"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice."
― T.S. Eliot
Happy New Year!
Here we are at the end of another year of Nature Blogging at Máistir Nádúraí. The pandemic continues to rage on with Delta and Omicron variants, and they will not be the last. More than ever, I believe it's important for people to engage with the natural world for respite, balance, and understanding. In this final post of 2021 I'm simply going to share a very small selection of my favorite photographs taken over the course of the year passing.
The wintery scene above was taken from the newly acquired 160-acre parcel of land that formerly belonged to the Acker family. In the far background you can see the snow-covered drumlin of Pheasant Branch where I've spent an inordinate amount of my outdoor time over the years. On this particular day the clouds were low and moving quickly over the landscape ― I like that I was able to capture the sun through a small opening. Earlier on this day I found Snowy Owl and a Peregrine Falcon. There were also dramatic sun dogs. For scenic beauty, memories, composition, and simplicity, this is my favorite photograph taken in 2021.
This dapper and energetic White-throated Sparrow is my favorite avian photograph of the year, and the White-crowned below is a very close runner-up. Ah! Sparrows ― I do so adore them. As I've mentioned on this blog before, anyone who knows me well is keenly aware that sparrows are my favorite birds. The fancy warblers are great and all and everybody loves owls, but there's just something about our native sparrows I'm really quite fond of. I think part of it has to do with the fact they're often relegated to Little Brown Jobs (LBJs). But upon close study and inspection they're just as dramatically plumaged and fun to watch as any group of spritely songbirds. Sparrows! Who knew?
Beyond any doubt, the nature highlight of 2021 was traveling north to see Cow Path Tiger Beetles with Lori Widmann and Mark Johnson. Though I did get some nice photographs of that species, this Sandy Stream Tiger Beetle (below) taken at an undisclosed location is my favorite insect photograph of the year. The Six-spotted Tiger Beetle further down is a close second. I was so thrilled over this Sandy Stream portrait I stood up and shouted after I got the shot. They're one of the rarest, most skittish and difficult to photograph of Wisconsin's 16 tiger beetle species ― I was absolutely over the moon.
What I like about this Six-spotted photograph is the stark contrast between its uniformly drab rock environment and the brilliant iridescent green of the beetle. Evolutionarily speaking, one can understand why many of the tan and brown colored tiger beetles are often found in sandy habitat, but how does this bright green color figure into that ecology? In Nature such colors generally mean trouble for a potential predator, but they're not poisonous to eat as far as I'm aware.
I had planned to write a rather lengthy post about the year in tiger beetles, but I didn't get around to finishing it. At 14 species it was the closest I've ever come to observing all 16 that can be found in Wisconsin, missing only Northern Barrens and Boreal Long-lipped. Northern Barrens would have been easy to get had I not been a bit too late with my visit to Necedah NWR. Ah well, it doesn't matter. Plus it's nice to have something to look forward to in 2022 for another Boreal Long-lipped adventure. One of the coolest tiger beetle excursions of the year was observing several Bronzed Tiger Beetles scavenging a deceased carp that had washed up on the shore at the Sauk City Canoe Launch.
This very cooperative Harvester Butterfly provided an opportunity to obtain a super-nice portrait. Again, it's the simplicity of the composition that I like in this shot. Just below we have some ants procuring pollen from a Prairie Fame Flower, one of my favorite wildflowers. While sitting among them and waiting for them to open late afternoon, I'm always astonished how quickly insects waste no time getting to work; it's as if they've been waiting on the ground just below. Perhaps it's merely opportunity, but something tells me they might be instinctively aware and work on a timed schedule.
I sneaked my macro lens through the leaves and snapped this Gray Tree Frog (below) without disturbing it. It's important for me to cause as little disruption as possible while doing nature photography. To be sure, one's presense is always noticed, but it's all in the fluidity of one's movements that can reward the patient photographer. There's a style and methodology for all the different things I choose to photograph: For birds the secret is tremendous focal length, but for tiger beetles it's the smooth physicality of yoga-like positioning for the perfect portrait. The longer I do this, the better I get and I still enter the field each time believing I have not yet taken my finest nature photograph.
And there you have it! I might go birding in the morning and get that 2022 list going. Naturally, Dane County's most reliable birders will be hard at it as well. Perhaps I'll bump into a few of them. A half-hearted effort might render 20 to 30 species, but it's possible to get over 50 by checking several haunts instead of just Pheasant Branch. There are no resolutions, just more of the same. Every year brings new discoveries, new knowledge, further enhancing my views of our place in Nature's realm.
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell