Virginia Trip Day 1

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 3

Shenandoah River

Shenandoah River from Harpers Ferry Visitor Center Trail

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 2

Dogwood (Cornus florida) and redbud blossoms (Cercis canadensis)

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 4

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA

Dogwood blossom (Cornus florida)

The first leg of my trip began with a stop at Harpers Ferry National Historic Site. I had been there with my family many years ago while I was going to school nearby at Shenandoah University, and passed by going to and from school when taking that route. I’ve always found it to be a beautiful area and one of these days I’ll hike the Appalachian Trail (The non-profit Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters are in Harpers Ferry as well) through the area and hopefully do some kayaking. For now it was kind of an over cast day but the redbuds were in bloom everywhere as well as flowering dogwoods.

Due to rain in Winchester, VA I decided to go ahead and plow ahead to Lexington, VA. It was cloudy but I was determined to get up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which winds through the mountains east of Interstate 81 before becoming Skyline Drive (which you do have to pay to drive), in order to catch the sunset.

The clouds were a little too heavy but the sun provided some interesting back lighting at least.  Stay tuned for more to come!

Flight Home!

Flying over southwestern fields

Clouds of a storm front 1

Clouds of a storm front 2

Flying over the Chesapeake Bay 1

Flying over the Chesapeake Bay 2

Flying over the Chesapeake Bay 3

Final series from our trip to Arizona and New Mexico.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 161

American (Painted) Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

Cellphone shot of spectacular sunset lit clouds 1

Cellphone shot of spectacular sunset lit clouds 3

Cellphone shot of spectacular sunset lit clouds 2

Only one shot of this American painted lady as it flew away as soon as I stepped out for a clearer picture. On the way back home that night there was an absolutely stunning sunset and cloud formation, but all I had was my smartphone : )

Year in Nature Photography – Day 151

Wheel bug (Arilus cristatus)

Wheel bug (Arilus cristatus)

Interesting cloud formation 2

Interesting cloud formation 1

Finally saw one of the mature wheel bugs possibly from the eggs from Day 58 and nymphs on Day 69.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 118

Not the greatest set of pictures today, and my lenses are in desperate need of cleaning. We had a bunch of isolated thunderstorms come through though, hence the cloud pictures showing my dirty lens. They all seemed to move north and south of our house here, though apparently one produced a tornado down the road from us, fortunately no one was hurt.

Caught this fast moving insect at our flowers but unfortunately it didn’t stay around long enough to get more than the one shot and it just goes to show that you have to just snap a picture while it is there and hope it turns out. This didn’t turn out real well but enough to determine that it was one of the Sphingidae family of moths. Some members of the family like this one, are hummingbird like in their ability to hover while they gather nectar. This adaptation occurs in these moths, hummingbirds, certain bats, hoverflies, servings as an example of convergent evolution. Convergent evolution is the development of similar biological traits in unrelated species. In this case the ability to hover but in general wings are an example of convergent evolution since most birds, insects, etc. have this ability but are totally unrelated.

Not a hummingbird but apparently a type of moth (family Sphingidae)

Clouds

Possibly a fly (order Diptera) on our basil (Ocimum basilicum ‘italian’)

More Clouds

Year in Nature Photography – Day 77

So it turns out that the tree I was calling a red maple for a long time is actually a silver maple. This proves that it is indeed easier to identify trees once they leaf out compared to winter time (more on that later). I snapped a picture of the whole azalea bush that has different color blooms on the same plant. There were some nice puffy clouds and the clover comes right back after being mowed.

Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)

Different Colored Blooms on Same Azalea Bush (Rhododendron)

Clover (Trifolium sp?)

Clouds

Year in Nature Photography – Day 57

Today I did a couple of time lapse videos with clouds. Unfortunately I can’t afford to pay for video hosting at the moment so you’ll have to check the links to the youtube to see them. Enjoy!

Cloud Time Lapse 1

Cloud Time Lapse 2

Cloud and Contrail

Year in Nature Photography – Day 56

Tried to catch some interesting clouds but didn’t quite get the shutter speed right. Sometimes you just have to tell yourself that it takes more practice 🙂

Clouds through the trees

Unknown Cactus Bloom

Clouds through the trees

Unknown Garden Plant

Year in Nature Photography – Day 21

Did most of the driving on the return trip to Delaware so only got a few pictures of some clouds and a field of daffodils.

Clouds over the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA

Clouds 1

Clouds 2

Field of Narcisuss sp?

Year in Nature Photography – Day 6

Today’s post features another example of a plant phenology as seen in red maple flowers which have bloomed on the top part of the tree, check back to day 2 to learn more about phenolgy Red maples are aptly named, the flowers are red, new growth on branches is often red, the stalks of the leaves are red, as are the leaves in the fall.

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) Burst Bud

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) and Clouds