AstroGypsies

Where do we live exactly? Well, not at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but at times we do have some wild creatures flying and slithering about, definitely a subsect of House Slytherin! 😉 We also have a few dragon…flies;) Now only if I owned a Nimbus 2000, I could fly faster than the biting bugs following me about! Ha!

Who names these guys? I get it, they change as they grow up and males and females can be completely different colours, thank goodness for iNaturalist or I wouldn’t be able to keep these flying marvels apart! One of my favorites, the widow skimmer has been scarce this year. Just one male living on the side of the hill going up the road. I see it occasionally, such striking markings and today a female showed up as well! None of the giant green and blue guys yet but the brilliant green Eastern Meadowhawks and the Twelve Spotted Skimmers are a sight to see!

These dragonflies just blow me away! The colours and hey, they have the same problems I do at times, bugs! Thankfully not parasites for me but check out the parasitic mites on the Blue Dasher…0_0! Surely, that parasitic load of hitchhikers must be a pain in the…thorax? These bright red mites, from the tick family, are hitchhikers that feed on body fluids. They jump off when the host drops down over a new pond or wetland. Take them away from me if they are in the tick family PLEASE! 0_0!

I sat and watched this bright Green Eastern Pondhawk attack a moth, it struggled with it, maybe it bit off more than it could chew before it flew away to a close by branch. Maybe it was going to go back later to finish it off! Dragons indeed! One evening this week we watched at sunset as dozens of dragonflies emerged, a new hatch maybe, feeding on the smaller flying insects, mosquitos! Go team Dragonfly! They are my heroes! Maybe they are playing dragonfly quidditch! Ha!

As for house Slytherin, well, we don’t see snakes every day. Sometimes sunning on the road when I walk out to check the mail, OK, I walk out to check the swan, I never get any mail other than an occasional bill! But the other day, right smack behind the truck in the laneway was a very large, plump in places, well fed Gray Rat Snake, not really going anywhere, anytime soon. I love the low angle sometimes, it’s just with all the ticks I’m certainly hesitant to lie down on the forest floor much anymore, but in the driveway! Why not and it makes for a great angle to photograph it! Have a bit of a lie down with the snake, talk about the weather, why not! We are both Canadian;)

It did look like it had swallowed both Chip and Dale, I will need to check to see how many resident chipmunks we do have around still! Perhaps a few voles and mice went as well judging by the bulges in the belly! It slithered off after a bit and I got up and went on my walk:) Magical creatures!

Snakes are not everyone’s cup of tea but look at this cool moth! I just fell in love with the shadow! I believe this is a Lobed Plume Moth, ID again from iNaturalist. The swallowtails are everywhere, I have learned they maybe a Canadian Tiger/Giant Eastern cross of Swallowtails as the Canadian Tigers should be done by now or looking very old and battered, but there they are, brand new, studies are being done! A Midsummer Tiger!

I found a bevy of beauties clustered on what appeared to be coyote or bear scat in the road…getting nutrients where they can! Depending on the time of day of my walks I see so many butterflies. Mostly Northern Crescents and little Wood Satyr’s. I’ve chased a few Admirals but they are just flitting through! The camouflage with the bark for the Northern Pearly Eye was fabulous. If he hadn’t have moved, I would not have seen it! So much we don’t see:) I belong to an Ontario Insect group on Facebook and I am blown away by just the moths! We even heard our first cicada last night! It’s an amazing sound! I’ll be looking for the shell they leave behind when they emerge!

The Northern Leopard frogs are out, from tiny ones to giants! Look away frog fearing fans! Their colours range from green to brown and everything in-between! The northern leopard frog is a fairly large species of frog, reaching about 11 cm (4.3 in) in snout-to-vent length. I love the wood frogs. They have garnered attention from biologists because of its freeze tolerance, relatively great degree of terrestrialism (for a ranid), interesting habitat associations (peat bogs, vernal pools, uplands), and relatively long-range movements! And who can resist the tree frogs! The gray treefrog (Dryophytes versicolor) (which can be bright green as well!) is a species of small arboreal frog native to much of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. As the scientific name implies, gray treefrogs are variable in color. This ability to vary their color provides them with the ability to camouflage themselves from gray to green or brown, depending on the environment around them! Their yellow hind legs can make them stand out! We have a family in our cushion box on our deck again…:) I move them to the side when I have to put the cushions in, or take them out! Living with nature every day!

Stinking hot again so I’m waiting for it too cool off before I walk out to check the…swan baby! ha! and the mail. There’s a severe thunderstorm watch so we’ll see what materializes. It will most likely rain hard as I watered the vegetable garden today:) Murphy’s Law. I’ll leave you with a shot of some beautiful thunderheads from a few years back, I may be out there later today! Stay tuned, I have discovered we have not one, but TWO baby Red-Bellied Woodpeckers! I feel like a proud aunt! Ha! Saludos amigos!