Saturday, August 8, 2009

Enchanted Forest


I had seen a variety of forests from tropical to temperate and those in-between but none has the fairy tales look like this one in Bahia Onelli in Argentina. This a temperate deciduous forests where the leaves change colors and drop with the seasons.
As I entered the forest I saw what looked as persimmons but they happened to be the fruiting bodies of parasitic fungi that grow out a living tree. I am no botanist but they seem to be related to the mistletoe typical of hour forests. These fruiting bodies are about the size of limes.

This forest is near a glacial lake and I happened to be take a shot of this kingfisher. These birds are so similar to the woodpeckers that I wonder what evolved first: the kingfisher or the woodpecker?

And here we are, the enchanted forest. Since I was there in May during fall season, yes, since Argentina is in the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed. Some of the trees have lost the leaves; these were roundish and about an inch in diameter.

The photo above is just a crop of the previous one to give you a closer view of the pond and the trees. There were lots of dead trees just lying all over forest floor that looks as hurricane or tornado damage.

This wonderful waterfall was nearby, I spent some time admiring the contrast of the leaves against the falling war and taking various photos. While here I saw an Andean Condor flying over but regardless of its size, it was too far to get a decent image. Will love to visit there in the spring. I will not bore with more blogs regarding Argentina until I return there sometime in a future spring. Stay tune for more blogs about my favorite Continent coming soon.





6 comments:

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

That is and enchanting forest Jose. I love those fall colors.

It is a most unusual fungi. I have never seen one like that. How big are they?

The kingfisher looks like our Giant Kingfisher. I love to watch these fishing as they seem to hover effortlessly in the air. I don’t know which one evolved first though. :)

Fantastic pic of the waterfall. Those trees do give it a wonderful contrast in color. This looks like a place where I could spend many happy hours walking around.

WE WILL NEVER BE BORED!! These images are the closest we will ever come to visiting these places, so we want MORE pictures and blogs, not less.

I hope you are talking about Africa when you say "favorite continent"? :)

This is another fantastic post. Thank you for sharing.

NatureStop said...

Wow! what a beautiful place and such lovely captures specially that of the Kingfisher.

Atanasio Fernández García said...

Hola José, ese bosque encantado es una auténtica maravilla, especialmente en esta época del año en la que se aprecian todas sus ramas. Supongo que debe ser completamente distinto cuando el bosque este cubierto de hojas, creando un ambiente sombrío que a penas dejará pasar la luz. La imagen del martín pescador bajo la lluvia es impresionante, me ha encanatado su espectacular cromatismo! Un saludo!

Juan C. Aguero said...

Saludos, me gusta la foto del Martin Pescador.

Tim Rucci said...

Nice scenics Jose, and interesting processing of the images. The kingfisher in the rain is unique. I'd love to get a close up of one, but have never had the opportunity.

Unknown said...

My favorite shot is of the kingfisher. Love the colors and movement with rain. The colors of the forest are so surreal! Nice post. can't wait for the next one as you your images are so great.