Bigger Beasts

Mrs B and I took a Sunday trip out to Norfolk Botanical Gardens on Sunday without Banished Jr., who went to the beach with his big sister.

 

It turned out not to be a big day for butterflies ( a few Eastern Tailed Blues and distant Sleepy Oranges) or dragonflies. But there were other bigger beasts out and about. Mrs B. spotted the Black Snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) slithering in and around the little Monkey Shrine. Only a baby yet it was around 2 feet long but no thicker than my finger.

 

 

 

 

Moving on we crossed the canal on a bridge we shared with a Five Lined Skink (Eumeces inexpectatus)

 

 

Alas not a juvenile so there was no bright blue tail but a red-brown head and about 4 inches from the head to the tip of the tail.

 

Snapping plants and flowers as we wandered a shadow passed overhead and we saw a large bird come to rest in the tree above us. Now I was out for plants and bugs originally so I took the macro and super macro lenses and didnt drag the long lens along. I always end up regretting not taking it and it was true again Sunday as I could have used it for the juvenile Red Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) sitting happily in the pine above our heads As it was I had to make do with what I had on hand... and a good deal of later cropping. 

 

 

And the flight pics when he decided to head out the tree and across to the lakeside werent what I'd have wished for but at least he did turn up within the frame

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Odonata And Ones A New One!

Its nice this weekend, 70 degrees or so and a nice breeze. And finally there are damselflies and dragonflies. The first damsel as usual is the Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) with its distinctive exclamation point ! shoulder stripes.

 

 

I wandered around some with my eye out for dragonflies too but didnt spot anything all day. And then late this afternoon I was in the kitchen  and looked out of the window and there was a familiar silhouette on the screen. But going outside it didnt turn out to be a familiar dragonfly. In fact it was entirely unfamilar and after perching on a planter to get the shot I had to post images at BugGuide to get an ID.

 

Not actually the very best of shots either with sun relected back off the glass and through the sceen, but good enought to get the ID.

 

 

 

Its a  Harlequin Darner (Gomphaeschna furcillata ) one of the  Gomphaeschna or Pygmy Darners. Its found up and down the East coast from Maine down to Florida. But its a first for my yard and thats always pleasing. Two new confirmed species last year, the Common and Prince Baskettails and now another to start 2013. Next target this year has to be to get more and better Saddlebags and Prince Baskettails.

An-t-agram #4

'Dire children oft anointed bald pates with waxy mayonnaise'

A bald or tonsured pate yes.

But as fine and goofy a movie as it is the relevance of The Wicker Man as derived from the search term utterly defeats me

An-t-agram #3

Next day I, Diana, wrote little symphonies, each for a wind band.

Confused? See here

Spooooookkkkyyyyyyy!

I was driving to work this morning with the iPod on shuffle as ever when my phone rang. Now normally I dont answer if I'm driving but the traffic was light so I was bad.

It was Mrs. B wanting to be the first to tell me that Maggie Thatcher was dead. And there in the background as she told me was Morrisey with Margaret On The Guillotine.

Hows that for timing?

As for Maggie what's to say? As old and reactionary as I get some people just aren't likeable.

As Uncle Bill Burroughs wrote, "As a wise old black faggot once said to me 'some people are shits darling' "

An-t-agram #2

"An orthodox priest waylaid by a thin mendicant weasel fiend."

Weirdly this didn't produce a single image of a weasel when used as a Google search term.

It did produce this single image of Old Sam

Fair enough.
He was, lets face it, thin and always looked like he should have been a priest. I'm unaware though of any medicant or weasely tendencies. He is the only Nobel laureat for literature to appear in Wisden

 

And then this from The Temptation of St. Antony or A Revelation of the Soul by Gustav Flaubert, illustrator unknown as of right now but I'll research it later.

Once again no weasels

AN-T-AGRAMS

I'm starting a new series of very short posts...most likely a short series too as I'll likely forget or god forbid there might be something worth photographing.

There were many more anagrams from "I had Always Intended To Explain How I Bred Certain Of My Ants" which never did have drawings done for them.

So I shall occassionally drop one in here with a more or less relevant image selected by typing the anagram into Google and picking my favourite from those images it suggests.

An-t-agram #1

When does I.I. 'Fatty' Wilcox bathe? Rarely, I note, and in damp sand.