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Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/21/2015. Monarchs and Flowers

It is only a few days until the 27th annual St. Marks NWR Monarch Butterfly Festival and the Monarchs are showing up according to schedule.

This journal entry features mating Monarchs on the Lighthouse Levee Trail and a photo of White Peacock butterflies mating.

Also included is is a photo of the head and wing from a Coot I found next to the lighthouse.   Coot body parts are rather common this time of year since the bald eagles love coots and often eat them while sitting on top of the lighthouse.

Some children actually use the head as a finger puppet….. OK, you really didn’t want to hear that part.

In any case, I hope you enjoy these photographs and that you can come down to the St. Marks for the Monarch Butterfly Festival this Saturday October 24th, 2015.

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Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/11/2014

October 11 was a busy day at the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It was the first day of National Wildlife Refuge week and no admission fee was required.

The “Big Sit” bird count was taking place at the Lighthouse observation deck so there were quite a few birders and photographers around.

I started my day’s photo journal with a photo of two kayaks taken from Ranger John’s bench. Since the wildflowers were in bloom with pollinators everywhere I decided to spend much of my time on the levee trails. Continue reading “Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/11/2014”

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A typical day at the St. Marks NWR

Today I am sharing a few images I recorded on a rather typical September day at the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

September begins the transition to Autumn with flowers, pollinators, and slightly cooler temperatures.  The spoonbills and eagles have returned and the alligators abound in large numbers.

Come see it for yourself!

Jim

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Ranger John McKenzie’s bench

One of the most popular benches at St. Marks NWR is dedicated to Ranger John McKenzie and is located near the lighthouse where it overlooks Apalachee Bay.

Ranger McKenzie was beloved by the St. Marks NWR community, and his untimely passing in 2011 was mourned by all who knew him. The site of the bench is a location McKenzie visited often, especially at the end of his workday. Continue reading “Ranger John McKenzie’s bench”

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Infrared photography at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

My first attempt at infrared photography took place at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge for a very simple reason: the sweeping landscape, clouds, and ocean could help make any photo look good.

Most modern digital cameras can record infrared. To find out if yours does simply point your IR remote control toward the lens of your camera then either take a photo or watch “live view” while while pressing some of the remote buttons. If you see light from the remote then you camera will work, at least to some degree.

Getting setup for IR photography can be as simple as buying an infrared filter for your lens. There are a number of filters available but I got the Hoya R-72 which is probably the best for beginners. Continue reading “Infrared photography at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge”

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Beautiful cluster of Reishi mushrooms

Here we have a photo of a beautiful cluster of Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mushrooms growing on a very short tree stump in our yard.

Reishi mushroom can grow into many unusual and often mystical shapes.

Beautiful cluster of Reishi mushrooms on small tree stump.

(click to enlarge)

The Reishi mushroom is a highly desired medicinal mushroom and has been consumed, mostly as tea, for at least two thousand years in China where it is called lingzhi. It has sometimes been refered to as the “Mushroom of immortality”.

I find the best way to process wild Reishi mushrooms is to slice them into thin sections while they are still moist since dried reishi mushrooms are very woody.

Once sliced I dry them and keep to use for tea, which I make by gently boiling/simmering them in water.

It is also possible to get an double extraction by taking the leftover tea mushroom slices and soaking them in alcohol to make a tincture. The tea and tincture contain different medicinal compounds.

As always when taking wild plants or fungi please leave some in place to repopulate the area.

Thanks for visiting!
Jim

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How the lightsaber works ( a theory)

When I first saw Star Wars on its opening day I was captivated by the lightsaber and the scientific part of my brain required a theory for how it worked.

After spending way too much time thinking about it I came up with a theory that the lightsaber generates a super heated plasma contained in a “magnetic bottle”. This theory would explain several aspects of a lightsaber.
Continue reading “How the lightsaber works ( a theory)”

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The beautiful Caesar mushroom

In the summer these beautiful mushrooms pop up in our front yard. They are the “American Caesar’s Mushroom” Amanita jacksonii and are very close relatives of the European Caesar’s mushroom Amanita caesarea .

 

 

American Caesar's mushroom (Amanita jacksonii). (6/11/2015)

(click to enlarge)

This unusual mushroom looks like it hatched from an egg.

The genus Amanita is well known for its poisonous species such as Amanita muscaria (the fly agaric mushroom) but the Caesar mushroom and its relatives are edible.

I find the taste quite mild but not interesting enough to eat often. (Please don’t eat any wild mushroom unless you are absolutely certain it is edible.)

Amanita jacksonii is mycorrhizal with oak and pine trees and covers the fine tree roots with mycelium (mushroom tissue). The tree supplies sugars to the mushroom and the mushroom provides minerals to the tree root so they both benefit from the relationship.

I will post more mushroom images in the near future

Thanks for visiting,
Jim

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