Archive for November 2017
Two closer looks
Here you have two closer looks than last time at Baccharis neglecta, a shrub or slender tree known as poverty weed, which in the fall produces no poverty of fluff.
The yellow in the background of the second picture came from Maximilian sunflowers, Helianthus maximiliani, and goldenrod, Solidago spp. Notice the characteristic herringbone pattern of the small branches.
I took these photographs in a “vacant” lot on the west side of Grand Avenue Parkway north of Royston Ln. on October 12. If this is a vacancy, no one need apply to fill it.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
A colorful autumn scene on the Blackland Prairie
West side of Grand Avenue Parkway north of Royston Ln. on October 12.
Fluffy white: poverty weed, Baccharis neglecta.
Nearer yellow: goldenrod, Solidago spp.
Farther yellow: Maximilian sunflowers, Helianthus maximiliani.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Appontiament with a butterfly
No, the title of today’s post isn’t a typo. It’s my way of saying that the butterfly in this August 26th photograph belongs to the genus Pontia. Chris Kotzer of bugguide.net thought it might be Pontia occidentalis, known as the western white. No doubt this butterfly and others were drawn to the asters that managed to thrive even in the dry ground of the badlands in Alberta’s Midland Provincial Park.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Relenting again
Okay, maybe I was a bit hasty last time in writing off Jasper National Park’s Maligne Lake, whose northern end we drove to on September 5th. Compare the rugged mountains that loom over the lake with the closer one that imposes itself, smoother and lakeless, on anyone who looks to the left of the direction that yielded the first view. In both cases, even so late into the summer, patches of ice remained on the mountains.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
I didn’t find the Maligne River malign
No, I didn’t find the Maligne River malign at all. In fact I found it more interesting photographically than Maligne Lake when we visited on September 5th.
From a little bridge over the river at the place where it empties out of the lake I looked down at colors and rocks and patterns in the water.
Adjacent to the stillness and ripples a bit of whitewater asserted itself.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Relentless, relenting
All that gorgeously relentless yellow you saw last time in a field of Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) in far north Austin on October 12th has led me to relent and give you this much closer view of a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) that I photographed there that day.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
I am monarch of all I survey
Unlike the narrator in Cowper’s poem, the first line of which is this post’s title, what I surveyed in far north Austin on October 12th was a colony of Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) with monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and other insects busily working them.
I’ve taken much closer pictures of monarchs over the years and even on October 12th. I chose to show this more-distant photograph because I wanted to emphasize how relentlessly yellow the Maximilian sunflower colony appeared to me with the sun’s rays shining through the flowers’ rays.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Three updates
UPDATE 1: Do you remember the recent view of clouds that I photographed in the Badlands of Alberta on September 3rd? (For variety I’ve included an alternate view above.) While it seemed strange enough for those clouds to be casting shadows onto the sky—actually onto thin clouds in the sky—a mystery remained. The shadows appeared to lie beyond the clouds, yet the sun must have been beyond both, so how could we make sense of the shadows’ position?
Searching for an explanation, I e-mailed two people involved in meteorology. Les Cowley at Atmospheric Optics replied with a link to a post that included a photograph and a schematic diagram of the situation. Troy Kimmel replied with a link to Christoph Gerber’s Atmospheric Phenomena post “Where is the shadow?”, which also explained that the shadows in such pictures are actually in front of the clouds casting them. That post includes a stereo pair which confirms that in spite of the illusion that the shadows are beyond the main clouds, the shadows are actually in front of them. If you’re good at free-viewing stereo pairs intended to be looked at cross-eyed, you can give it a shot. Because crossing my eyes to that extent boggles my brain, I reversed the position of the halves to put them back in proper left-right orientation so I could free-view them in 3-D; sure enough, the shadows are in front of the clouds casting them.
UPDATE 2: Do you remember the jackrabbit I photographed in Calgary on August 27th? After posting, I learned a good deal about that kind of rabbit, so I added another paragraph to the text and also a link to more information.
UPDATE 3: In the comments on the post about the glacial meltwater lake at Mount Edith Cavell, I added a photograph showing an overview of the scene, including the mountain that looms above the lake.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Banff National Park’s famous Lake Louise late in the afternoon on September 8th
Maybe you were beginning to wonder if you’d ever get to see a picture of the famous Lake Louise. Here’s one with a twin bonus: a halo of crepuscular rays above the mountains that border the lake, and, coming to meet you, the tinged reflection of the late light on the lake’s surface.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
