Friday, September 15, 2017

a friday night film...


91,95,72,0,B

14 comments:

John Wells said...

I got nothing for tonight so I thought I would try to get some new views for an old video I posted 7 years ago. Dragonfly couples laying eggs on broken glass - they think it's water. Audio from an Aeolian wind harp I made by stretching a tight string from my house to the greenhouse roof. When the wind blows across the sting it begins to vibrate and create crescendos and decrescendos of harmonic frequencies that are played in rhythm to the winds. Their vibrant timbres produce an ethereal, almost mystical, music.

Billy ray said...

The sound reminded me of a power plant i heard at night once, a little eary with that rhythm. I was surprised it's your wind harp, very nice.

Unknown said...

Didn't realize there was enough water nearby for dragonflies.?

Ronald Mahan said...

I don't buy that broken glass tale would fool - even dragon flies. Isn't the area where the dragonflies are mating - close to where your lake was - and nothing but a mud flat remains?

John Wells said...

Ronald Mahan...there was no standing water anywhere to be found so it stands to reason that is what they were doing. Why else would they spend so much time skimming the glass?

Unknown said...

Here in Michigan I've watched mayflies laying eggs on my shiny car hood. Always figured they took it for water.

remmij said...

on the audio front, you had me fooled - thought it might be the sonic weapon the Cubans may be using… if it's not self-inflicted…
or the Klingon equivalent of waterboarding for the ears… ;-)
Cu
ba
Resonator
this one kinda sounds like a dog at the end…

remmij said...

just missing the draggin' flies…
from A Moon Shaped Pool - Radiohead - Daydreaming
death feigning
tandem linkage
full circle - the elevator is about the same size as your living quarters…
Lift

Margery Billd said...

TY remmij. You put so many interesting things on. I like the Radiohead-Daydreaming. Isn't it amazing all the interesting things we experience in our life.

Larry G said...

Well.. I guess you wouldn't think that dragonflies would have survived for millions of years by laying eggs in places where they won't hatch but then again - most insects and even animals will lay far more eggs than will ever make it to the final mature stage.

Ditto with all those rabbits breeding on your property!! Many of the smaller ones become food for something else...

Ronald Mahan said...

John - you trying to convince us that dragonflies cannot tell the difference between water & glass? Get out of here.

John Wells said...

Ronald...I'm not just making this up. When something as curious as this happens, I do some research. Dragonflies are attracted to a number of different kinds of shiny/reflective surfaces due to how they perceive polarized light. This behavior has also been observed on pools of oil, car roofs and hoods (particularly black or red cars) and oddly enough...on shiny black tombstones in cemeteries. The flight patterns and tail dipping in my video are typical of their egg laying behavior. There were a number of dragonfly couple doing this - and only over the glass. In nature studies, the phenomenon is known as an "ecological trap" - a substandard habitat that insects are attracted to due to how their vision works and leads to the death of any eggs they lay.

Unknown said...

Why do mayflies lay their eggs on dry asphalt roads?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13621389_Why_do_mayflies_lay_their_eggs_on_dry_asphalt_roads_Water_imi-tating_polarized_light_reflected_from_asphalt_attracts_Ephemeroptera

Unknown said...

John ... maybe you can photograph the eggs on the glass?