• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Consistently wrong since 2002

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

No one could have predicted…

Bark louder, little dog.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On the Road and In Your Backyard

On the Road and In Your Backyard

by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)|  April 26, 20185:00 am| 11 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture

FacebookTweetEmail

On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

Sorry about Wednesday, folks. I had a lot going on and spaced it until mid-morning.
I’m excited for today’s post, the first of many I hope.  JR asked me if I thought it might be interesting to photo/study some pond life and critters and I thought it sounded neat. So far, it’s quite neat. Enjoy!

Today, pictures from valued commenter J R in WV.

This is a set of spring photos from our tiny drainage control pond between the rock face and the front door of our house. It is NOT a landscape pond now, it just catches the spring which appeared in the rock face not long after we moved into the new house back in the mid 1990s.

This is amphibian wildlife of the mountain forest floor, here we have frogs in their tadpole larval stage and several species of salamander, which often live in the forest floor but must have a wet pool to reproduce. Shock: there is a cat interested in the pond life!!! No cats or tadpoles were harmed in this photo shoot!

Spike, Intent on Tadpole Movement

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front porch

Spike is young in this photo, barely a cat rather than a kitten, and it’s her first look at pond life. She doesn’t like to get wet and so never attempted to catch one, no matter how interesting they were.

f/9.0 at 1/500 sec. 165 mm flash fired Nikon D70s

Salamander 1

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front Porch

A Salamander, one of dozens, but they’re very hard to catch on the surface. I couldn’t do it with my CoolPix because it had a pause between pushing the shutter button and the exposure, during which .7 seconds the salamander submerged after taking a breath.

f/9.0 for 1/250 sec. at 210mm Nikon D70s

Salamander up Close!

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front Porch

Same species, lucky closeup.

f/9.0 for 1/160th sec at 210mm

Salamander 3 – a different species

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front Porch

This species looks more aquatic than the first one. But I’m not a biologist.

f/9.0 for 1/400 sec. 210mm flash
Nikon D70s

Tiger Salamander Escaping

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front porch

The back of a Tiger Salamander escaping, these are very shy and are up to the size of a banana. They live on the forest floor under the leaf litter in burrows. The first time I saw one was when I picked up some old firewood, on the bottom of the pile, and under the loose bark was a monster lizard! I put the wood back as it was still winter, and when spring sprang I went back and it was gone into the woods.

f/9.0 for 1/400th at 138mm flash
Nikon D70s

Full Frontal Tiger Salamander

Taken on 2008-04-06

Later on I caught a good portrait of the same guy!

f/9.0 for 1/250th sec at 210mm
Nikon D70s

Another salamander

Taken on 2008-04-06

Front porch. I can hear frogs reproducing in the pond as I submit this photo set!

f/9.0 1/500th 180mm Nikon D70s

 

Thank you so much J R in WV, do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Late Night Open Thread: Toxic Backlash (Second Time As Farce)
Next Post: Thursday Morning Open Thread: After The Ball State Dinner »

Reader Interactions

11Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    April 26, 2018 at 5:13 am

    Those are great pictures. You were able to follow the little guy?

  2. 2.

    Coffee at dawn ☕

    April 26, 2018 at 6:13 am

    Marvelous photos! I may have to look up your camera. I am near a wetland, but can’t get shots like that.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    April 26, 2018 at 6:17 am

    Amazing pictures!

  4. 4.

    JeanneT

    April 26, 2018 at 7:41 am

    Is that an egg cluster behind the tiger salamander?

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    April 26, 2018 at 7:57 am

    I don’t mind a salamander to start my day with. Not at all.

    Good photos, JR.

  6. 6.

    BroD

    April 26, 2018 at 9:28 am

    Super salamander shots!

  7. 7.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 26, 2018 at 9:52 am

    Nice!

  8. 8.

    J R in WV

    April 26, 2018 at 10:48 am

    @JeanneT:

    Yes it is, a set of eggs. There’s another one under its chin. I’m not sure which eggs go with which species. I confess, I have a neighbor who is a biologist by training, with all the textbooks and all, and I’ve never taken the time to look these guys up in detail except for the tiger salamander, which is pretty noteworthy, with orange or bright yellow spots on a black body.

    Differentiating between species is sometimes fatal to the specimens, so I won’t do that either. Lost that urge some time ago.

    You need a camera that is ready to take a picture exactly when you push the shutter, as all these guys can disappear into the leaf litter on the bottom of the pond in about half a second. My first camera took much too long to make the exposure, I took hundreds of photos of dirty pond water before getting a newer model of camera.

  9. 9.

    eclare

    April 26, 2018 at 10:52 am

    Great photos! I got to escape my bland little cubicle for a few minutes!

  10. 10.

    J R in WV

    April 26, 2018 at 10:57 am

    @JeanneT:

    I think those eggs behind the tiger salamander are actually tiger salamander eggs, because the growing larvae inside are already so big. Most aren’t that big by the time they hatch and start swimming. Plus the tiger salamander stayed so close to them for such a long period of time.

  11. 11.

    Kelly

    April 26, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    I’m considering a Panasonic FZ-1000 and would appreciate any jackal’s opinions on the device and it’s competition. The 1″ sensor is a big improvement over my phone or my old point and shoot. 8×10 prints are big enough.The overall size and weight suits me. A larger sensor would make the lense larger and heavier so 1″ seems like the sweet spot for me. It’s around twice the weight of any other camera I’ve owned. The 400mm equivalent lense should be plenty of reach for the occasional wildlife shot I while walking or xc skiing. F2.8 at the wide end is nice and bright. Most shots will be landscape or grandkids. It’s been around awhile so it’s significantly cheaper than newer 1″ superzooms.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

2023 Pet Calendars

Pet Calendar Preview: A
Pet Calendar Preview: B

*Calendars can not be ordered until Cafe Press gets their calendar paper in.

Recent Comments

  • delphinium on Sunday Morning Garden Chat: October Garden (Jan 29, 2023 @ 8:31am)
  • Dirk Reinecke on War for Ukraine Day 338: Russia Unloads on Ukraine Again (Jan 29, 2023 @ 8:30am)
  • Kay on Late Night Open Thread: America’s Rural Dependents Cousins (Jan 29, 2023 @ 8:30am)
  • NotMax on Sunday Morning Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy, Out of His Depth in the Congressional Wading Pool (Jan 29, 2023 @ 8:29am)
  • SFAW on Sunday Morning Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy, Out of His Depth in the Congressional Wading Pool (Jan 29, 2023 @ 8:28am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Favorite Dogs & Cats
Classified Documents: A Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup

Front-pager Twitter

John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
ActualCitizensUnited

Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice   

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!