The Turtle and the Strawberry

This weekend I was putting out some fruit for the birds (didn't get any takers) when I stumbled upon this Eastern Box Turtle (a relatively common sight in this area, though it is a species of Special Concern in NYS).  I wanted to take some photos of it with my macro so I put it on the outdoor table adjacent to the fruit.  I went to get my lens and when I came back he decided to have a snack.  I watched as he munched away most of the strawberry and was laughing most of the time.  If you have never seen a turtle eat, especially eat something bigger than it's head, it's an amusing sight.  Add to that all of the strawberry juice that was getting on his face and well I'm sure you'll laugh too.  After it had devoured most of the strawberry, I set it free in the yard and will hopefully stumble upon him again soon.  For those concerned about me "feeding" a wild animal, let me state that Eastern Box Turtles are incredibly omnivorous and will eat anything they can catch up to.  They even have the ability to eat mushrooms that are toxic to humans and the strawberry it ate on is just a giant version of the wild strawberrys that grow in my yard.

This turtle can be ID'd as a male due to its red eye (the females have brown eyes) ans is probably relatively young (they can live 60-80 years in the wild) based on its vibrant colors (older adults are much more dull).  I have entitled the photo below 'The Carnage' because of the blood red flesh and juice all over its face.

An extreme closeup of the eye:

He was a bit shy at first, but quickly warmed up to me and my camera:

A very messy eater....

BIG bite....

This is what a very happy Eastern Box Turtle looks like:

Now we go from cute to creepy.  This spider (ID unknown) was found unfortunately in my bedroom... but I was able to capture it and take it outside for a photo shoot before letting it go to the woods where it should be.  And yes, it was huge... the body alone was about 1" in size.

The "perch" that I photographed this spider on is an old odd shaped piece of drift wood I picked up a few years ago that has been sitting around in my yard.  I started off using just the macro 105mm, but added the teleconverter later to allow an even closer view (as if I needed one) of this spider.

Super closeup:

And I'll round this post out with some cute and furry groundhog photos.  This is from EPCAL and is (likely) the same groundhog I previously photographed in early April.

Doing its best prairie dog impression:

ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I really started laughing when I saw this photo after uploading my images to my computer:

Florida Fauna

Disclaimer: These photos are NOT from Long Island (though some of the species like the dragonflies do appear up here) but none the less, they are all wild and need to be shared.  (Above: Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly)  This gorgeous Buckeye Moth was  lounging on the shrubs outside the hotel in Downtown Orlando:

I spotted this Blue Dasher along the shore of Lake Adair, Orlando:

The Green Anole proved quite elusive, making an appearance only once (as opposed to its invasive cousin the Brown Anole which was everywhere)

And the brown version....

An update

Here's a little collection of photos I've taken in the past few weeks.  I'll be doing an update from Florida soon, so I better get these in now before they are buried. All of the photos below were taken at Quogue Wildlife Refuge near the bridge that crosses the pond.  (Above: Yellow Flag Iris)

This fern caught the attention of me and my camera.  Flash was used which blacked out the background.

Just to the left of the above unfurling frond was this spider:

Starflower is one of my favorites because of its natural shimmer that is enhanced with the use of flash:

One of the more difficult flora subjects to photograph is the sundew plant which is quite small and one of the coolest carnivorous plants.  The droplets on the end are a stick secretion which attract insects that become trapped.  Then the plant curls up and "digests" its prey.

And to round things out, the beautiful flowers of Highbush Blueberry (which are edible, but don't taste nearly as good as the berries which will be out in a few months)

Muskrat Love Canal

Rainbow
On Thursday I drove down Dune Rd. with the hope that the thunderstorm would move on and give me some quality evening light.  Just as I had driven past the Quogue Wetlands Preserve I noticed this rainbow that had formed and doubled back to get an unobstructed shot of it

I had to boost the saturation a lot to bring out the colors in the rainbow, as I didn't have a CPL (polarizing) filter and as such the orange may be a bit over the top and their isn't a well defined color band.  Here is a photo of the boardwalk crossing over a freshwater marsh at the preserve:

After I got this shot, I looked down in the mosquito ditch that runs below the boardwalk and saw 2 muskrats getting frisky.  Behind me was a third muskrat (likely another male, as at one point 2 of them seemed to be fighting, with the loser literally flying through the air and landing in the water):

I changed lenses to get more SS and a little more focal length:

And here the muskrat is swimming in the little canal:

As I'm a little behind, here are some groundhog shots from last week:

The other day I stopped at Quogue Wildlife Refuge to photograph some frogs, and happened upon some ferns and skunk cabbage that were perfect for my macro lens:

Painted Turtles, Bull Frogs and a Humpback Whale

The Rounds:
I took Wednesday off from work because the weather was supposed to be phenomenal and I wanted to take advantage of such warm early April weather.  My original hopes were finding some good avian species and perhaps capturing Ospreys carrying nest material or a similar spring event.  On Tuesday, my focus shifted as I learned there was a juvenile Humpback Whale which had beached itself in East Hampton.  I tried to employ patience and made my morning rounds at all of my standard avian haunts, with a stop at Munn's Pond Preserve for turtles and Quogue Wildlife Refuge for frogs.  Photographing turtles is always difficult due to how the sun reflects off their shiny black shells and I'm always left wanting better.

The Wildlife Refuge produced this fat frog in the little man made pond at the entrance.  Its counterparts weren't nearly as cooperative as this one which let me get my lens within an inch or so.  To obtain the close up of the eye (below) I laid on the ground and used my cameras LiveView function which acted as the viewfinder as I extended my arms out and put the camera right next to the frog.

Humpback Whale:
I arrived at Main Beach in East Hampton around 2 and stayed for an hour watching the whale from the nearby rock groin.  It was a sad sight to see, but it is nature and I felt lucky to have been able to observe it.  After 3 days, officials have tried to euthanize the animal twice, but it has proven to be not effective.  It was decided that a rescue effort would not be mounted due to the whales condition, age and location in the surf.  Once it expires, it will be buried along the beach after a necropsy is conducted.

For more information on the situation, please view this: East Hampton Press

Twice in the span of 1 minute, the Humpback raised its tail and head in a desperate attempt.  I was lucky to capture the moment, though I did clip the tail on a few of the shots, and all of the shots needed to be straightened.  I captured these images (and some of the ones above) with my new Nikon 18-200mm VR which allowed me to zoom out a little and get the whole whale in frame.  If I had to use my macro or 300 f4 I would have been seriously limited in my options.

More images and an update on the situation will be posted on Saturday.  If the Whale is still alive - I will likely  make another trip.

More Big Rodents

Wet Muskrat:
This morning I ended up waking early and took a trip to EPCAL for birds and hopefully a shot at some skunks or other mammals that may be hanging around.  Along River Rd., next to the entrance of the golf course I spotted a muskrat along the banks of the very swollen Peconic River - it quickly slipped into the water and I was able to get 1 decent shot before it dove under and slipped into a culvert to head east down the river.

Woodchuck:
Just when I was ready to leave EPCAL after a less than great outing I spotted something brown in the median and when I pulled up I saw it was a Groundhog (aka woodchuck) who had just emerged from his/her den.  The groundhog had quite a bit of patience and showed off nicely for me which was a good change from past experiences with this species.  The Groundhog is most often seen on Long Island on the side of highways where there is plentiful food (grasses) and they prefer edge habitat (where woods meet grasses).  Suffice to say, photographing a groundhog on the side of the LIE is not an ideal situation, so to find one along the runway was a good surprise.  I stumbled upon another den on the other side of the runway which is likely that of another groundhog - but could be that of a red fox which I'm sure utilize the site as it appears to be plentiful in food and acreage.

There certainly is a resemblance to the Muskrat in my previous post with this over-sized teeth:

Chomping away:

Muskrat

Ondatra zibethicus:
After driving to Sagaponack for a pair of Sandhill Cranes (a rare visitor to Long Island) I gave one of my secret spots a try as it's been good for Pied-Billed Grebes in the past as well as a variety of ducks and raptors.  As soon as I pulled up I saw a Muskrat eating away.  It was a bit of a surprise as I've only seen this species 5 other times and it didn't mind my car pulling up next to it.  The angle was near impossible so I parked and got out for a few more shots before it retreated to the water - providing the photo at the top of this entry.