We’ll start with a few of the many photographs I got from reader Damon Williford:
This is from Estero Llano Grande State Park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger):
Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus):
Long-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma longirostre):
Plain Chachalacas (Ortalis vetula):
Reader Mark Sturtevant sends us some arthropods:
I had been trying my hand at taking pictures of insects in flight. My equipment is limited in being able to stop high speed wings, and to even frequently get the subject into proper focus, but I consider some of my efforts to have a certain beauty (at least to me). Besides, the great Alex Wild has done similar things, although his are certainly better:
The first is of the Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica). I think you can see my reflection in the abdomen.
Next is an unidentified bee.
Finally, this is a long-legged fly (Condylostylus sp.) that was hovering over another long-legged fly. My guess is that it is a male checking out a female.
Finally, a rare animal from reader Mark. The photo isn’t great, but the animal is!:
My co-worker went hunting over the weekend. No deer came within range except when she was not prepared for it, However, she did a white splosh in the distance transform into an albino deer. This was taken in southern Illinois somewhere with her cell phone camera.
Sub
The Chacalaca’s look very – without wishing to sound speciesist – ‘primitive’. Clearly not passarines – must look them up…
Yes – “We estimated cracids to have originated between 64 and 90 million years ago (MYA), with a mean estimate of 76 MYA. Diversification of the genera occurred approximately 41–3 MYA, corresponding with periods of global climate change and other Earth history events that likely promoted divergences of higher level taxa.”
Combined Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Sequences Resolve Generic Relationships within the Cracidae (Galliformes, Aves)
Pereira et al, Systematic Biology Volume 51, Issue 6 p.946-958.
http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/51/6/946
Nice display of photos today. I’ve never seen a squirrel eating upside-down.
Mark, those IIFs are well done. I’ve tried, but mine are always blurred.
If there was more snow, the coat of that deer would serve it well.
Well done, Damon; I especially like the thrasher. That background you found him on makes him really pop, esp. for a bird that’s usually an expert at blending in.
Mark, I agree 100% on the “certain beauty!” I for one like the combo of clear body with blurred wings–much more suggestive of action than still wings would be. Cool-looking fly!
That deer’s quite the find! Looks quite young; would be interesting trying to track it’s survival.