Starting a new topic on Flora and Fauna as suggested.  Birds can vary depending on the season.  I love to go up to canoe country just as the leaves are budding out and you can see hundreds of warblers in the tree tops, who are normally, hidden in the underbrush.  We go late season and you can tell by this photo, the loons are changing to fall phase.

starwatcher

---

On the flora side; watch out for this one; it's likes sandy spots.  Leaves of three, leave 'er be.

---

This fall I was watching large flocks in "V's" flying very high. Hard to ID for sure but I thought they could be Trumpeter Swans, not Canada Geese. Their honking just sounded a bit different and the wing beat a bit slower.

Martha's always flipping fern leaves over to examine their spore patterns. It's of how they "propagate"  :o big word  ;D
But doesn't mean I know much more. Martha's into the plants. I'm better at birds, less so trees.

I particularly have become interested in photographing the small things such as insects.  This pine bark beetle was very cooperative in posing for me a couple of years ago.

---

I like the texture and composition of the photo.  Nice pose.

starwatcher

  (You need to Login or Register, Darkwater Lake, July 2012.
  (You need to Login or Register, Iron Lake, July 2012.

dd

  (You need to Login or Register. ;)

I'd love to know what this bug is not to mention it's purpose.
  (You need to Login or Register

[quote author=db link=1356004045/6#6 date=1356040281]I'd love to know what this bug is not to mention it's purpose.
  (You need to Login or Register
Looks like it could be a variant of a cicada, not knowing more about the insect, size, time of year, etc.

dd

I agree DD; Cicadellidae; a leafhopper is what we call them.  Their purpose: to suck sap out of plants, which probably doesn't do the plant any good.  Their size is usually less than 10 mm.

starwatcher

starwatcher wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 1:56am:

Their purpose: to suck sap out of plants, which probably doesn't do the plant any good.

I disagree.  Their purpose is to be annoyingly loud while in the process of making little cicada's.  ::)

dd

DentonDoc wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 2:07am:

I disagree.  Their purpose is to be annoyingly loud while in the process of making little cicada's.  ::) dd

These are about the size of a grain of rice.  As far as I know they don't I've never heard them make as much noise as their two inch cousins.

starwatcher wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 2:17am:

DentonDoc wrote on Dec 21st, 2012 at 2:07am: I disagree.  Their purpose is to be annoyingly loud while in the process of making little cicada's.  ::) dd These are about the size of a grain of rice.  As far as I know they don't I've never heard them make as much noise as their two inch cousins.

Just don't take a walk in the woods down this way in the spring time ... deafening!

Here's another cool bug:
  (You need to Login or Register

I'm not convinced on the cicada label for the other but I got no clue so....

Both seem to hang out a few at a time on my tent on sunny August afternoons. A grain of rice is a good size description as the textures you see are my tent and netting. I've just noticed them the last few years.


Just think if these guys were measured in feet:
  (You need to Login or Register

Nice bug photos, Lynda and db!

What kind of equipment do you use for these close-ups? Long lens? short lens? tripod? extension tubes? big dollar close-up lens?

Clearly the ante has been upped for the quality of next year's PODs, so I have to know what the competition is doing :)

Jim J Solo wrote on Dec 20^th, 2012 at 2:42pm:

This fall I was watching large flocks in "V's" flying very high. Hard to ID for sure but I thought they could be Trumpeter Swans, not Canada Geese. Their honking just sounded a bit different and the wing beat a bit slower.

A good chance those were Tundra Swans (Whistling Swan), kinda sound like barking dogs. Migration route comes down through WI from way up north then they either head to the west or come east to the coast. I always see them around Thanksgiving riding a cold front from the north.

db, I would call it a leafhopper, some are quite colorful, they put little brown dots on leaves where they pierce and suck. That other dude is ugly

Coral fungus, Brent/Darky Portage
  (You need to Login or Register

Rock Tripe, everywhere.
  (You need to Login or Register

I shoot with a Canon DSLR (up until a couple of years ago an old D60, now a 7D), and I have a macro lens but I don't take it on canoe trips.  It just adds too much weight.  My butterflies and insects are almost always shot hand-held with a telephoto lens from some distance away. 

The pine bark beetle was shot in 2010 with the 7D, with an L-series 70-200 IS lens, and probably shot at almost 200 mm.  I made quite a few shots and this was the best one.  (The joy of digital.)  The background was my shirt which just happened to have been thrown on a log near the fire grate.  If you could see the original of this one, (not compressed) it is very, very sharp.  I can enlarge it to 16 x 20 easily.

This spider was taken in 2007 with my old D60 and a Canon 75-300 lens, back on the biffy.  Again hand-held from some distance (although I didn't kill it, and I did use the throne with him in residence for a couple days.)

When I am shooting very, very tiny flowers and have lots of time (with the tripod close to the ground), I have a Canon 500 diopter that I can put on the end of my telephoto lens for extreme closups, but haven't used that much since getting the L-series IS lens.

Have never tried to shoot butterflies and damselflies from a tripod--they just move too much.  I stalk them with the telephoto lens and try to be patient.

---

To change up just a bit from insects, here is a garter snake gliding across the water.  (Shot with a Canon D60, with a 75-300 telephoto lens, from the canoe.)

---

How do you feel about fungus?

This one is from this year's canoe trip, in the woods in back of a campsite on Cherokee Lake.

Tripod shot with a 70-200 lens.  On my belly in the dirt.

---

pajeff, Thanks for the Swan tip. You sent me to my guide books to learn more about Swans.

I'm enjoying the pics and info everyone's sharing here.

db wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 6:46am:

I'm not convinced on the cicada label for the other but I got no clue so.... Both seem to hang out a few at a time on my tent on sunny August afternoons. A grain of rice is a good size description as the textures you see are my tent and netting. I've just noticed them the last few years.

Reference: Here's the Peterson insect guide for leafhoppers, Family Cicdellidae, same as Cidadas, but only 20 times smaller.

starwatcher

---

[quote author=db link=1356004045/12#12 date=1356072361]
Just think if these guys were measured in feet:
  (You need to Login or Register

Back several hundred million years in geologic time (Pennsylvanian) I've  seen fossil dragonflies, some with 3 foot wing spans, cockroaches were huge.  In addition, clubmosses, which are at best three inches tall in the BWCA, use to tower to 120 feet and five feet in diameter.  Just think what global warming could do for us now with the climate when the CO2 was first tied up in the coal seams.


starwatcher

Spartan2 wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 1:56pm:

How do you feel about fungus?

I have enough fungus photos to keep this going for quite some time.  :)
  (You need to Login or Register

starwatcher wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 4:44pm:

Reference: Here's the Peterson insect guide for leafhoppers, Family Cicdellidae, same as Cidadas, but only 20 times smaller. starwatcher

This post indicates a good way to take a light weight field guild with you on trips (as long as you have a little time and a digital camera with a usable sized viewing screen...with a zoom feature).

Take close-up pictures of individual pages from the field guild (pre-trip).  When you want to look something up, just swap out your picture taking card with the "field guild" card and scan for the topic of interest.  Tip:  You might want to take a set of spare batteries because you are likely to use your camera more.

I've used this technique for a variety of things for trips, including spare maps, menus, recipes, picto descriptions, etc.  The extra cards weigh nothing!  Think of it as your pre-trip digital nopepad.

BTW: With a little technical knowledge, you can just download images from your computer to the card directly without taking pictures, but this is not always straight forward.

But, if you are already a Kindle person ... problem solved!

dd

I used a Pentax point and shoot for the bug portraits. It's the only thing it does well and it will focus down to 1/2 inch away from the lens and that's the only reason I still take it. The beetle was full frame from maybe an inch away from his face. Sometimes we get lucky.

Leafhopper, close enough for me. Here's a waterbug wake from my last trip that I like.
  (You need to Login or Register

I had this great realization that if I read this thread religiously, I might actually learn something.  Great feeling.  Keep it up! 

prouboy

Desperate to add something to this dialogue...

Freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii, shot fall 2012, LLC

prouboy

---

Spartan2 wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 1:56pm:

How do you feel about fungus? This one is from this year's canoe trip, in the woods in back of a campsite on Cherokee Lake. Tripod shot with a 70-200 lens.  On my belly in the dirt.

Could be a boletus subvelutipes? (If so, not edible, not one of the "gourmet" boletus species)

Fungi are an older kingdom than either plants or animals, so we should be honored to have them in this thread.

There was a morel thread somewhere a little while ago, and there seem to be a at least a few other amateur mycologists on QJ.

Puckster wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 9:33pm:

Desperate to add something to this dialogue... Freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii, shot fall 2012, LLC prouboy

That's pretty impressive prouboy!  I've seen freshwater coral in the BWCA, but I've never heard of or seen freshwater jellyfish!

starwatcher

Thanks Starwatcher.  I've been canoeing the QP and BWCA for over 20 years, and this last fall was the first and only time I ever such a thing.  I was amazed to see the water full of these things, took the picture, then asked around about what this was when I got back to the Twin Cities.  Doubt I'll ever see it again!  But you never know....

prouboy

Ever catch one of these?  I have only caught this one Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), in Pickerel Narrows in June of 2009.

Didn't even know what it was when I caught it.  Thought it was a short-nosed redhorse, using a fish ID key my buddy had along.  (So much for it  helping ID fish!)

Got back home and got it correctly id'd.

prouboy

---

Looks like it's closely related to a carp. I don't want to catch one!

I understand, it's a pretty ugly fish.  But the fillet was beautiful white meat.  The meat is good!    (You need to Login or Register

prouboy

...not to be contrairy,but I think the fish on your link has speckles like a trout, and the fish in the picture has those big scales like a carp.  Carp also is supposed to have a nice white meat that is verry good dpending on what diet it has.   -but  I am not at all an expert .

Yeah, good point Kf...   Those fish in that first link definitely don't look like the fish I caught!  But the text in that link was interesting. 

Anyway, try THIS link!  It's pictures of the fish are similar.    (You need to Login or Register

Honestly, I was unsure what the heck it was.  I showed the picture to a MN DNR fisheries guy...he was pretty adamant it was a Whitefish.

prouboy

I think the MN DNR guy is right - looks like a Whitefish to me. Fun to catch and good to eat. The fish in your other link look like Lake Trout.

I believe your correct. I caught a similar fish on a cabin trip into the White Otter area.
We had use of a gas grill at the outpost cabin and one of the guys was into smoking fish.
We smoked it but brined if first because they don't have a high oil content and can dry out.

starwatcher wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2012 at 11:38am:

Desperate to add something to this dialogue... Freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii, shot fall 2012, LLC prouboy

I didn't realize that these jellyfish apparently are invasive species from China.    (You need to Login or Register

starwatcher

Very interesting Starwatcher.  The MN DNR staff person I talked was familiar with them, said their sitings were not all that common, but didn't seem to excited by them.  Probably because their impacts (as your citation noted) are not well known and their bite doesn't harm humans. 

He said they go for years unnoticed, in some alternate form attached to the underside of vegetation.  Then, when conditions are right, they "bloom."


prouboy

Puckster wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2012 at 6:09am:

Ever catch one of these?  I have only caught this one Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), in Pickerel Narrows in June of 2009. Didn't even know what it was when I caught it.  Thought it was a short-nosed redhorse, using a fish ID key my buddy had along.  (So much for it  helping ID fish!)

Caught one trolling on Ramsey Lake, Spanish River watershed and threw it back. Didn't know what it was but kind of looked like a shad to me. Got back to camp and saw a Canadian couple with two on a stringer so I had to ask. They said they were whitefish and I threw back what they considered to be one of the best tasting fish. I have had smoked whitefish and they are tasty.

Here's a young buck taking a break from munching his way through the willows on the back 40 this afternoon. They need lots of twigs in their diet to keep their digestive system in good shape. He had two younger buddies with him, no does.

Almost all the deer we see out here are mule deer (like this one) - only rarely do we see white tail.
  (You need to Login or Register   (You need to Login or Register

JChief wrote on Dec 31^st, 2012 at 5:00am:

Puckster wrote on Dec 23rd, 2012 at 6:09am: Ever catch one of these?  I have only caught this one Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), in Pickerel Narrows in June of 2009. Didn't even know what it was when I caught it.  Thought it was a short-nosed redhorse, using a fish ID key my buddy had along.  (So much for it  helping ID fish!) They said they were whitefish and I threw back what they considered to be one of the best tasting fish. I have had smoked whitefish and they are tasty.

The ONLY way they are good is smoked.  Full of bones and you would be warned to hold your nose once you cut into one.

  (You need to Login or Register

Hey Joe -- 

Early one dark February morning many years ago, as I drove north to go ice-fishing in Minnesota, the truck ahead of me clipped a deer and it kept on going.  I stopped and walked up to the deer lying in the road with a broken neck.  I called a warden, got a permit to take the deer, hauled it off the road and dressed it, and took it home. 

Friends laughed and said the deer would taste awful on account of all the twigs in its diet this late in the winter.  How wrong they were!  It was the best road kill I've ever had!  Very good venison!


I know this is off topic, but your picture and caption recalled this event.

prouboy

PhantomJug wrote on Jan 20^th, 2013 at 8:58pm:

JChief wrote on Dec 31st, 2012 at 5:00am: [quote author=prouboy link=1356004045/29#29 date=1356242963]Ever catch one of these?  I have only caught this one Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), in Pickerel Narrows in June of 2009. Didn't even know what it was when I caught it.  Thought it was a short-nosed redhorse, using a fish ID key my buddy had along.  (So much for it  helping ID fish!) They said they were whitefish and I threw back what they considered to be one of the best tasting fish. I have had smoked whitefish and they are tasty.

The ONLY way they are good is smoked.  Full of bones and you would be warned to hold your nose once you cut into one.

  (You need to Login or Register

Whitefish are delicious.  I love em smoked, but baked and fried are also good. Rich, white meat.

Puckster wrote on Jan 21^st, 2013 at 3:07am:

... on account of all the twigs in its diet this late in the winter.

They eat twigs all year round, so I'm not surprised your venison tasted good.

You're welcome to come up and show your love of the local fauna anytime. But this area is bow-hunting only: I know that excludes guns, and I'm pretty sure it excludes 4x4's too.

bigfin wrote on Jan 21^st, 2013 at 4:22am:

Whitefish are delicious.  I love em smoked, but baked and fried are also good. Rich, white meat.

Eww.   ;)

Ran across this or something like it while cleaning my desktop. YMMV...

Interesting read.... I think it's the same.

  (You need to Login or Register

fyi
  (You need to Login or Register