I’m curious to see if anyone can identify the subject of this photo. If you think you know, put your guess in the comments section below and I’ll try to keep an eye out and chime in when someone gets the right answer.
I’ll give you six clues.
It is neither animal nor mineral.
It is smaller than a bread box.
It poses no known danger to humans.
It will never call you to solicit money or votes.
It did not appear in any Star Wars movies.
It was photographed within my square meter photography plot.
Speaking of my square meter photography plot, I’ve just updated my web page for that project. You can click here (or on the Square Meter Photography Project tab in the menu at the top of this blog’s home page) to find out how many species I’ve photographed within that plot as of today. The number has gone up, both because I continue to find more species and because I’ve had more help identifying and separating species from each other.
As a photographer, I tend to gravitate toward small subjects, even when I should probably be paying attention to what else is happening around me. I spent the first couple days of this week at our Niobrara Valley Preserve, helping with the annual roundup of our west bison herd. I was up close and personal with more than 400 bison, surrounded by a sweeping landscape of prairie and river. As a result, here are some close-up photos of leaves I found during a break in the action.
Bur oak leaves near the corral.
This isn’t the first time I’ve come back from a bison roundup, only to share photos of leaves. In fact, it’s been almost exactly two years since I last did it. To be fair, I have also posted lots of photos of bison and bison roundups, and you can use the handy search function on this blog page if you’d like to see those. Today, though, you get to look at leaves. Or not – there’s plenty of other things you can look at on the internet. Go ahead, I won’t mind.
More bur oak leaves.
Anyone still here? Ok. For those of you who didn’t wander off to look at kittens or John Travolta memes, here are some more leaf photos. During some down time, I wandered toward a nearby stream. I first stopped to photograph oak leaves tenuously hanging onto branches (a few dropped every time a gentle breeze came up). Then, I made my way down to the water and got my knees wet along the edge of the stream as I photographed leaves in or near the water.
A bur oak leaf in wet sand…Some of the most interesting photos came from leaves just barely submerged under the clear water.This cottonwood leaf had clearly been in the water recently, probably after one of the recent rains we’ve had. A pair of underwater cottonwood leaves.Half of a hackberry leaf.I think this is my favorite of the bunch. These willow leaves seemed perfectly situated in the shallow rippling water.
Ok, I actually did take some photos of bison, the people working with them, an elk that wandered nearby, and a few other things. Maybe I’ll post some of those sometime, but people and bison all kinda look alike, don’t they? Leaves on the other hand…!
The Prairie Ecologist 