Spiders

One of the more unpleasant features of my walks through the woods is continually running into large spiderwebs strung across the trail. I don't see them until my face contacts the web. Ugh!

It was very difficult to photograph, but this is the remains of a spiderweb on my glasses. Like I said above, they tend to be at face level.

Once in a while I see the web before I plow through it.

This seems to be the spider species making the webs. The spiky shell-like structure is the spider's abdomen. It is eating a flying insect of some sort that got trapped in the web. (I've tentatively identified this common spider as "Spined Micrathena", Micrathena gracilis.)

Another one of these spiders -- hanging on a thread after I destroyed its web.

Contrails

When you have as good a sky view as we do, you begin to realize how many of the "clouds" you see in the sky are actually remnants of contrails. In the winter, especially, it seems that the conditions are right for contrails. From our kitchen table window, we have a spectacular view to the east, and it is not uncommon to see a dozen planes in the air going up and down the East Coast flight corridor.

A few nights ago, the conditions were apparently perfect for contrails.

This east-west contrail was dispersing in an interesting "drop" pattern.

A bit later, the southwest-northeast contrails were particularly notable for how many planes were on almost exactly the same flight path.

From left: (1) The first flight leaves a nice, straight contrail. (2) The first contrail has begun to disperse as a second plane follows the same path. (3) A third plane follows the path, but is no longer leaving a strong contrail. (4) And a fourth plane follows the same path.

What doesn't show up in the wide-angle pictures above is Venus shining through the high clouds. This is a telephoto shot of the third plane. Venus is the bright dot in the lower cloud.

Night Sky

Tonight we finally had an evening without clouds. I played around with the "Manual" setting on my camera, and with the assistance of Photoshop, came up with some decent star pictures.

Saturn (top) and Mars (Middle) have been moving towards each other for the last few months. Tonight they also line up nicely with Antares in Scorpio. Mars and Antares are noticeably red to the naked eye.

Here's an annotated version of the picture.

Here you can see the entire scorpion, including the hooked tail at the lower left.

To the east of Scorpio is Sagittarius. Officially, Sagittarius is "The Archer", but it really looks more like a teapot.

A closer look at Sagittarius.

And finally, the Big Dipper -- probably the best known asterism in the northern sky. It's not a constellation, because it's part of Ursa Major (Big Bear).

Selfies

"Selfies" are so much a part of modern pop culture that Apple's "Photos" app detects photos that the software thinks are selfies and automatically puts them in a separate album. I rarely take selfies -- we're pretty "old school" on this and usually ask a stranger to take the picture of us for us. But I do have four photos in my "Selfies" album. Here, in chronological order, are the photos that the Photos app thinks are selfies.

Ring Day at West Point

Elephant in Sri Lanka

Our grandson, about one day old

Ditto

Love those elephants and newborns that are capable of taking selfies!

Sky Phenomena

Watching the sky from our deck gives an ever-changing view. Lately I've been treated to towering thunderstorm clouds, fire-in-the-sky sunsets, and lots of fog clinging to the mountains.

A thunderstorm developing to the east.

A dissipating thunderstorm at sunset.

After a rain, the fog seemed to be pouring over North Mountain.

Fore Mountain obscures the horizon to the west, but at times the sunset still colors the sky.

And sometimes the whole sky seems on fire.

Tonight there was a thunderstorm covering the western half of the sky, but to the east were these "anti-crepuscular rays". They are like the light rays typically seen in a sunset, but they have traveled all the way across the sky and appear to converge at the anti-solar point. The large white dot is the nearly-full moon.

Critters Big and Small

Visits from wild things.

Until our neighbors enclosed their trash cans (and chicken coop) in an electric fence, a medium-size black bear was a nightly visitor.

The bear paw print is HUGE. For comparison, our dog's print is in the upper-left of the photo, and at 60 lbs, he has an impressively large paw print.

This long-horned beetle was in our wood pile. Although much smaller than a bear (!), it's quite large for an insect.

Another photo of the beetle.

Biking the Prairie

I spent last week visiting family near Chicago. Weather-permitting, I was able to take morning bike rides through the Springbrook Prairie -- 1800 acres of restored grasslands and wetlands. It is critical habitat for a number of endangered bird species. It also has 7 miles of trails for runners, walkers, and bicyclists.

At roughly 1 by 2 miles in size, much of the time you can imagine yourself in a vast grassland.

But this is suburban Chicago. Big box stores (like this Walmart) and housing subdivision surround the prairie.

Two busy roads go through the prairie. The busiest has a tunnel underneath for pedestrians and cyclists. The other road must be crossed at surface level.

The prairie was filled with wildflowers, including these Rudbeckia ("Black-Eyed Susans").

There were two types of coneflowers (Echinacea) blooming. I only got a photo of the yellow one.

One of several types of sunflowers blooming in the prairie.

Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is in the mint family and is reputed to have medicinal properties.