On Second Thought…

I have often heard it said that, “the best photos are those taken close to home.”  Seems that every so often, I am finding that to be the case or true.  I drove to the mountains and along North Carolina’s, “Blue Ridge Parkway,” to an area called “Boone Fork,” at or near “Julian Price Memorial Park/Lake.”  In the late spring and all through the summer, into early fall, Boone Fork is alive with all sorts of things to photograph and things of interest but the whole day spent there this mid-April weekend was not so photogenic.  I try to tell myself and do, that there is a photograph around every corner and in every place you look and if you do not find one, then you just are not seeing it.  Well try as I may or could, I suppose I saw nothing at Boone Fork.

Leaving  the scenic area in dismay, though having taken many photographs, I returned home, downloaded the images and sat in disbelief, staring at the monitor.  They all looked so barren and lifeless.  “Winter,” I said, spring just has not arrived to the higher elevations just yet.

So, hitting the “select all” button under “Edit,” I then clicked on “Delete,” picked up my camera and head down into the woods behind my apartment where I came across this here.

Prowling around on the forest floor is a great pastime of mine and being close to home, there is no one passing by asking, “hey buddy, you okay?”  Well if had not been paying close attention, I might would have not been okay this time around, even at home, because what I found was a “Blister Beetle,” as shown above.  These are beetles normally seen at any time day or night, though there are some that are nocturnal, this one being diurnal of course.  They feed mostly on plants, usually the flowers of plants but some do feed on the leaves also.  Anyway, these beetles when threatened or stressed, will produce a very toxic chemical, which is also a skin irritant, Cantharidin.  The secretion is used for a number of things both in veterinary and in medical fields.  Cantharidin is used primarily these days as the active ingredient in wart remover.  Getting cantharidin on ones skin though can be uncomfortable, as it does indeed cause blisters, that are mildly painful.  However if the beetles are consumed by livestock, in the field or in their feed, it or they, can be deadly to the animal.

What a wonderful find I thought, after taking a couple of photographs of the beetle and then I looked up the hillside and noticed that the “Foam Flowers” were blooming!  Wonderful again I thought, as I scampered up the hill, leaving the beetle to its business.  Foam flowers are well named as they do look like tiny bits of colored foam, much like this one here.

I found a number of tiny flowers in bloom, most were woodland violets and anemones but what I found next was a delight also.  I remember the first time that I saw these things, I though they were “ticks,” red ones!  I had never in my life seen a red tick but lo and behold there it was.  After a bit of researching I found out that it was actually a mite, a red mite.  However, getting back to my at home adventure, I tried in vain with a 100 mm macro to get a shot of this Red Spider Mite, that I had found.  However it only allowed me one shot and I suppose it thought that this was its “good side.”

So now, having three wonderful subjects that I did not have to drive an hour and a half to get to, I was really disappointed in myself for leaving home that day to start with.  I had been down in the woods no more than a half and hour and already I was finding the newness of life that spring is supposed to bring and it was right under my nose all the time. 

Having found many other things of importance to me, I photographed them also and then headed back up the hill to the apartment but those will have to wait for another time as I do not want to write a short novel about my day or late afternoon I should say, at home and so I will leave with this parting shot of another very common but pretty wildflower, the “Wild Strawberry.”

Thanks for viewing and for reading my post!