Terra Cotta Army

In June of 2009, Rusudan and I made a trip to China for 2 weeks. While there we were able to visit something that I had wanted to see for a long time, the Terra Cotta Army. The Terra Cotta Army is amazing! Lately I have been thinking about it more and reading up on some of the discoveries that have been made due to the army. I won't bore you with the information, but if you want to learn about it there is a great set of videos on youtube where you can learn all you want to know about this magnificent sight. The fact that thousands of life size pottery people were made is facinating. Even more fascinating is the fact that they all have diffrent faces and body types. Here is one of my favorite pictures from my trip, this is what the pits look like after excavation but before the soldiers are removed, repaired, and put back in order.


Notice the ridges along the top of the dirt. They are actually made from the decomposed logs that once made up the roof of the building holding the soldiers

Cooper's Hawk

This morning I decided to brush my teeth on our apartment balcony, I was thrilled that I did. While standing on the balcony I watched a hawk fly low past our apartment and land a few doors down. I grabbed my glasses and my camera and ran outside. Once outside I thought that I had missed the hawk. Then I heard rustling in the bushes and saw the hawk hop out onto the grass. He watched me for a minute and hopped back in. After sitting silently under the bushes for a little while he tried to catch one of the sparrows hiding in the bushes. He did this several times and would come out into the open in between attempts. Unfortunately I had to leave for church so I don't know if he was ever successful or not. I have never seen a hawk that was so bold. I stood only 25-30 feet away from him and he didn't seem bothered at all, he just continued on his hunt.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter Cooperii)

In between a couple of his romps in the bushes the hawk sat on the limb and formed out his gameplan for his next try

This picture isn't that great, but I like the way he was watching me

Here he is inside the bush silently waiting to attack

I am hoping that I will see this bird more often, we have enough sparrows around here to keep him going for a while.

Gastropods

When I went for a hike at Raven Run Nature Sanctuary last weekend I was hoping to spot deer, snakes, or some other animal along those lines. I ended up seeing nothing larger than a blue jay. However, I did come across many, many snails. I have always enjoyed seeing and photographing snails. I have always seen them as very curious, although I have no idea whether or not this is true.

I was amazed at the beauty of the shell that this snail had. It may not have been colorful but the detail was amazing, as you can see in the next picture

The pictures above are from the first snail that I came across, I had no idea that I would see fifty to one hundred more on a rock wall covered with moss.

I spent about fifteen minutes photographing the snails on the moss. All the snails that I had noticed seemed to be the same type, but just as I was leaving I noticed about ten snails on the side of a tree next to the rocks. they looked like a different type of snail.

after this point on the trail I didn't notice any other snails. However, two years ago I took a picture of a snail that was on the same trail. I know nothing about identifying snails, but from the shell I think it is different from the two types I saw last weekend.

Because this post has been all about snails, I thought I would include one last picture. This is a snail that I found last summer in Yangshuo, China half way up a karst peak. Despite the snails drab shell it remains one of the most beautiful that I have seen.

A Few Additional Mushrooms

While hiking at Raven Run park today I found a few mushrooms that I thought I would add to the blog. There will be more from Raven Run park in a future post.

Fungi of Veterans Park

I went for a walk next to the creek at Veterans Park a couple of days ago in the hopes of finding some kind of wildlife to photograph. Unfortunately I didn't come across any animals, but I did come across some beautiful fungi. One particular grove of mushrooms looked like a something from "Avatar."

I'm not sure yet what type of fungus this is, I'm leaning towards Auricularia Auricula but I'm not sure of that

There were also many kinds of polypore mushrooms

and finally my favorite find of the day; a grove of Mycena Galericulata straight from "Avatar." I wasn't able to get any great photos due to the darkness of the area, but some came out decently. The big disappointment of these pictures is that you can't get a good idea of how many of these mushrooms there were. This first photo is the dead tree that they were growing inside of.

Common Nighthawk - Chordeiles minor

While playing disk golf a few days back I spotted a beautiful bird as it flew into a tree. I was able to locate it in the tree and found that it was a common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). I immediately regretted not having my camera with me. After getting a pair of binoculars out of my car and watching the bird for a while I decided to drive home and get my camera just in case it stayed in the tree. I picked up my camera and made it back within about ten minutes. I was shocked to see that the bird was still sitting in the tree.

According to allaboutbirds.org during mating season male nighthawks will dive towards the ground and turn upwards about two meters off the ground making a "deep booming sound." Unfortunately I didn't witness this behavior. I'm still happy with the find though!

Wolf Creek - Darters, Crayfish, and more

Today I decided to drive to Wolf Creek and see if I could catch any darters. The first time i put my net in the water I came up with this beautiful darter

subspecies of Orangethroat Darter

It turned out that the section of Wolf Creek that I went to was full of darters. I caught several beautiful male darters and even more female darters, including several pregnant females.

Female Darter (rainbow or orangethroat?)

Female Rainbow Darter

Subspecies of Orangethroat Darter

I also caught several large Crawfish, including one that was almost all black

Black Crayfish, not sure exactly what kind but apparently they are rather rare

I also caught this mosquitofish

Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusa affinis)

The section of the creek that I caught everything in was really peaceful even though it was right next to a small two lane bridge.