Year in Nature Photography – Day 185

Blue moon from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue moon through the clouds from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Clouds crossing full moon

Full moonlight between two trees on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Lights of Waynesville from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Stars through the clouds

So I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway knowing it was full moon and hoping it was a clear night to photograph the moon. First of all it wasn’t entirely clear, which allowed me to get some interesting moonlit cloud effects. Second of all it was apparently a “blue moon”. The article I’ve linked to about blue moons, which commonly refers to the second full moon in the same month, but apparently there are a couple other definitions according the article. Interestingly enough we have had two “blue moons” this year and that will not happen again until 2018. I also snapped a picture of the lights of Waynesville and a break in the clouds allowed you to see a few stars.

As I am doing these posts at a later date than the pictures were taken, I want to dedicate this particular post to my Uncle, David Allen Harvey who passed away on the 6th of September. He was, among other things, a professional photographer and the link is to his photography blog. One of the “other things” includes astronomer and anytime I take pictures of the night sky I draw inspiration from both my Uncle and my father and their love of the night sky.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 175

Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii ‘Blue Chip’) at night with moth or buttefly?

Camel crickets of some kind (Family Rhaphidophoridae)

Night time stars

Some night time shots of  stars, crickets, and our butterfly bush.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 165

Closer shot of the crescent moon

Long shot of the crescent moon

not my greatest night time shots of the moon, I’m still practicing. It was neat though to have captured some of the stars through the break in the clouds.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 115

Taking a break from the butterflies. Found another green mantis crawling around. I also failed again to get a shot of any lightning but the sky looks neat. In case I didn’t mention this before, not all “praying” mantids belong to the genus mantis. There are several genera in the mantidae family. They’re able to turn their heads 180 degrees and it’s a true fact that the females will sometimes eat their mates after or during the mating process. So not only do they eat their own on occasion but they’ll eat a variety of other insects that they catch with their front legs that give them the the look of prayer which is where the name praying mantis comes from. Mantis is apparently derivation of a Greek word for “prophet”.

Mantis (Family Mantidae sp?)

Storm clouds beyond the trees, no lightning though

Mantis (Family Mantidae sp?)

Year in Nature Photography – Day 47

So I went up to Newark, Delaware last night and was planning on going out to look for salamanders with a friend. No luck on finding any salamanders but I got some shots that you’d never know it was night time until I told you. We have two invasive species for this post, one is garlic mustard and the other is earthworms. Now I’m not sure what species of earthworms these were but there were only 2-3 that were actually native to North America until the Europeans colonized. There are plenty of articles about them online but here are two, one featuring a University of Delaware professor and another from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The gist is that these worms destroy leaf litter and take out nutrients from the soil. The other invasive is garlic mustard which grows prolifically and chokes out native plants.

Earthworm

Earthworm

American toad (Bufo americanus)

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

American toad (Bufo americanus)

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) gone to seed