Super Moon, Night Two
I had so much fun photographing in the dark on Monday night, that I went back out last night.
First of all, I noticed two fish, stationary in the shallows of our pond. We should only have two kinds of fish in the pond, bluegill sunfish and largemouth bass, because it is a man-made pond, and that is what we stocked. This is not a bluegill so it must be a bass, but it doesn’t look like one to me. It looks longer and flatter than I picture bass, but maybe that’s an optical illustion caused by looking through water.
Sleeping fish.
Then I found this little anole lizard hiding in the dog fennel. I like the dreamy quality of this photo. Later I found another in a Mexican seedbox plant, sound asleep with eyes closed. So cute! But those pictures didn’t turn out.
Anole in dog fennel.
It was probably 10 or 15 degrees cooler than the previous night. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but there was less moth activity. I did find this tiny plume moth on a grass stem. It is only about 20 mm wide. You can see a much better picture of one (or at least a relative, because that one is in the UK) here.
Do you know how to find insects in the dark? Take a flashlight out, and hold it up beside your head, by your temple. Slowly pan around, and little specks of light from the insects’ eyes will reflect back to you. I usually see green, and they are usually spiders, but for this little moth, I saw an orange speck.
Plume moth, Pterophoridae.
While I was photographing the plume moth, another little moth appeared and rode around on my flashlight the rest of the night.
Moth doing what moths do, going to the light.
Finally the moon came up, and I eventually got the shot I had imagined.
Moon and reflection.
It’s not perfect, because I find it very difficult to maneuver the camera on its tripod to get everything in the shot, and focus, and press the shutter button in the dark, but it will remind me of the evening I wandered around in the dark, and found sleeping fish and lizards.
Lovely pix. I especially like the little lizard. Jim and I walked yesterday (I’m still rehabbing my knees, so just going out feels like a remarkable thing!) and saw 2 little Brown snakes. That is their species and color. Neither was more than about 10″ long. Both were quite assertive when we tried to get a better look. Hilarious, really, as they are so tiny and we are SO BIG! Unfortunately, we were sans camera. Here’s a link to what we saw. http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/reptiles/snakes/brown-snake-storeria-dekayi/
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Did I miss what happened to your knees? Did you get them replaced?
I saw one of those Brown snakes once – the dog found it and it was just like the ones you saw – it did not run, it did not hide, it was out there studying us while we studied it. I did get pictures, and from those pix you would never realize how tiny it was. You were lucky to see two! The only time I have seen two snakes at once was two Eastern Hognose basking together.
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The snakes were both on paved path, not close together, though.
Knees — likely tore left medial meniscus in August. Damaged the right one in October. Saw the doc after that one — we were hiking at got clear to the END of the trail when I knew things went bad. GOOD timing! Anyway, saw the doc, got referred to rehab. Also started working with a personal trainer. It’s all going well now, but my endurance for walking still needs to improve. We went almost 2 miles yesterday and that is the farthest I’ve walked since my injury hike! With luck and continuing hard work, I won’t need any surgery, maybe ever.
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You waited until both of them were injured to go see the doctor?! Well, I guess I can understand that, it’s hard to know how bad an injury is and you think if you’re just careful, you will get better. But I’m glad you found out what was wrong and what to do about it. I hope they continue to get stronger!
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Great post..those little lizards are cute. We have several of the albino type come out after dark on back porch. They do scamper quickly when the big lights come on.
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I had those white geckos when I lived in Sugar Land, southwest of Houston, but I have only seen one of them here. I would’ve thought maybe it was too cold for them here, but you’re up by Ft. Worth, right? and there’s bound to be more cold weather there.
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No I’m just 60 miles north of Austin about. We have many of them here, many!
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