Category Archives: Photos

Warmer and drier

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It scant feels like December 15th.  Texas weather this season feels more like a struggle between spring and summer.  Yesterday’s high struck at 68° F/20° C, and today’s forecast high is 74° F/23° C.  Worse than the unseasonable warmth is the dearth of precipitation.  The last appreciable rain was in September when the remnants of Hurricane Hermine brought floods and tornadoes through the heart of the DFW Metroplex.  Since then?  A big fat lot of nothing.  Moderate drought has overtaken the region and has grown worse daily with frightening rapidity.

Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings continue unabated in meteorology discussions.  That Hermine came late in the growing season meant her deluges caused a last-minute growth spurt which promptly died in subsequent freezes and the lack of rain.  In no uncertain terms, the entire region is one vast pile of kindling waiting for a spark.  The U.S. Forestry Service has banned campfires in all national forests throughout Texas.  Burn bans cover more than half the state, and the drought map has more than three quarters of the state colored in various hues of dry.

Last winter we had snow storm after snow storm after snow storm after snow storm, not to mention a cataclysmic freeze that left behind scenes more appropriate to the Arctic than Dallas.  But this year is the polar opposite.  Pun intended.  Thus is the curse of La Niña around these parts: a warmer and drier winter.  Much warmer and much drier.

Before anyone gets an “I told you so!” attitude and points to these extremes as evidence of climate change, brace yourself: You’re wrong!  Disappointing though it might be, in terms of weather and climatology this winter, our lack of seasonal norms means nothing more than the predictable, oft repeated product of La Niña, a recurring oceanic pattern that, like her brother El Niño, comes and goes with nary a thought for anthropogenic climatic effects.  Having lived here forty years, I can tell you the no-show cold this season comes as no surprise.

I can also tell you that mild winters like this can mean good things in terms of wildlife.  The few killing freezes we’ve had coupled with the worsening drought will likely see fit to curtail next year’s mosquito population, yet the warmth also means creatures that normally would die out or hibernate instead continue to thrive as conditions permit.  Like this Mediterranean gecko (a.k.a. house gecko; Hemidactylus turcicus) found meandering about the patio one morning:

A Mediterranean gecko (a.k.a. house gecko; Hemidactylus turcicus) clinging to my finger (198_9811_hnd)

They live in the walls of my patio and garage.  And I’m thankful for them.  Coupled with the diurnal green anoles (a.k.a. Carolina anole; Anolis carolinensis) who also live in the walls, the nocturnal geckos complete the circle and provide me with round-the-clock insect control.  Rather than chemicals, I have natural protection from the various critters that would otherwise amass around my home.  (Not that I dislike arthropods, mind you; on the contrary, I adore them.  But some level of insect population control in subtropical climes is always a good thing lest home and hearth be overrun.)

Seeing active reptiles in winter is cool no matter how much I miss the Snow Miser’s touch.  And active reptiles need active insects, something I’m also grateful to see when the world is otherwise painted in earthen tones of slumber.  Though I might dislike La Niña’s effects in winter since I do love the cold, cognitive dissonance means I’m also thankful for her visit since it means enjoying glimpses of life that would otherwise be absent for the next few months.

Though I suggest no one light a fire in Texas for a while.  It wouldn’t be safe.  For any of us.

Shooting the messenger

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I have spent the last week hunting down illegal uses of my images and filing DMCA claims as appropriate.  In just seven days I filed more than 250 such copyright violation claims.  And I had barely scratched the surface of the thousands of entries I pulled from my server logs.  I grew more frustrated as I went along.

People had them on their blogs, on their MySpace and Facebook profiles, in forums, and even on fake search engines that provided code that could be used to embed the images on other pages.  In the first 100 entries I looked through, I even came across someone hosting a variety of my images on his site whilst claiming they were his work.  In all these cases, they were linking directly to my server and thus using the bandwidth and hosting space I pay for each month.

I threw up my hands in defeat.  There was no way to catch up with, let alone get ahead of, this wholesale theft of my property.

But then it occurred to me: I’m smarter than that!  We’re talking about technology here, right?  And if there’s one thing I know, it’s technology.

Hence, as of today I’ve written and implemented a new image hosting program for my site.  This new program kills all existing hotlinks to my images except those I’ve explicitly approved.  I’m still working on that list, yet I can say this with absolute certainty: it is and will continue to be a short list.

This new system allows me to randomly change the image host and associated links en masse without harming any of the approved uses no matter where they are on the internet.

So starting now all existing links are dead unless I’ve discovered and approved them.  That includes search engines, some fellow bloggers, feed readers, and those very few forums where I myself have posted my images.  Otherwise, all direct links and hotlinks to my images are now broken.  This enforces my copyright and use rights even for those who feel everything on the internet is public domain (speaking to you and your ilk, Judith Griggs!).

Since I can’t be certain I haven’t killed a few small and hard to find feed readers, I’ve included an image in this post.  Here it is:

That’s Loki in case you were wondering.  I’ve always loved that photo.  Anyway…

If you can’t see the picture, comment on this post or send me an e-mail and let me know so I can follow up with you to identify and authorize your reader.  Also, if you’ve embedded one of my images somewhere and it no longer works, you’re free to contact me about it (Ted, Amber, TGIQ and a few others: I already addressed your uses, so you should be OK.).  Assuming I think your use is legal, I’ll fix it, but otherwise you’re SOL.

Moving forward, all image URLs will change on a regular basis, perhaps even as frequently as every week.  This will not impact authorized users since it takes me less than ten seconds to force an update to all authorized links across the internet.  Otherwise, it’s for my peace of mind knowing that anyone who slips by will get caught in short order.

How does this impact you?  Not at all if you follow my rules when it comes to using my images.  But if you embed an image in a page somewhere or directly link to an image—and that includes in an e-mail message, and you do so without my express consent, you’re out of luck because it ain’t gonna work.  If you want to link to an image, you must link to the post that the image appears in; this requires no approval from me.  If you want to embed an image in a page somewhere, you must get approval first and you must provide me information on where the image will be used so I can authorize that site.

I used a rather blunt instrument for this, which happens to be the best security method in all cases: deny all and allow few.  That means all sites are denied before a few sites are allowed.  Thus I will watch all failure messages from this point forward in order to (hopefully) catch anything I missed.  And you’re welcome to let me know if I missed something should you catch it before I do.

In the final analysis, know this: From now on, my images show up only where I say they can show up, so no more hotlinking in forums or in e-mails or in Facebook profiles or on blogs.  You can find them in search engines and you can find them here; aside from that, though, your options are now quite limited.

Oh, it should be abundantly clear I’m livid about this.  I’ve never been one to pay attention to stats.  I don’t track visitors, I don’t watch how people get here, and I don’t pay attention to traffic.  Imagine, then, how utterly shocked I was to find an amount of abuse orders of magnitude beyond anything I’d ever imagined.  I’m no professional photographer, but these images are my work, my time, my effort.  They are also legally protected.  Is it too much to ask that they only be used in ways I approve and that I be credited for them when they are used elsewhere?  No, I didn’t think so.

(Obviously I can’t stop someone from downloading an image, uploading it elsewhere and using it from there.  But at least in those cases I’m not paying for the storage and bandwidth used by thieves.)

More than birds

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Though there’s hushed talk in the halls of meteorology about possible snow flurries early next week, right now we have cool nights and warm days.

Even subfreezing temperatures last week failed to halt the march of the arthropods.  Yet their prevalence in warm afternoons and their scampering about in drops of sunlight fail to hide the sense of strident pearl clutching, worrisome critters knowing each freeze brings them closer to the end.

A female spotted orbweaver (a.k.a. cross spider or redfemured spotted orbweaver; Neoscona domiciliorum) hanging in the middle of her web (2009_11_28_042667)

The herd is thinning.  Each drop to or below freezing sees to that.  Nevertheless, one need only look carefully to see how much the insect and arachnid communities continue to thrive even now, even in December as we approach winter’s official start.

Texas leafcutter ants (a.k.a. Texas leafcutting ant, town ant, cut ant, parasol ant, fungus ant or night ant; Atta texana) (2009_12_13_044586)

And being a La Niña year, a warmer and drier winter could well allow many to survive right through the season into next spring.  Assuming, of course, that “warmer and drier” isn’t occasionally pummeled by “colder and wetter” brought on by the Snow Miser’s muscle, such as a polar vortex, the McFarland signature or an unexpected progressive pattern.

A brown morph female short-winged green grasshopper (Dichromorpha viridis) sitting on a dead leaf (2009_11_21_040808)

So while it lasts, it doesn’t hurt to watch for the bounty nature offers this time of year that normally would be all but missing.  The observant can find more in winter than birds and brown landscapes.

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Photos:

  1. Female spotted orbweaver (a.k.a. cross spider or redfemured spotted orbweaver; Neoscona domiciliorum)
  2. Texas leafcutter ants (a.k.a. Texas leafcutting ant, town ant, cut ant, parasol ant, fungus ant or night ant; Atta texana)
  3. Female short-winged green grasshopper (Dichromorpha viridis); brown morph

Autumn color

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It’s true that we here in Texas do not enjoy the same showy display foliage aficionados can watch in the Northeast.  In fact, we often say the bulk of autumn color in this neck of the woods consists of green turning to brown—all in one week.  And though that often feels truer than it is, finding nature’s gemstones this time of year doesn’t require a trip across the country.

(20081127_15027_autumn)
Autumn foliage surrounding the Sunset Bay swamp (2009_11_08_037687_autumn)
Fruit of Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) in autumn (2010_02_20_050039_autumn)
The Dixon Branch riparian woods at the edge of the floodplain showing autumn colors (157_5744._autumnJPG)
Morning sunshine filtering through open woods in autumn color (157_5753_autumn)
The lavender fruit of American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) seen in autumn (2009_12_13_044546_autumn)
Rust-colored bald cypress trees (a.k.a. swamp cypress, southern cypress, red cypress, white cypress, yellow cypress, Gulf cypress or tidewater red cypress; Taxodium distichum) in autumn (2008_12_13_002386_autumn)
Autumn foliage on one of the small islands in the Sunset Bay confluence at White Rock Lake (20081101_14431_autumn)
Close-up of a common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) in bright sunshine (20080114_01296_autumn)
Autumn fruit of sacred bamboo (a.k.a. heavenly bamboo; Nandina domestica) seen on a cloudy day (2009_11_07_037328_autumn)
A blanket of autumn leaves showing a rainbow of colors (219_1928_autumn)

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Photos:

  1. Unidentified: this flower has all the traits of an aster, yet the flowers are smaller than a fingerprint, the plant never grows above the grass (thus the flowers are small white spots in the turf), and it matches none of the asters I can find.  So still looking…
  2. Autumn foliage surrounding the swamp at Sunset Bay
  3. Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense)
  4. Dixon Branch riparian woods at the edge of the floodplain showing autumn colors
  5. Open woods in autumn
  6. American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
  7. Bald cypress (a.k.a. swamp cypress, southern cypress, red cypress, white cypress, yellow cypress, Gulf cypress or tidewater red cypress; Taxodium distichum)
  8. Colorful autumn foliage seen on a small island in the Sunset Bay confluence at White Rock Lake
  9. Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
  10. Sacred bamboo (a.k.a. heavenly bamboo; Nandina domestica)
  11. Autumn leaves the wind collected outside my garage door

But they don’t look like cows

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I sat this afternoon watching a brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) sing from atop my neighbor’s car.  It reminded me of these photos.  So I figured I might as well share.

A female brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) standing in grass (2009_06_03_021982)

Cowbirds are nest parasites and their growing population puts increased pressure on the reproductive success of other species.  This usually means people hate them, somewhat like they hate house sparrows and European starlings.

A male and a female brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) walking together through the grass (2009_06_03_021993)

But I don’t hate them.  Well, let’s be honest: other than sweet potatoes and yams, I don’t hate anything nature has to offer.

A female brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) perched on a tree branch (2009_04_11_014932)

Besides, have you ever heard cowbirds sing?  What melodious voices!  What beautiful songs!

A male brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) standing in grass as he eats (2009_06_03_021820)

Oh, and the whole idea of nest parasitism is cool.  Since cowbirds evolved to follow herds of bison across the continent, they don’t stop to build nests but instead lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.  Their young even developed a tendency to push other hatchlings and eggs out of the nest to increase their chance of survival.

A female brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) standing in grass (2009_04_11_014938)

And being black birds means they match my affinity for the underdog.  Grackles, crows and ravens, blackbirds…  They just don’t get respect, which makes me like them even more.  They’re worth noticing more than they’re worth hating.

A male brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) standing in tall grass (2009_06_03_021987)

It’s interesting to note that cowbirds are succeeding because we’ve made it hard for them to fail.  We mowed down all the forests and built vast swaths of open fields coupled with plenty of cattle.  That created a perfect environment for them.