Nature

[Aaarg]

Some beautiful pictures there, Kitsa.

I've been doing some hiking but not so much picture-taking.

[Kitsa]

Thanks.

I did a quick hike the other day (starts to get really congested this time of year, and not as fun). Stayed on-trail, but chose a different one than I usually do. :robertfrost

As far as photography, I tried.

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/streaminthewoods2.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/spray2.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/steppingstonesbeforefalls.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/reflectingpool.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/redlog.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/foundart.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/fallsthroughshrubbery1.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/fallsfromoverlooktrail4.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/boardtrail.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/behindthefalls.jpg

[Kitsa]

...and this toad.

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/toad.jpg

[Kitsa]

I was really on the lookout for huge and impressive fishing spiders that might eat a toad, but they were staying well-hidden.

[Fathom Zero]

OMG THE COLORS

I love green. Makes me wish there was any semblance of nature around me.

[Kitsa]

One thing I always think about when I hike around here is how many ways there are to be green. Each type of tree is a slightly different shade of it, and then all of the plants on the forest floor and all of the different types of mosses, and so on. The mosses and lichen can be grayish or kelly-green or neon, depending on what they are.

Even the reflected water in the pools and on the streams is a slightly different green than what it's reflecting.

[Aaarg]

green is the best.

[Kitsa]

This was on my mom's front porch. It was easily as big as the lightbulb in her porch light.

The rational side of my brain said "Saturniid moth, probably some kind of Polyphemus". The irrational side of my brain said OH MY FUCKING GOD, A TARANTULA WITH WINGS.

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/tarantulawithwings.jpg

[Kitsa]

Checked for moths again this morning, only to find this tarantula-with-wings laid copious amounts of eggs all over my parents' brick. They'll be warm, but I don't know any species of brick-eating caterpillars.

Will keep an eye on them.

[Shyandquietguy]

I've actually had a giant moth lay eggs on my hand! It laid about four before it fell off. I tried to find a spot for it but really couldn't think of anything because of our bitch ass cat was trying to get it. All the time mewing at me, begging me to let it go so it can be an asshole. I got pissed and mopey even though it was most likely on the last stage of its life. :(

Bugs are neat. I like them!

[Zhukov]

That moth is a monster. Lordy.

[Aaarg]

Huge moths are great. When I worked at Laurel Caverns we had a cecropia caterpillar and when I left it was in its cocoon. :( So I'd been staring at this caterpillar for months and I leave when it's about to become the country's largest moth? Fuck!


Today I went hellbender-hunting (my girlfriend was in a class that went looking for them and found one almost immediately. We went back to the same area hoping for the same results, but got nothin'!).

And later on we were elsewhere trying to take pictures of some lampshade spiders.
Turns out they're hard to photograph!
http://klimp.dk/glown/SPIDR2.jpg

But there were also salamanders in the area! Hurray!
http://klimp.dk/glown/sally.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/SALGAMAMBER.jpg
those didn't turn out well either! :(

[Fathom Zero]

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9366/tumblrlo5uiulzgk1qbee04.png (http://torrifica.tumblr.com/post/7487696882/looks-good-enough-to-sleep)

[Kitsa]

Love salamanders, they always look like they're smiling. I raised marbled salamanders for a while.

Nice pic fz, what kind of camera was that?

[Fathom Zero]

http://sovietcamera.110mb.com/fed2/

And upon examination, I figured out why the ghostly images appear. They should no longer.

White-trash solution: Cardboard lens cap. Light is leaking through a portion of the shutter curtain when it's cocked. The previous owner tried to repair it and must've done their damnedest, but it's obviously not working any longer. Oh well. I'm going to make a lens cap that'll stay on it until the absolute last possible second before I shoot so no like can leak, should I accidentally leave it cocked.

[bubbles]

I like all your pics Kista!! I am trying to grow my own veggie garden and everything died :( anyone have tips for me. George said I watered to much so he took over and I dont think he watered enough it was a fail...

[Pentegarn]

Stat=rt with simpler veggies. Tomatoes and hot peppers grow pretty easily, as do green beans

[bubbles]

word thanks. Do you think I should start them inside and is it to late in the year?

[Aaarg]

I went to a shitty spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway that's pretty close to Asheville and a lot of people love it. It's very popular, and I just wanted to go and see what the big deal is.

The big deal is, as usual, that people are fucking morons. It's ok, though, if they keep coming to this place they'll be less likely to fill up the other, much better trails on the Parkway.
http://klimp.dk/glown/graveyard_fieldz1.jpg
This is a close-up of a small salamander. There was a much bigger one nearby, but he went under a rock that I didn't want to disturb (it was half-buried). An older couple caught me looking for salamanders. Later on they caught me looking at the bottom of big rocks that would hang out, "what are you looking for now?"
http://klimp.dk/glown/graveyard_fieldz2.jpg
Seriously this place reminded me of the boring trails piedmont/tidewater Virginia. How utterly disappointing. If people like this, why don't they just fuck off to the coast?
http://klimp.dk/glown/graveyard_fieldz3.jpg
This is ok.
http://klimp.dk/glown/graveyard_fieldz4.jpg
This would be much better if there had been tree cover!
http://klimp.dk/glown/graveyard_fieldz5.jpg
I get mad when I notice discarded beer cans and candy wrappers even though I see those almost every time I go on public land, but seriously? A fucking diaper? Go back to Florida and never fucking come back, you lazy underprivileged fat white piece of trash.
Normally I'm the type to carry out trash I see on trails. Fuck you, assholes.

http://klimp.dk/glown/garage_birds.jpg
These guys live in my garage, right above where I get in/out of my car. I always apologize to them (as if they know what that means) because when I head out there, an adult flies out of the garage.

[bubbles]

wow thats so cool!!!! what are they?

[Kitsa]

Barn swallows make mud nests like that, but these guys look kind of big (?)

[bubbles]

i didn't know that, that's so awesome!

[Aaarg]

i've always assumed they're swallows based on the way they fly.

[bubbles]

they are so cute >..<
v

[Pentegarn]

word thanks. Do you think I should start them inside and is it to late in the year?

Tomato plants can grow inside if you use an indoor pot that hangs so the plant grows downward, but they have a strong odor to them, I would wait till next season. Possibly Mid to late May to plant saplings

[Kitsa]

when to plant what all depends on where you are. I start pea seedlings indoors in late April, and I transplant them outside as soon as they outgrow the seed starter. I string bird netting between two stakes and let them climb it.

Everything else, here, goes in around Mother's Day because that's when the big risk of frost is over. Everything I have growing now went in the ground the weekend before Mother's Day and everything's growing like crazy. I just harvested 6 yellow squash and zucchini the size of those souvenir baseball bats.
I have hundreds of tomatoes that aren't ripe yet. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all of them because they're not all sauce tomatoes.

My mom grows a lemon tree in a small pot in a hot, humid room and she gets 2 or 3 full size lemons off it every year.

My great-grandmother used to mix something she called "panther piss" up and dump it on her plants, and her backyard was like this amazing jungle where everything was supersized. I wish I'd asked her how to make it while she was alive. I know they used to call whiskey "panther piss" and that you can buy real panther pee to keep deer away, but I think this was something my great-grandmother invented in her kitchen.

[Aaarg]

http://klimp.dk/glown/babby_birbs.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/babby_birb.jpg

[Kitsa]

eeeeeee. So cute.

I wonder whose hair that is?

[Aaarg]

yeah they're adorable. there's always one sticking out of the middle like that. i like to assume it's always the same little guy. he's my buddy.

also i thought it was thicker than hair, some type of plant fiber or something. it totally does look like hair, though, and my girlfriend does have long black hair.

[Kitsa]

At least you know now that they're almost certainly barn swallows.

[Aaarg]

the birds are out n about now

i guess they prefer to perch on the rack on top of my jeep

as evidenced by the mass amount of birdshit

[Kitsa]

I saw a society finch today whose head was plucked completely bald. It was definitely a weird look...little black pinhead on a big ball of feathers. Poor thing :(

[Zhukov]

Bumping. Highland lakes. The water is perfectly clear, although it looks brown since that's what the bottom is coloured.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0209.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0218.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0222.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0232.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0233.jpg
I spent a lot of time just sitting on that tree.

[Zhukov]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0249.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0257.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0267.jpg
I almost trod on either a tiger snake or copperhead around here. My first thought was to get a picture of it, but as I raised the camera I thought that that was a dumb thing to do and I proceeded to take several loud steps backwards instead. I wish I had gotten a photo though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0295.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0301.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0308.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0316.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Vincered/DSC_0320.jpg

[Aaarg]

that's a pretty awesome tree. EDIT: all that stuff is awesome actually.

it's gotten cold outside and i never want to leave the house again as a result.

[Zhukov]

It was pretty freezing up there, otherwise there would probably be pictures of me/companion swimming. It's summer everywhere else, but there's still snow up that particular mountain.

[Aaarg]

yeah, it looks pretty cold.

[Amber Kush]

Something I caould walk naked through.

[Aaarg]

HUBBA HUBBA

[Kitsa]

These are from Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was a privately-held island until 1948, I think, and then it was sold by southern bigwigs to the state as a tax writeoff. Because it's not very touristy, it hasn't been ruined yet.

Sunrise over the Atlantic:
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/atlanticsunrise.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/driftwoodscene2.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/driftwoodbeachtrees.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/driftwoodbeachjustin1.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/colorfultidepool.jpg

Some colorful dunes flowers...I believe some might be datura relatives...

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/dunesflowers.jpg

Mermaid Purse (skate egg) and whelk- the beach was full of whelks.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/skateeggandwhelk.jpg

Fresh loggerhead sea turtle tracks...the island is a protected loggerhead nesting area.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/loggerheadtracks.jpg

A nest found by the "turtle patrol", people from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center who prowl the beach all night with red floodlights to mark the nests.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/loggerheadnest.jpg

[Kitsa]

I did a lot of beachcombing and found some really cool stuff.

Mystery skull. Duck? Pelican?
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/mysteryskull.jpg

Off-roading at low tide:
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/offroading.jpg

The place was full of horseshoe crabs, more than I've ever seen on a beach. They ranged from tiny to a foot across. A lot of times a wave flipped them over and I had to turn them back or a gull would get them.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/overturned.jpg
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/rightsideup-1.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/grizzled.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/survivor.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/rainbowhorseshoe.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/rainbowhorseshoe2.jpg

Whelk eggs:
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/whelkeggs.jpg

[Kitsa]

I swear the first thing I thought of whenever I saw a jellyfish washed up was chojin doing the u jelly thing, and I was like dammit chojin, out on some remote beach in Georgia's Barrier Islands.

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/ujelly.jpg

Salt marsh grasses and cluster oyster beds.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/saltmarshgrasses.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/ripples.jpg

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/nubblies.jpg

Another skate egg.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/mermaidspurse.jpg

Sea whip.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/seawhip.jpg

Sargasso.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/sargasso.jpg

Sand dollar. I collected about 50...about 30 made it home in one piece.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/sanddollar.jpg

Lots of hermit crabs doing their hermit crab thing.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/hermitcrab.jpg

Sea urchin.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/seaurchin.jpg

dessicated sea cucumber
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/seacucumber.jpg

mystery bone.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/mysterybone.jpg

Yet another horseshoe crab:
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/horseshoecrab.jpg

A little blurry, but this giant ancient (it was thick and old, most are thin) pen shell is about as big as a football. It was my prize beachcombing find. I've got it soaking now to get the sand crust off, then I'm going to find a display case for it.
http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy271/kitsa_for_imockery2/giantpenshell.jpg

[Aaarg]

awesome pictures

[Zhukov]

Who knew dead things on the beach could be so interesting?

Also... can't tell if that is a toy car off-roading at low tide, or not... it's weirding me out with my perception of things.

[Kitsa]

Yeah, it's a toy car that washed up on the beach. I sort of liked the illusion.

[Kitsa]

I have a bad nature story.

I'm allergic to honeybees, right

I had to take a picture of an outdoor sculpture for something. Got a ride there, sculpture's out in the middle of a field. I am totally not thinking, have jeans and sandals on, leave my purse (with epi-pen) in the car and just go out with the camera, la la la la la.

I get out about 30 feet before I notice movement out of the corner of my eye. I look down and realize that I am standing in a field of clover, and on that clover are more honeybees than I've ever seen in my life. There is honestly a bee on every single fucking flower. So I freeze in my tracks, thinking "oh shit".

It takes me a full half hour to retreat 30 feet through a series of dumbassed tai-chi-looking moves. I had to balance on one foot and wait for the next place I could step down. It was sheer dumb luck that I didn't get stung on the way in, but I thought for sure I would get stung on the way out. I was trying not to hyperventilate because the CO2 would've riled the bees, and I knew if something happened to me I'd fall over onto a carpet of bees.

I finally got back to the parking lot, but I was in the middle of a full-on panic attack at that point. All I could see was bees. I got my picture, but for the next 50 miles or so I was paranoid that bees had flown up my pantleg and just hadn't stung me yet.

Had nightmares about it that night. I fucking hate bees and I fucking hate not being able to breathe and I fucking hate having to use that epi pen.

[Fathom Zero]

:(

glad you didn't die

But I got mad stung when I was a kid living in Germany. I had to go home from school and get taken to the doctor because of it, even though I'm not allergic to anything. It was really bad - whole face bad.

[Aaarg]

this is where i am for 2 weeks

great

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs01.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs02.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs03.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs04.jpg

[Aaarg]

i feel weird posting a picture that i didn't take without giving credit, but to be fair the camera owner didn't take it either since it was on a motion sensor so whatever.

the point is... FUCKING CUTE

(also pretty big so spoiler tag)
http://klimp.dk/glown/gfox.jpg

[Zhukov]

That looks like a dingo.

Not really.

Also, your first picture is AWESOME. Can you go swimming in there?

[Aaarg]

It's a grey fox. They can climb trees!

Also, you can swim in it... if you don't mind snapping turtles!

Speaking of which, a snapping turtle buried its eggs on the edge of a dirt parking lot on campus this morning. The professor got some pictures/video, and I'll try to get them from him.

Here's more of the "lake" (pond!), where i stay most nights to watch bats fly around above the surface.
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs05.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs06.jpg
I should have included something as a size reference. This is big, but not HUUUUUGE.
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs07.jpg
This is literally right across a small dirt parking lot from where I sleep. I can walk here in less than a minute, walking slowly.
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs08.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs09.jpg
BAT WATCH

[Kitsa]

Wtf with that snake?

[Aaarg]

Damn it, I was hoping you could help me!

It was bigger than any ringneck I've seen but it had a partial ring (not really but KIND OF see here: http://klimp.dk/glown/snaik2.jpg ) and definitely more wrinkly-kinky-weird. Also any black rat snake I've seen that small has been juvenile and those tend to have very different markings.

Apparently rat snakes, as a whole, have a tendency to kink up like that when nervous, but this is the first time I've ever seen it. Also, if you touched this snake, he would smooth out and look like a normal snake (still curved!) before winding himself back up into that kinky thing.

WEIRD.

PS don't do a google search for "kinky snake"

[Kitsa]

http://http://www.herpetologynotes.seh-herpetology.org/Volume4_PDFs/Maddock_et_al_Herpetology_Notes_Volume4_pages079-081.pdf

[Aaarg]

WEARD

[Kitsa]

I know it's some sort of defense mechanism, maybe to camouflage as a branch. That's about all I know. It just always looks startling.

[Aaarg]

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs11.jpg
these are apparently very common.

[Kitsa]

Rosy maple moth (http://http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryocampa_rubicunda)

Not my favorite saturniid, but a beauty.

[Aaarg]

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs13.jpg
granite city. fun place.

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs14.jpg
a peromyscus manculatus, greasy from peanut butter and staggering from torpor.

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs15.jpg
whitewater falls, complete with dead hemlocks.

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs16.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs18.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs19.jpg
ocoee!

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs17.jpg
plethodon metcalfi, the southern gray-cheeked salamander.

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs20.jpg
a spring salamander, eating an ocoee. the ocoee got away in the bag.

http://klimp.dk/glown/hbs21.jpg
it did not get away in the container.

[Zhukov]

Awesome photos. What a great waterfall.

[Aaarg]

Oh yeah! Here are some nice quality photos of animals. I didn't take any of these, though I caught some of the animals (the salamanders).

Plethodon metcalfi, gray-cheeked salamander.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs0.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs1.jpg

Can't remember the scientific name, but this is a spring salamander. The one with an Ocoee in his mouth in an earlier picture.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs2.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs3.jpg

Blarina brevicauda, northern short-tailed shrew. These guys are venomous (cool!) and stinky (less cool!)
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs4.jpg

Napaeozapus insignis, woodland jumping mouse. CUTE.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs5.jpg

Here's a turtle burying her eggs in a dirt parking lot.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs6.jpg

Some kind of two-lined salamander. All I know for sure is that he's adorable.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs7.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs8.jpg

And speaking of adorable, Ochrotomys nuttalli, golden mouse.
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbs9.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/ephbsa.jpg

[Aaarg]

Here are my shitty pics again!

This is where I went today, Table Rock in NC.
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock02.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock03.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock04.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock06.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock05.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock00.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/photos/tablerock01.jpg

[Aaarg]

http://klimp.dk/glown/lampshade.jpg
not as big as it looks, but lampshade spiders are cool.

[Kitsa]

Very cool.

[Fathom Zero]

AWESOME

[Aaarg]

If I knew it would turn out that well, I would have taken more trying to get better ones. I just took that one and a shitty one of the web. There was another one that was eating and I tried to get a picture of that but it didn't turn out.

These guys are hard to photograph because they're almost always on the underside of large rocks and rock faces, in dark places with awkward angles. Today there was several on the side of a rock face, in the sun and everything. And the lichen on the rock just happened to be light, too.

I may have to go back with a slightly better camera (also to show my girlfriend because she's silly and likes things like this). I'll have to ask her if they do that often.

This is the last picture I tried to take of them. I was trying, that time, too. sux

http://klimp.dk/glown/SPIDR2.jpg

[Aaarg]

i take it back there are a few more

http://klimp.dk/glown/lampshade2.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/lampshade3.jpg
http://klimp.dk/glown/lampshade4.jpg

[Kitsa]

the web one is great, even if it is blurry.