Crispy Yellowness

A teaser from one of the San Antonio news stations last night about Monarch Butterflies made me think I needed to go see if there were still any along Pinto Creek. Even as recent as Monday I had seen them along Las Moras Creek. The blurb I heard made it sound like San Antonio was being inundated by them, but I guess it wouldn't have been much of a tease for them to say, "Hey, we're still seeing a few Monarchs in SA."

Out I went and, but heck, I only saw a few Snouts and two Queens on the farm today. I didn't even see a Sulpher or a Fritillary and we were lousy with Fritillaries just last week.

There wasn't much to shoot at all today, really. It's so dry here that everything is dying. Even the Goldeneyes that were covered with all manner of blossoms and flutterbies two weeks ago are now tipped with shriveled crispy yellowness. And, sadly, there are no rain chances in sight.

Part I -- Prelude to a Monarch

The Monarch Migration passes so quickly, I would have loved to have stayed home today to recover from yesterday, but they could be gone by tomorrow. They're only here a few days a year! But before I get to them, here's a few pix from the farm to start this trilogy off.

If you are in the mood to blow something up out of proportion, just click an image.

Below: We don't have the clouds of Monarchs this year that I've heard we've had in the past. Still, if you are in a shady spot near a creek and look up into the sky, you'll see the silhouettes of Monarchs flitting through the air.

Below: This was the only angle I could shoot the fungus from. The tree was growing on a steep slope and I couldn't walk down it--too slippery with dried leaves. Yes, dried leaves can be very slippery.

Below: I found some turkey feathers on Oak Road (my favorite spot on Pinto Farm) and remembered I could use the macro setting on something besides butterflies. Yes, I've been forgetting since the recent butterfly invasion.

Below: I detest spiders. They make my skin crawl. So I pretend that spiderwebs occur spontaneously in nature when I attempt to shoot them so I don't get too freaked out when something brushes my arm or falls in my hair.

All of the 10-11-08 Monarch Migration and Pinto Farm Pix can be seen HERE.

Brackettville Web Design

I've been a bit of a Blog Hog lately. I can't help it, I just LOVE photography!

My sister in law asked me last time what my light source was. My answer went something like, "Uh... " I paid attention to what I was doing this time. No flash. The flood light over the porch illuminates the web from above and a bit to the side. The wind was gusting a bit tonight here in Brackettville and most of my web shots blurred, dangit. But I think I still got a few that were sharp and clear enough. The one who created this now has a friend. We call them Ellen and Sukeena and we call their web project Rose Red because they never stop building. We watch them nightly. We are pretty sure these web designers are Orb Weavers.

Orb Weaver Spider

Brackettville Web design

I was trying to shoot a very swollen spider building her web under the light of the full moon. I took over 40 shots and they were all crap. I cropped her and the moon out of this one, I kind of liked the way the web looked... the center looks like a shot of a galaxy (maybe a disintegrating galaxy), the outer web with its crazy angles, well, I look forward to shooting spider webs again. I've never snapped one I wasn't embarrassed to show anyone before. This makes me eager to do much better with webs the next time!