Category: Animals

Drying Butterfly…..

….on a Sonic Drive-In Order Station.

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

On Tuesday, December 17, 2019 a caterpillar dropped from vegetation to crawl across the parking lot of Sonic Drive-In, 2140 N Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island, FL 32953, crawl up an order station, affix its tail to the kelly green semi-gloss enamel, to form a chrysalis.

The afternoon of New Years Eve, 14 days later, we spied the Retro theme of this fast food business, finding it appealing, stopped for a hi-fat lunch of hamburgers, onion rings (“highly recommended, very delicious”) and (ha, ha) diet sodas, choosing this same order station where the emerged Brush-foot butterfly, of the family Nymphalidae, clung, drying in anticipation of flight.

Captured here with the Apple IPhone 8. I cannot identify the exact butterfly species this is. Source: wikipedia article on Nymphalidae.

Click photograph for the slide show. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Creeping up on 800 Readers….

….or 800 creeping up on me.

MichaelStephenWills30 Comments

797 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 23. The first and last can be swapped to yield the same number. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.

Here is a selection of images from post posts.

Click any photograph for a slide show. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon.
  • Pam and Mike Wills stayed with Marantha House B&B, during our Spring 2014 Ireland Tour. It was our base in County Cork. Our day of arrival, that evening, I visited Charlemagne and fed him an apple, saved from dinner. We learned from our hosts, Olwen and Douglas Venn, he is a retired show horse they rescued. The following morning I visited Charlemagne again with an apple and my camera. As I walked up, starting from the far end of his field, Charlemagne rewarded me with a series of astounding poses, trotting toward me in fine form. The morning mists, hawthorn in bloom, distant hills came together for this memory.
  • Newlyweds on Cocoa Beach waiting for the photographer in a perfect early evening light. A cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral in the distance.
  • Trillium bloom April through May in central New York State. I found these blooming on the rim of Fillmore Glen near Owasco Lake and the town of Moravia.
  • Don Roberto, Maritime pilot, approaches the Regatta
    Don Roberto is on the bow
  • Mexican Poppies bloomed in profusion throughout the Superstitions after the plentiful winter rains of 2008.
  • Pamela and Michael Wills with Iceberg Glacier, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, Fjord Tempanos, Chile aboard the Oceania Regatta
  • A swan and cygnet feeding from the pristine waters of the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. Outside the door of Ashford Castle.
  • Ocotillo Sunset
    Ocotillo Sunset
  • My son, Sean, and I traveled to New York City for the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade after September 11, 2001. Every one there shared in the pride and resolve of the New York City Fire Department delegation. They had a huge presence. All of 5th Avenue from side to side, as far as we could see, was full of firemen. Each held a full size American flag, so there was a block of American flags up the street. I composed this image to capture the feeling of this moment.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Exotic Life

graceful elegance

MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Pam and I were transfixed by the aquarium at Epcot, raptly amazed with the variety and profusion of life. Here are two videos of a Ray approaching the wall with graceful elegance.

Click video to start. For a better experience from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open the page on my site.

Mickey Mouse is represented in one of these post images. Can you spot him? Please use a comment to make your identification.

Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Exploring the Cancer Constellation: A Detailed Guide

Here are labeled photographs, detailing its major elements, and including visual guides for enhanced viewing.

MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Pam proofed my post, “When the Moon Dined from a Stellar Mangar”and found some improvements, including adding text labels to aid in finding Cancer constellation elements.

Labels!!

You will find I replaced photographs in the original post and well, all the major elements of Cancer are labeled. Here is an explanation of the new elements.

You can now trace the “Y” constellation pattern, with Alpha and Beta Chancri (Latin for “of Cancer”) the two claws and Iota the tail. Both elemetns of Iota, a visual binary star system, are there. They are wonderful viewed with a telescope. Near Alpha is M67 (Messier Object 67), another galactic cluster of gravitationally bound stars. It is quite faint in this photograph.

Click photograph for a higher resolution version
Total Lunar Eclipse and Surrounding Sky with labels for primary element of the Cancer constellation
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