Nature Watch, Your Flora and Fauna Photos and Stories

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Your night sky pic looking up through the trees is stunning.

Thanks! Just a steady hand and a 10 second exposure with an iPhone 14 Pro.
 
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Lazy morning

I saw the opposite (baby turtles heading to the sea) over the summer. It was pretty wild. There had to have been at least 100 of them.
 
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An Arizona Bark scorpion (C. sculpturatus) in my driveway in Tucson- November 2011. Taken with the assistance of a black light. I miss some things about Tucson, not sure the scorpions are one.

 
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Bountiful, large and full acorns this season, make for hardy and healthy squirrels.

They sound like raccoons when jumping onto my bedroom roof at daybreak they’re so plump and full of energy.

I had the arborist leave part of that limb for just these times.
 
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An older pic that holds a great memory for me. Taken at the bottom of the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania, this elephant became quite enraged at my taking photo's of him. The pic captures the last few moment before the elephant charged and chased our Land Cruiser. Turns out elephants can run pretty darn fast.
 
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An older pic that holds a great memory for me. Taken at the bottom of the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania, this elephant became quite enraged at my taking photo's of him. The pic captures the last few moment before the elephant charged and chased our Land Cruiser. Turns out elephants can run pretty darn fast.

Always ask for a model release first

😉
 
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Ancient willow tree ..... still impervious to cold and floods. 150 years + old.
.
 
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I was at the Wichita Mountains the other day and spotted this great blue heron. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone on me so the 10x and 5x photos are not as sharp as they could have been.
 
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Ancient willow tree ..... still impervious to cold and floods. 150 years + old.
.
A Whomping Willow!
That tree looks like it could whip crap out of you.
Scary how the top looks like a face, I think it's possessed.

 
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Found this little chap collapsed outside the back door today…..woke up too early from overwintering as we have a mild week in the UK?
I brought it in and it did manage a wing flutter / I offered it a bit of food… not sure of the protocol. Anyway got it back on its feed and now deposited in a cold room so hopefully it can snooze again and wake up when summer is really approaching….
.
 
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Found this little chap collapsed outside the back door today…..woke up too early from overwintering as we have a mild week in the UK?
I brought it in and it did manage a wing flutter / I offered it a bit of food… not sure of the protocol. Anyway got it back on its feed and now deposited in a cold room so hopefully it can snooze again and wake up when summer is really approaching….
.

Appears to be a Polygonia sp... a Comma. Based upon the dark color, that's a winter morph, and as you posited, it overwintered and likely woke up. Polygonia that overwinter want to go about their business in the spring; the ones that don't overwinter do their business in the summer.

Beautiful pictures and thank you for sharing!
 
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On vacation at my favorite spot, snorkeling in 40’ and 3 dolphins swim right up to me, check me out, circle me once and swim away.
I scream to my bride and when I look back down, 4 more swim right by.
Lifetime experience and worst photo you will ever see.