I confess to a fascination with dead wood, perhaps related to childhood memories of exploring woodpiles and decomposing logs. The echo of life is still there –I can imagine the seedling reaching for the sun, the unfurling of bud and leaf and inflorescence, the ripening of fruit or nut.
After death, another cycle of life begins – that of detritivores. On the microscopic level, bacteria and fungi colonize and start the breakdown process.
Invertebrates such as beetles, borers, and termites process wood nutrients or feast on fungi, and are feasted on in turn by vertebrates such as woodpeckers, anoles, and armadillos. Dead trees are used as homes by many species, including birds, bats, and squirrels.
This particular tree was an oak, probably a laurel oak. Something damaged it (lightning, a falling tree?), and the bark shows signs of regrowth round the split. The exterior bark and interior wood seemed to mirror each other, a glimpse of the past and present.
While nature may be extravagant, nothing goes to waste; all is consumed, refashioned, and repurposed – nature is the ultimate recycler.
You can click on the image to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.
~ Elizabeth Smith, Naples, Florida USA
Why does a day at the beach go so quickly? It felt good to kick back and record the day :)
times when sketching from life is impossible, as when you want to portray underwater life.
Octopus camouflage, a clip from one of David Attenborough’s documentaries on You tube, and Queen of camouflage, cuttlefish mating, a video by Annie Crawley, on You Tube. Sepias mate face to face; the male uses its hectocotylus to place sperm in a pouch positioned below the female’s mouth. Once fertilized the female lays a large number of eggs among the clumps of algae seen in the background. 
At the top here on the left you can see a male cuttlefish courting a female, at the bottom a cuttlefish displaying arythmic pulsing. In the next sketch, the blue ringed octopus at the top changes colour when startled and turns yellow with blue and black rings. It's a small and very pretty octopus found in Australia, but it is so poisonous it can kill a human being. At the bottom, male squids progressively turn white when fighting other males. They can control their pigmentation and split into a whitish side, that being shown to another male, and a darker, more natural side, shown to a 
female. The female is above, and the male on the bottom is keeping an eye and half side of his body whitish to keep in check another male not appearing in the sketch. For this kind of faster and less detailed sketches I use watercolour pencils. I leave the whole drawing very approximate, and add some details and water later... hope you enjoy.
wonderful time looking at their fascinating collection and sketching the animals. I spent some time with the marine birds, mysterious creatures capable of adapting to extreme weather conditions.
bat, but the birds perceive it as a flying raptor and when they see it they dive down into the thicket, getting caught in the mist nets. That's when you go down and take them out, and all the fun starts.
I find ringing is a fascinating experience, that takes you deep into the heart of nature.
