Daniel 🐅🏔 (@danielthedaring@mastodon.online)

54d

Chipping Sparrow at Oak Openings Preserve in Ohio

#birds #birding

A small bird stands on short, pink legs in short, rough grass that extends out into a field behind it. It is mostly light gray on its underside, with light streaking on its break and whitish throat patches. Its wings are patterned with brown, black and cream. It has a black stripe of feathers running through its eye to the back of its head, a white stripe above that, and is topped by a rusty crown, spiking slightly at attention away from its small, pointed black beak

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

54d

Lupine lit up by the bright afternoon sun in Ohio

#NativePlants #photography

Dozens of tall lupine plants fill the frame; the plants have long, tall stalks full of many small purple flowers. The purple of the flowers offsets sharply with the bright green of the star-shaped leaves

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

54d

Tree Swallow on a rare break from zipping around everywhere

#birds #birding

A small, sleek bird rests on a thin, horizontal branch. It has a clean white throat and belly, and the metallic blue-green on its cap can just barely be seen. Its dark, slender wings are at rest at its sides

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

53d

I was the weirdo at Magee Marsh in early May taking pictures of things that WEREN'T birds and really annoying every person that asked me what I was looking at

I really love a good look at a Damselfly. This is an Eastern Forktail, Ischnura verticalis

#insects #odonata #photography

A tiny damselfly resting on a bright green, deeply veined leaf. The damselfly is long and thing, with its wings folded back along its abdomen. Its body is mostly black with neon green stripes, and its long black abdomen is tipped in sky blue

ALT

1 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

52d

A little bitty tree frog on a buttonbush leaf one morning

#frogs #herps #photography #iphonePhotography

A small green tree frog that still has the remnants of a tail clings to a bright green, fresh leaf, lit up by the morning sun

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

52d

Speaking of frogs… do you see?

#frogs #herps #photography #iphonePhotography

A full frame shot of the leaves and branches of a cypress tree. Following one of the branches away from the camera, there is a small green tree frog resting

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

52d

More herps?

A painted turtle enjoying the sunshine early last year

#turtles #herps #photography

A turtle rests on a log floating in a pond. The turtles head is mostly dark green, streaked by many light yellow-green stripes. One of the stripes expands near the turtle’s “ear” to make a red patch

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

52d

A carpenter ant herding aphids on a willow leaf

The more-than-human world is really cool, y'all. Look closely!

#ants #insects #aphids #photography

A large black ant rests at the base of a slender leaf at the end of a willow branch. On the leaf are green aphids of different sizes, presumably being "ranched" and tended to by the ant for their honeydew production when necessary

ALT

Edited 52d ago

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

51d

Yellow-billed Cuckoo skulking in the batture along the Mississippi River

#birds #birding #photography

A sleek, slender bird skulks in the branches of a willow tree in deep woods. It has a clean white throat and belly, with a grayish brown topside. The underside of its very long tail is black with circles of white. It has a sharp, curved yellow bill

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

51d

The batture is a unique ecosystem in this area. Thick woods of water-loving tree species line the river side of the levee in areas where the ground is exposed during lower flow times. Huge cottonwoods, sycamores and willows, tied together with vines of all sorts.

On this day in late April it was teeming with birds. Orioles were singing from every direction, and there would be a flash and suddenly something like the cuckoo above would appear just a few feet away.

Magical

#nature #photography