{"id":97280,"date":"2021-11-14T04:59:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T11:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=97280"},"modified":"2022-01-13T04:32:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T11:32:08","slug":"fruit-fly-shaped-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/11\/14\/fruit-fly-shaped-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruit Fly Shaped Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-97273 size-full\" title=\"Fruit fly shaped cloud\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647.jpg\" alt=\"Fruit fly shaped cloud, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20600%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Fruit fly shaped cloud &#8211; Nikon D810, f8, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 18-200mm at 46 mm, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve mentioned here on my blog a time or two, or dozens of times, that when I am in the field I pay attention to everything around me and that doing that helps me find birds and wildlife. Well, it isn&#8217;t just birds and wildlife that catches my eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I see shapes that look like other things in rocks, pinnacles, cliff faces, the hills, and the clouds when I am scanning the countryside.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday I was looking for birds high in the sky and low on the horizon when I turned my head and spotted a fruit fly shaped cloud. I had to stop and take a series of photos before the fruit fly shaped cloud morphed into another shape. If I drew a cartoon of a fruit fly it might look just like the one I saw in the sky last week.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing familiar objects or patterns in otherwise random or unrelated objects or patterns is called <em>pareidolia<\/em>. It\u2019s a form of <em>apophenia<\/em>, which is a more general term for the human tendency to seek patterns in random information. It is something that we all experience from time to time.<\/p>\n<p>Do you see the fruit fly?<\/p>\n<p>I know this for certain&#8230; I would NOT want to run into a fruit fly as big as this cloud was. That would scare the tar out of me!<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/miscellaneous-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Miscellaneous photos which are basically images that I have taken that just do not fit into one specific category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday I was looking for birds high in the sky and low on the horizon when I turned my head and spotted a fruit fly shaped cloud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10893,358,26,1314],"tags":[12562,970,6253,4101,12560,4620,12558,12561,8816,12559,4018],"class_list":["post-97280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-apophenia","tag-autumn","tag-cloud","tag-clouds","tag-drosophila","tag-fall","tag-fruit-fly","tag-pareidolia","tag-shape","tag-shapes","tag-sky"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/cloud-fruit-fly-mia-mcpherson-9647.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-pj2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8058,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/08\/thinking-pink-birds-sky-and-flowers\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":0},"title":"Thinking Pink &#8211; Birds, Sky, and Flowers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure why I wanted to do a post using images with pinks but here they are, a flower, a bird and pink kissed clouds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Auckland&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Auckland","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/new-zealand\/auckland\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roseate Spoonbill fly by, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-flight-mia-mcpherson-8303.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-flight-mia-mcpherson-8303.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-flight-mia-mcpherson-8303.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/roseate-spoonbill-flight-mia-mcpherson-8303.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38387,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/15\/kelvin-helmholtz-wave-clouds-over-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":1},"title":"Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Clouds Over the Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Seeing the Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds over the Wasatch Mountains as viewed from the south end of Antelope Island State Park made my day","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wave Cloud Formation (Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds) over snow-capped Wasatch Range as seen from Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds-mia-mcpherson-9447.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds-mia-mcpherson-9447.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds-mia-mcpherson-9447.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds-mia-mcpherson-9447.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128539,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/17\/my-mom-would-have-been-92-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":2},"title":"My Mom Would Have Been 92 Today","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"My mom would have been 92 today. I miss her terribly, but she is with me in so many ways. She was also with me when I went to Tishomingo NWR last Saturday.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Heart shaped natural spotlight on a tree trunk at Tishomingo NWR, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/heart-spotlight-tree-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-9600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/heart-spotlight-tree-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-9600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/heart-spotlight-tree-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-9600.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/heart-spotlight-tree-tishomingo-nwr-mia-mcpherson-9600.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51074,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/02\/25\/photographing-short-eared-owl-fledglings-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":3},"title":"Photographing Short-eared Owl Fledglings in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Both of the fledgling Short-eared Owls I took photos of that morning appeared very relaxed while I photographed them, they looked around, preened, yawned, stretched and even rested with their eyes closed.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-eared Owl fledgling with a fly on its belly, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-fly-mia-mcpherson-6902.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-fly-mia-mcpherson-6902.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-fly-mia-mcpherson-6902.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-fly-mia-mcpherson-6902.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40111,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/22\/storm-clouds-over-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":4},"title":"Storm Clouds Over The Gulf Of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One August morning in 2008 when I was at Fort De Soto to photograph birds I couldn't resist taking a few images of storm clouds hanging over the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Florida&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stormy sky over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/fort-de-soto-storm-mia-mcpherson-2175.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/fort-de-soto-storm-mia-mcpherson-2175.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/fort-de-soto-storm-mia-mcpherson-2175.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/fort-de-soto-storm-mia-mcpherson-2175.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56110,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/02\/13\/an-abundance-of-foraging-american-robins\/","url_meta":{"origin":97280,"position":5},"title":"An Abundance Of Foraging American Robins","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two afternoons ago when I left the local pond to head home I saw at least 75-100 foraging American Robins in some crabapple trees and on the ground in the snow.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Robins&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy American Robin swallowing a crabapple whole, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-winter-snow-fruit-mia-mcpherson-2915.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-winter-snow-fruit-mia-mcpherson-2915.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-winter-snow-fruit-mia-mcpherson-2915.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-robin-winter-snow-fruit-mia-mcpherson-2915.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}