The Moon Moves On: Freehand Shots

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On March 27, Mary and I returned to Liberty Park in Inverness, FL. I didn't have my tripod with me. I took the shot above at 7:53 p.m. Eastern, setting my camera to a 1/40-second exposure at f4.5. That darkened the image considerably; I subsequently altered brightness, contrast, and gamma.

Venus is visible near the bottom of the shot, next to a hanging finger of Spanish moss.

The sky's actual brightness looked more as it does in the shot below, taken at 8:01 p.m. My settings were for a 1/3 second exposure at f2.8, and I'm thrilled my image came out as sharp as it did. Jupiter is the faint dot about halfway down the shot(best seen in the large view). Venus is above and slightly to the right of Jupiter. the Moon is above and to the left of Venus.



Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Lunar Leap

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For three days the crescent Moon joined Jupiter and Venus. We were rained out on March 24, when the Moon appeared below the two planets. On March 25, the Moon appeared beside Jupiter (photographed at 8:01 p.m. Eastern, 0.6-second exposure at f3.5, with some tweaks in gamma and contrast). On March 26, it appeared by Venus (photographed at 8:34 p.m. Eastern, 1/2 second exposure at f6.3).

Taken from the end of my block, March 25 at 8:04 p.m. Eastern, 0.6-second exposure at f3.5 (with tweaks in gamma and contrast):


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March 26 at 8:01 p.m. Eastern, 1/2 second exposure at f4.5:


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The Moon (with Earthshine) and Jupiter, March 25, photographed at 8:20 p.m. Eastern, 4-second exposure at f4.5:


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The Moon and Venus, March 26. First photographed at 7:30 p.m. Eastern at 1/250 second, f4.5. Then photographed (the Moon with Earthshine) at 8:38 p.m. Eastern, 4-second exposure at f4.5.


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Keith Cooley explains that Earthshine "is caused by sunlight that reflects off the Earth onto the Moon's night side. Under the earthshine, the Moon's outline and its dark features can be seen, even though only a thin crescent is bright. We see the Moon because of reflected sunlight (the Moon does not generate its own light). At times, however, the dark part of the Moon glows."

This photo series tracks the movements of Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon from March 10 through March 26:


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Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

NaHaiWriMo Extended Version, Days 11-20

Prompts: 11. tools, 12. clock or time, 13. stars, 14. romantic gift, 15. Ides of March, 16. something hidden, 17. luck, 18. Sunday present or past, 19. arts and crafts, 20. change.

February had marked NaHaiWriMo: National Haiku Writing Month. Even though the event is officially over, I am among those still writing and posting a haiku a day. For March, I am following the prompts provided on NaHaiWriMo's Facebook page.

The March 14 haiku was inspired by this photo of a mayfly.

Haiku from March 1-10.
February 2012 haiku: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 (+ 1 day).
Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Iridescence

Venus (above, right) and Jupiter, photographed from the end of my block at 8:04 p.m. Eastern (4-second exposure at f3.2) on March 23, 2012. I've also tweaked contrast and gamma. My view had been clouded out on March 21 and 22.

Earlier in the day I spotted this beauty:


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Fiery Searcher, Calosoma scrutator , Family Carabidae (Ground Beetles). Also called "The Searcher" and "Caterpillar Hunter." "One of the most beautiful North American beetles," says Bugguide. "Adults and larvae prey on caterpillars. Adults will climb trees in search of their prey."

In this case, the beetle climbed the wall of our local bank. I spotted it in midafternoon on a particularly hot day for this time of year, with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees F (32.2 deg. C).

Not far from the beetle I spotted these carpenter ants:


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These two individuals (male on the left, queen on the right) joined many others. Genus Camponotus, Family Formicidae (Ants). Carpenter ants generally swarm here in April, so these have arrived a bit early.

"During the flight season, carpenter ants can often be found in alarming numbers," writes the University of Florida. "Sometimes homeowners are concerned about damage to the structural integrity of their homes, which they sometimes incorrectly learn, is caused by Florida carpenter ants. However,... Florida carpenter ants seek either existing voids in which to nest or excavate only soft materials such as rotten or pithy wood and Styrofoam. Other concerns are that these ants sting (they do not) and bite (they do)."

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Windswept

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Cloudy skies and rain nixed planet photos for March 21. On the plus side, Mary and I got a good daylight view of the Lake Henderson birds.

And it was windy, blowing the Spanish moss every which way. Tillandsia usneoides. Spanish moss (also called Florida moss, long moss, or graybeard) is an epiphyte (a plant that grows on another plant). This windblown tree is just outside the park beside the lake.

According to the University of Florida, "Spanish-moss does not have any roots. It uses its long, thin, scaly stems to wrap around the host tree and hang down from the branches. The leaves are covered with cup-like, permeable scales that 'catch' moisture and nutrients from the air and from pockets on the surface of the host."

First we checked out our nesting sandhill crane couple:


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Grus canadensis . According to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Florida is home to non-migrating populations of sandhill cranes. Migrating populations breed farther north, but non-migrating populations remain near their nesting site year-'round. "In non-migratory populations, egg-laying can begin as early as December or as late as August."

I got decent shots of the American coots this time:


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Fulica americana , Family Rallidae. Says the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, "Often mistaken for a duck, the American Coot is a common waterbird. Its all black body and white chicken-like beak distinguish this swimming rail from the real ducks."

This Great Egret also made an appearance:


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It was tough to tell the species from this distance because several herons and egrets look like this. I was able to identify this as a great egret based on this line from the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America: "When feeding, the bird assumes an eager, forward-leaning pose, neck extended..." That behavior is visible in the shot above.


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Says eNature, "Much reduced (by persecution and habitat loss) compared to, say, a century ago. Nevertheless, still relatively common in wetland habitats (mainly freshwater and brackish). Resident year-round in coastal districts within its range (except in parts of West Coast), numbers boosted in winter by birds abandoning inland sites occupied from spring to fall."

I don't know what species this bird in flight is, but whatever it is, it's large:


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I put together a video with all the birds except for the egret. I've made this one a little fancier than usual, using a combination of captions, video clips, and stills. Warning: Much loud wind noise!



Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Planets and Birds On the Move!

The above is from March 18. Normally I set my tripod up on the driveway, but the planets were low enough by the time I took this (9:42 p.m. Eastern) that I headed down the block, to where Venus (on the right) and Jupiter were about to set behind a neighbor's house.

I was back on my driveway on the 19th:



If you go to the large view, you can see four small dots in a line above Venus. They're lights from a passing aircraft.

And then, there's March 20:



On March 22, Venus will be at 46 degrees east of the Sun and will stay there through April 1, after which time it will start dropping lower in the sky. Meanwhile, the crescent Moon will join Venus and Jupiter on March 24 (a thin crescent below the two planets), 25 (a slightly larger crescent beside Jupiter), and 26 (a larger still crescent beside Venus).

And the ibises are back in our neighborhood! I'd seen them in the county seat almost a month ago. On Tuesday a flock had stopped by our "post office pond." Mary had noticed them first. I swung the car around and parked it in a cut-away by the water, leaving my hazards flashing.


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Here, a juvenile red-shouldered hawk observes several ibises.

White ibises (Eudocimus albus, Family Threskiornithidae) "eat crabs and crayfish, which in turn devour quantities of fish eggs," according to eNature. "By keeping down the numbers of crayfish, the birds help increase fish populations. In addition, their droppings fertilize the water, greatly increasing the growth of plankton, the basic food of all marsh life. White Ibises gather at dusk in spectacular roosts, long lines of birds streaming in from all directions."

The hawk (Buteo lineatus, Subfamily Buteoninae (Buzzard Hawks) Family Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles, etc.)) might be the same one I photographed at this pond eight days ago. The red-shouldered hawk includes five subspecies (four on the East Coast and one in California), according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I believe this individual belongs to the pale Florida form.

Three female hooded mergansers were also in the pond:


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Back in January we had spotted one female and three males.

"A small fish-eating duck of wooded ponds, the Hooded Merganser nests in holes in trees," according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "It is frequently seen on shallow waters where its only waterfowl companion is the Wood Duck." We haven't yet spotted any wood ducks in the neighborhood.

The hooded merganser winters in Florida, but this year was the first time we've seen this species since our move here in 2003.

While some ibises fed at the pond, others flew across the road to search for grub in neighbors' lawns.


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Make that across two roads -- the main thoroughfare, and then this side street:


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They seem to follow the arrow of the "Action" sign in the upper right.

Here they are on the move!



I love these guys.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Visiting the Cranes

Sandhill crane (Grus canadensis, Family Gruidae).

Mary and I had gone into town to do some errands -- and to see if the sandhill cranes were still at Lake Henderson.

First, we happened upon a St. Patrick's Day celebration as we parked in the municipal lot:



Not only was the street closed to traffic, but if you look at lower left you can see that the lane line has been painted green -- kind of.

Neither Mary nor I were wearing green, but this dog followed the day's dress code:



Our thoughts were turned toward the green of lily pads and other foliage out by the lake. This time we made our visit earlier in the day, and I got a clearer shot of one of the cranes.

I also fiddled with aperture size and shutter speed as we lost the light. The shot below began as something considerably darker (taken with a 1/40 second exposure at f4.5), before I put it through its paces:



Then Mary spotted the coots (Fulica americana, Family Rallidae):



We counted nine altogether. Not all of them appear in frame.



This time I had presence of mind to get the scene on video:



The video includes a nest exchange between the mated cranes. Sandhill cranes take turns incubating their eggs and caring for their young. The crane in the photos took a short flight (lucky video catch!) to relieve the other of nesting duty. The audio includes grunts being made by at least one (unseen) alligator.

We had also remembered our binoculars. After I took the video, we watched some drama unfold between the coots and the newly-liberated crane. Every time the coots got too close to the nest, the crane chased them away. By this time the light was low enough that I had stashed my camera in its bag and was content to just watch.

We arrived home after dark, but the planets were still in fine form. Venus continues to pull away from Jupiter following their March 15 conjunction:



Here's Mars against its backdrop of Leo. The right-hand version shows the outline made by the constellation.



For comparison, here's the outline from EarthSky, showing the position of Mars on March 3:



My shot might have some "extra" stars, otherwise known as camera noise. My camera's longest exposure is four seconds, which is a short time for astrophotography. After downloading, I fiddled considerably with brightness, contrast, and gamma, to make the stars come out.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other JourneysPromote Your Page Too Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.), Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite, Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny, Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines, Vol. 5, Deviations: TelZodo, Vol. 6 and conclusion: Deviations: Second Covenant.Free downloads at the Deviations website (click here for alternate link), Smashwords, and Manybooks. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop (provides free e-books to personnel serving overseas. Logo from the imagination and graphic artistry of K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman); Books For Soldiers (ships books and more to deployed military members of the U.S. armed forces); and Shadow Forest Authors (a fellowship of authors and supporters for charity, with a focus on literacy). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.