Nature Up Close: Another Hike With My Macro Lens

Nature Up Close: Another Hike With My Macro Lens

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I love walking the woodlands of Northeastern Pennsylvania.  The beauty of nature appears in so many forms.  A beautiful waterfall. A view from a mountaintop. A bald eagle in flight. Mountain laurel in bloom. A deer, bear, or fox. I can  go on and on.  Another aspect of nature, often overlooked, is  looking at its beauty and complexity up close. monarch butterfly caterpillar

On Sunday I again walked with my camera and macro lens. Once again I was searching for wild edible mushrooms, and once again I wasn’t successful.  Not wanting to reveal my mushroom woods I took photographs of nature we sometime miss,  such as this  image of the common, but intricate,  chicory flowerblue flower

The late summer flowers, including the goldenrod, considered a weed by many, attracted many bees and wasps.bee on goldenrod flower

There were numerous grasshoppers jumping from along the trail as I walked, some landing on a leaf or twig long enough for me to get a photograph. grasshopper on leaf

Beetles could also be seen on the flowers,beetle on goldenrod

some still doing what beetles do to continue the next generation. beetles

I found a few areas of milkweed again and was pleased to again find quite a few monarch butterfly caterpillarsmonarch butterfly caterpillar

It is good to still see them in our area, How long will they continue to be seen here  is uncertain. Large areas of their winter habitat in Mexico are being destroyed. monarch butterfly caterpillar

My search of mushrooms took me to a mining reclamation area and I found some flowers I had never seen before including the delicate flower of the bush clover.  There were many large shrubs covered with this tiny flowers.bush clover flower

Wild basil could also be found growing along the trails. will basil flower

Queen Anne’s lace flowers are found everywhere in the woodlands of our area this time of year. Queen Annes lace flower

As is ground clover and it pretty pink flowers. pink clover flower

The beautiful blue flowers of the cow or blue vetch could also be seen. blue or cow vetch flower

There were some puddles and wetlands in the mine reclamation area and here I saw many frogs  jumping into the safety of the waters. I was able to capture a photograph of a few before they hopped away. 

Growing in the puddles and ponds was another plant I had never noticed before , American water plantain. 

As I walked back to my car, without having found any edible mushrooms I saw this buck watching me walk by. 

I did finally find a few mushrooms, none edible, including the  pigskin puff-ball, This mushroom is poisonous and actually not a true puff-ball, My dad called them “shoe polish” since they would cut them in half and  “shine” their shoes with the soft inside of the mushroom when it was young. As it ages it does become a puff-ball. 

We through many of them at each other as children  laughing as the mushroom exploded sending a cloud of brown powder into the air. Good memories they are. Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike. Macro Lens Hike September 1 2019. 

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
– Robert Capa

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