Halloween 2011 Sources

A. A joined pair of acorn caps sitting on a bug eaten leaf.

Here are the sources of yesterday’s Halloween images. I once had a friend who could never pick out the hidden image in a scene. To him, clouds were just huge masses of water vapor and could never represent anything else. I would say “Hey, doesn’t that look like a _____?” and he would always respond “I don’t see it.” My images from yesterday would have been lost on him. I hope you were able to see the faces in at least a few of them.

B. An old deer skull. I shaded the skull and let the light shine in from behind.

C. Pattern on the side of a Pygmy Grasshopper.

D. Trunk of a dead tree. I believe every tree has a face.

E. Walkingstick shoulders.

F. Downy Woodpecker digging for food in the dead maple.

G. A dried egg shell.

H. Spicebush, Lindera benzoin. Flower buds form the eyes, the leaf scar is the mouth and the nose is next year’s branching bud.

I. Asparagus rhizome.

J. Head of a walkingstick.

K and L. Part of an old deer skull.

Hope you all had a good Halloween.

Halloween 2011

A. Quirky Little Character

It’s once again time for a roundup of natural Halloween faces I’ve found this fall at Blue Jay Barrens. Halloween was always my favorite childhood holiday. It wasn’t the costumes or the spooky goings on that I found so attractive. It was the fact that with a little planning and hard work, I could accumulate more sweet goodies in a few hours than I normally got during the entire rest of the year. Christmas was OK, but so much depended on the ambiguous concept of being good. Goodness just didn’t seem to be in my behavioral repertoire. Halloween revolved more around guile, a behavior that came quite naturally to me. I hope you enjoy this year’s offering.

B. Somewhat Embarrassed.

C. Smiling Crab.

D. Crusty Eyes.

E. I Think I’m a Little Fish.

F. Spooky Witch Doctor.

G. Shriveling Skull.

H. The Latest Shade of Green Eye Shadow and Lipstick.

I. Screaming Banshee.

J. Big Headed Alien.

K. I Thumb My Nose at You.

L. Who You Lookin At?

Halloween Sources 2010

I hope at least a couple of yesterday’s images gave you a bit of a mystery. The first was of the strange sunset cloud formations we had a short time ago. Rotating the image 180 degrees gave it a completely different look.

The unblinking eye came from the center of a snail shell whorl.

The space alien is another that I posted recently. I enlarged and cropped the jumping spider’s face. That face holds an amazing amount of color.

The Creature of the Black Lagoon came from an end view of a deer vertebra.

The end of an ash twig became the dragon’s head.

I found this moth sitting on the outside of our kitchen window. I didn’t notice the face image on the top of the thorax until I was looking at the image on the computer screen. It stayed on the window for two days, but on the second day its back was arched to distort the image.

Smiley crocodile is a section of a decomposing cedar stump. The split to the right of the knot hole eye looked like a crocodile mouth and the split to the left looked like the mouth of a whale. I chose the crocodile image because I thought it might be easier for people to see.

The fruits of the Horse Nettle don’t exactly look like traditional pumpkins, but there are so many varieties of pumpkins now that these could be a match for one of them.

The kangaroo, I mean squirrel, was sitting in the shadows so I lit him up with my flash. He looks as though I electrified his eyes. That puts an end to another Halloween.

Halloween 2010

I present you with the annual edition of Blue Jay Barrens nature pics that are a little more Halloweeny than the rest. These were selected from photos taken during the month of October. I’ve provided a descriptive caption for each, but you are free to make your own interpretation of what each image represents. I’ll divulge the source of the images tomorrow. We begin with a look at an eerie world that could only be found at Blue Jay Barrens.

Don’t stare into the unblinking eye.

The space alien can read your mind.

Stay away from the Creature of the Black Lagoon.

The dragon is stretching its neck down to get a good look at you.

The Lion’s Head of Rha.

Don’t be hypnotized by the crocodile’s smile.

A few decorative pumpkins.

Beware of possessed kangaroos.

Halloween Mask Sources

CAUTION: If there’s any satisfaction to be gotten from this post, it will only happen if you have already viewed the post from yesterday. If you have not yet viewed the October 31, 2009 post, you are urged to stop reading and skip on down the page to Saturday before returning here. Those who choose to ignore this warning may miss the most enlightening experience of their lives. Or, it may make no difference.

Here are the sources of yesterday’s images. Tomorrow I’ll go back to some more conventional Nature.

A – Grim Reaper. A decomposing deer skull. It’s still kind of hard to tell from this angle.

A – Grim Reaper. Skull from the side.

B – Space Alien. Seed pod of the False Aloe. I took this while collecting seeds and pulled all but one pod off the stalk before taking the Halloween shot.

C – Lost Soul. One of the thousands of walnut shells the squirrels have left around my yard. The squirrel did the placement at the corner of this old gate.

D – Casper in Cobwebs. Outside hind wing of the American Lady Butterfly.

E – Gargoyle. End buds of a Shingle Oak.

F – Angry Ent. Tree cavity rotated 180 degrees.

G – Parasite. Another deer skull.

H – Baby Dinosaur. A third deer skull.

I – Angry Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Bundleflower seed pods rotated 90 degrees.