogs too. There are a number of species, those look like the common Western Gartersnake. I don't know if the San Francisco Gartersnake is still with us, I think highly endangered, maybe extinct now, maybe some left. It was the prettiest Garter of them all, nothing came close, with lots of red, it was stunning gorgeous.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian @dystopian
I got some snakes for ya, right here:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jTxiWmSpk8]

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

magiamma's picture

@dystopian
in Oregon where I grew up. Dark brown, almost black, with orange and light yellow stripes. I used to catch them. Thanks for all the details. Those flowers were so happy, late blooming with the cooler wet weather. Grew in droves along the road to Enchanted Rock.

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dystopian's picture

@magiamma beautiful flowers. The light and dark pink ones with a few layers of flower whorls on the stalk look like one of the beebalms aka horsemint. We have Lemon Beebalm here going off really well, aka Purple Horsemint. That is something close to it.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

edg's picture

Currently in Austin Texas as part of our "southern tour". Next up is Louisiana. This is a Night Heron in the middle of Town Lake (now Ladybird Lake) in Austin.

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Here is a shot of all the people lining the Congress Avenue bridge waiting for the bats to emerge. A million and a half bats live in the understructure of the bridge and come out in the evenings to feed. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a photo of the bats and using a flash is strongly discouraged. I've seen them when they came out earlier in the evening and it's a magnificent sight.

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This is a portion of the Austin skyline as seen from the lake. Austin is a great, liberal city. Kind of wacky but in a good way.

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janis b's picture

@edg

Thanks for posting some photos along the way. Enjoy!

Here's a photo of the Auckland skyline from the one fairly settled day of the week, looking SW from Mount Victoria/Takarunga, on Auckland’s North Shore ….

Looking NE toward Rangitoto Island

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dystopian's picture

@edg Love yer Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Neat bird. Big on crabs in FL. Some nest along the riverwalk in San Antonio some years. Since you are in Austin... keep it weird.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

dystopian's picture

Spicebush Swallowtail on Musk (non-native) Thistle
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Firefly - a beetle actually, family Lampyridae, of which there are 150-200 species in the U.S. They can do what man can't, make light without heat.
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Harlequin Flower Beetle - a scarab about an inch long
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Coreopsis (L) and Indian Blanket (R) (aka Firewheel)
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Dickcissel - a rain chaser which may be abundant in one area one year and absent the next, last year they were absent here, this year common. Named for its call but which to me sounds more like shik shik shikcessful. The are in their own genus, and quite unlike any other birds, though generally listed nearest buntings by taxonomists.
dick051119b.jpg

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

for the wonderful gallery of nature photos and info. Have a wonderful weekend.

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orlbucfan's picture

You still hear/read that nonsense on occasion. Audubon has put out their Top 100 photos for the year. Ecologically incredible! Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.