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This is a Union Pacific Through-Truss Bridge you can see off I80 East in Lockwood, NV.
This is the only history I could find on the internet about it.
“Southern Pacific merged into Union Pacific in 1995, so the bridge predates that. The exact build date isn’t well-documented in publicly available sources, but given the CP/SP heritage of the line, it likely dates to the early-to-mid 20th century when the original wooden truss bridges on this corridor were being replaced with steel.” Circa 1930’s.
The bridge goes over the Truckee River. I’ve seen trains heading toward the bridge a few times but, I’ve always been down the trail quite away from the bridge so I haven’t managed to get a shot of the train on the bridge. Hopefully one day I’ll get the timing right. The view is NNE ish.
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Two weekends ago I was passing my backdoor when I caught a Desert fence lizard going after a big European Praying Mantis. The lizard had the Mantis on the run then quick as lightening it sprang for it! Perceiving the Lizard’s move, in a flash the Mantis did this amazing spin and came up in a fighting stance and punched the lizard. The lizard backed up just a bit. There they stood each looking at each other for minutes. I’d run to get my phone and camera. The lizard sensing me ran off, but the Praying Mantis changed poses and stared right at me! It was a Nat Geo moment!!
Now, I’m on my stomach with my camera at my face with the door open only 10 ft from the Mantis. It was staring at me intently, not moving. Just poised to strike and staring at me. I don’t mind telling you that was eerie. I thought, oh man, if it flies at me I won’t be able to close the door in time! It’s going to get me!! Do they bite? All this went through my head in a second. Mesmerized I didn’t move, well, other than my shutter finger taking photos. Oh, and my sister and had been texting right before all this started so I began giving her play by play texts. Both of us now caught up in the drama. 😂
I looked around and spied the lizard. It had run to the shade under my whirling Butterfly Guaro plant and the Praying Mantis just stood there staring at me.
I grabbed some really crumby stills from the even crumbier short video I managed to make. I apologize. A videographer I am not.
After 10 minutes it dropped to the ground and began crawling toward me. It was then that I saw it was injured. A broken leg I think. Then a gust of wind came through and carried the mantis to the edge of my patio. It began crawling back toward me but, veered a bit and headed ever so slowly toward my outdoor dining table. It got under the table and I lost sight of it. I looked for it later and the following day, but I’ve not seen it since.
Meanwhile, my sister having seen the photos was doing research on the type of Praying Mantis it was. She identified it as the European Praying Mantis by the two eye like ovals on its body.
Then I looked up how they got here.
Fun Facts:
In 1899 it was accidently introduced from Europe by ship with plant shipments and garden nursery items. It was found in New York in 1899. There is some speculation that it may have arrived much earlier.
In the 1930’s they were introduced to help with the Gypsy Moth (Spongy Moth) population. Since then they have been moving west, and are even in parts of Canada. It is considered invasive, but the impact is less severe than other larger invasive Praying Mantis…the Chinese Praying Mantis.
Praying Mantis eat pollinators like bees, and butterflies so it is worth keeping an eye on them. Its own cannibalism, and predation by birds keeps the population from exploding.
They’re a low grade ecological concern, and are well integrated in the US.
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I was hoping to photograph the Eclipse on August 27th, but we’d had rain, and clouds for a couple of days and on Eclipse day it wasn’t looking promising out here. I set up anyway hoping for a pocket or a hole in the clouds.
No luck. Skunked again. We did have a beautiful pink sunset that evening though so, it kind of made up for missing the Eclipse.
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In July and early August the wildflowers were in bloom up in the mountains above Lake Tahoe and a lot of them were at perfect peek on the morning of July 31st.
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I saw this snake while birding last week. It was the first time I’ve ever seen this species. I believe it’s a Western yellow-bellied Racer. ( Coluber constrictor Mormon)
They eat rats, mice, small rabbits, frongs, toads, turtles, lizards, and even other snakes. Some climb trees to eat bird eggs.
Young snakes have blotches on their backs so are sometimes confused for other species like Kingsnakes. As they mature they lose the blotches and become solid colors like black, green, brown, or blue on the top with yellow, white, or tan belly. They can grow up to 5 feet long, but the record was a little over 6 feet.
This one was smallish at just over 2 feet in length.
Why are snakes so good at rapping? Because they rap around their prey!
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For July 4th we went down to Southern CA. to visit Big Baby Boy and the Dark Haired Beauty. We went to the beach to watch the fireworks that were being shot off the San Clemente Pier.
Here are a few images of my favorite fireworks and where I was set up. I thought it was a good spot and since high tide wouldn’t be in for hours I thought I’d be good. Ha! I forgot about rogue waves. I got hit by 4 of them. By the end of the night my shoes were soaked and my jeans were too up to the top of my shins! My tripod and camera were just fine.
I like this phase of the Moon because you can really see the crusty craters along the edges.
Seas in view are from top left moving diagonally across the Moon are-
Sea of Rains, Sea of Serenity, Sea of Tranquility, Sea of Fertility, Sea of Nectar, and Sea of Crises.
Update: I thought it would be a good idea to share with you that I’ve learned something new about the Moon while putting this post together. I’ve learned there are 23 seas and 1 ocean! Early astronomers thought they were bodies of water, but we know now they’re flat plains of solidified basaltic lava.
In my image you can see 10 possibly 11 of the seas.
There’s an International Observe the Moon Night this year. On September 19th one maybe able to observe and identify 15 of the Lunar Seas, and some landing sites on the near side of the Moon. https://science.nasa.gov/moon/observe-the-moon-night/moon-map/
I’m adding that to my calendar.
The full Moon this month is on the 29th and it’s called the Strawberry Moon. It’s called the Strawberry Moon because it’s peak season for harvesting Strawberries in parts of the USA and Canada.
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