We have a couple of contributors today, and once again I urge you to get those good wildlife photos in.
First up are DUCK photos by a reader who introduces himself (yes, I drew a picture of a cat of his choosing—a lynx—in his copy of WEIT). All readers’ comments are indented:
I am John Rayner of Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada. But if you want to note place, just say Ottawa; it’s easier for all concerned. 🙂 BTW I attended your lecture in Ottawa several ago and had my WEIT book signed and lynxed.
There is a Mississippi River in Eastern Ontario. It flows into the Ottawa River which in turn flows into the St Lawrence and then the Atlantic. I was sitting on the riverbank hoping for seagull photos when a mallard [Anas platyrhynchos] came and sat on a log and preened to her heart’s content. I say her, but could it have been a juvenile male? I don’t know these things.
x
A bedraggled but tenacious cardinal from Christopher Moss:
Remember I mentioned that the two male Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) that spent the winter here in Nova Scotia, where no cardinals are supposed to be, left just before this female turned up? She has spent a lonely, virtuous and celibate summer here on her own. It rained hard overnight so she looks particularly bedraggled and sad today.
A praying mantis from reader Amy:
I no longer have a back yard as I’ve moved to an apartment with a balcony. This balcony has evergreens at arm’s length, though, so I have some wildlife. This morning I discovered this little dude on my majesty palm. After several tries, I managed to get him/her into focus. Not colorful or beautiful in the least, which is why I almost didn’t see it at first!
And we have two videos by reader Darren Garrison, sent in August 28:
I thought this was worthy of sharing. Making this video last night of a pair of snails I discovered under a mushroom involved two 10-minute sessions of lying on my side on the ground holding my phone just in case anything interesting happened. It paid off with probably the best nature video that I have ever made. Main video is sped to 8x realtime, zoomed clip at the end 4x.
(Earlier in the day I had found a bunch of *really* small snails, all inside around 2 square feet in my yard.) Video at 4X:
Turns out that the weird mushroom I had been photographing when I discovered the snails (one side dark, one side white, like those dudes from the classic Star Trek epidode) wasn’t actually two-toned but infected with a parasitic fungus fungus. It moved from being a white powder to a yellow crust, a progress which can be seen in you go to my Youtube channel from the video and look at the “snails acting weird” video in particular.
Also, nice little mantis.
I’d guess it is a female mallard. Quite flexible. Could teach yoga.
You caught them in flagrante, you snail voyeur!
All great contributions! I love that last mallard photo. A duck on a mission.
…and I love the magic under that mushroom.
Thanks for sharing.