The nice thing about going long periods without rain is that scheduling photo outings isn’t difficult – provided you can cope with the heat. The recent rains have changed this quite a bit, and I’ve had to switch several student appointments around due to cruddy weather. This past Saturday, we watched the weather reports on practically an hourly basis and chanced a botanical garden
Category: Photography
Oh, you’re still here?
Sorry, more mantids, but you can’t watch the life cycle of several local individuals, including hundreds if not thousands of photos (I have not tallied them up yet, but mind you, these are the keepers) and not want to maintain updates.
First off, if you’re going to have an interest in entomology, it seems prudent to check several sources for information, as well as to keep checking
Around the pond
Just a few photos from the nearby pond, mostly recent, without a lot of exposition to go along.
An unidentified orthopteran, what I suspect is a meadow katydid, poses atop a button bush that’s showing the impact of the lateness of the season and the sparse rain in the past. In the thin line of undergrowth bordering the pond right below it, I was spotting various mantids and
Some time later
I mentioned how well I fared with the lunar eclipse a few posts ago, but as it turned out Jim Kramer (of the Alaskan posts) did a hell of a lot better that evening. Not so well later on, however,
Keep coming back to ’em
I mentioned in the previous post that I made a pooter, which I’d needed for a while, but there was a specific motivation for it. A few days ago I had found another magnolia green jumping spider (Lyssomanes viridis) and I was frustrating myself trying to accomplish something that’s been on my mind since the first time around.
Magnolia greens are the only species I’ve found that allows
Well, this certainly sucks
After attempting a couple of other techniques that weren’t working so well, I finally broke down and did it: I made myself a pooter.
If you are not familiar with entomology, you may have a variety of responses to this statement, including, “Congratulations – Al is a big boy now!” and, “Isn’t that a slang term for female genitalia?” But no, that’s
Never trust a trend
That’s what meteorologists rely on, you know…
We’ve had rain and overcast for three days straight, with the same thing predicted for the next week. Seriously. I looked at the skies a few times over, just in case we’d get a break in the clouds sometime during the total lunar eclipse, but nothing even slightly promising. So I went to bed early.
Woke up, rolled over, and caught
Just because, part 18
I came across this one while sorting images, and decided to put it up large, mostly because the dragonfly and the berries all fell so well into the same plane of focus and thus had sharp details.
I just tried for half an hour to identify those berries, with no luck, but the dragonfly is a blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis.) However, it wasn’t until I was just about
Tree hugger
The mantis from the previous post stayed trapped by the rain for several days, finally leaving its position early this afternoon – naturally while I wasn’t watching. While I was wandering around the backyard, hoping to find where she’d gotten off to, I spotted something else, which I won’t identify and simply let you look at the image to the left to try and find on your own.
Jinxing
Just a quick one here. I discovered this little lady Thursday night, after the rains had started, sitting up under the overhang of the porch endeavoring to remain dry. The rain continued all day Friday and she stayed in place the way the ground slopes down in the back yard, she was close to three meters over my head, so I had little choice in shooting angles and