Getting up close, and personal? With bugs and things!
I finally got a chance to try the extension tubes I ordered! I had to get really close, like an 1″ away, so I am sure there is a learning curve! I’ll be out practicing! This is some kind of Spotted Orb weaver living on the front of the trailer-beautiful! using a 24mm and a 12mm extension tube on my 24-70 lens and a Scudder’s Bush Katydids (Genus Scudderia), is he ever green! The red dragonfly is a White-faced Meadowhawk, I think, I can’t believe he/she let me stick the lens right up to it, an 1″ away! The others would not! I think I need to practice on non-moving objects or very slow bugs until I get the hang of this! I went back out with just the short lens later to get the guys I couldn’t with the macro! Wind is NOT your friend!
Such an amazing world of bugs! I decided to wander down to the dock to bail out the little red canoe and was very excited to see a pair of mating Halloween Pennants! Doing the wild thang! It’s called a mating wheel: male left, female right. The female lays eggs in the morning on open water with the male still attached at the head. This method is known as exophytic egg laying. We don’t often see the Halloween Pennants here in the yard so will keep looking closer to the water. Lots of Blue dashers and a male widow skimmer kept me company. I’m not sure if the Halloween Pennants chose the one sad sapling that was turning a red colour on purpose, it was great camouflage!
I continued back up at the house to hang around near the milkweed and rocks, looking for bugs when a beautiful little Garter Snake crossed my path. Most common garter snakes have a pattern of yellow stripes on a black, brown or green background, and their average total length (including tail) is about 55 cm (22 in), with a maximum total length of about 137 cm (54 in). There are 12 subspecies of this beautiful little snake-this is T. s. sirtalis (Linnaeus, 1758) Eastern Garter Snake.
Did you know that Garter snakes have a mild venom in their saliva, which may be toxic to the amphibians and other small animals that they prey upon. Common garter snakes are resistant to naturally-occurring poisons in their prey, such as that of the American toad and rough-skinned newt, the latter of which can kill a human if ingested. Garter snakes (in addition to their own mildly venomous saliva) have the ability to retain poisons from their consumed amphibian prey, thus making them poisonous and deterring any would-be predators. Wow!
The habitat of the common garter snake ranges from forests, fields, and prairies to streams, wetlands, meadows, marshes, and ponds, and it is often found near water.
Their diet consists mainly of amphibians and earthworms, but also leeches, slugs, snails, insects, crayfish, fish, lizards, other snakes, small birds, and rodents. Common garter snakes are effective at catching fast-moving creatures such as fish and tadpoles.
I found a tiny little Gray Tree Frog no larger than my thumb in the shed doorframe and thought he might be a good candidate for the extension macro tubes so I went back to get them! Gray treefrogs have been observed to congregate around windows and porch lights to eat insects that are attracted to the light. Insect larvae, mites, spiders, plant lice, harvestmen, and snails also contribute towards the diet of the gray treefrog. Love to listen to these guys at night!
Most mornings I sit out on the front deck and watch the hummingbirds with my coffee. I opened the umbrella again, this time, very slowly and carefully thinking my large Brown Bat friend might be there, and it fluttered to the ground near the garden. I went down to check on him, “Lady, why? I was asleep!” I got a bit too close and he/she hissed like a cat at me so I backed off to get his photo:) he flew off after a few minutes, I must have woken him up…cranky!
Not angry birds but angry bat. I went back to search for the Katydids. I found a Scudder’s Bush Katydids (Genus Scudderia) on my lily plant, they are herbivores but it didn’t stop him taking a nibble on me after I put my hand out to see if he would sit, for a photo…Ha! That was weird! Feeling him chomp away! Models demand a price now! Piece of flesh please!
I decided to stick with the telephoto after that for awhile! A huge Dark Fishing spider was on the screen outside and I didn’t really want to get too close to it, almost 6″ across, large one! The Dragonflies are definitely easier, not many want to let you get that close with the macro tubes! The numbers have gone down except in the evenings when I am seeing a large amount of Canadian Darners! Must be after those nighttime bugs! They have such cool segmented bodies!
Fingers crossed that this heat will break Monday, enough! It was 26° in the house with 89% humidity this morning, argggggg….for the heat and humidity haters…0_0 Even the cats have been grumpy, maybe I should just take to hissing at everything when I get that way. I also forgot from last week I do actually have a flying cat! Rocket! Ha!
These are Rocket’s favourite little fellows, he says they are VERY tasty! I won’t try thanks! He is well camouflaged on the rock this lucky grasshopper! Those eyes! May be a Carolina Grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) I think! May try to get one flying, their wings are so colourful!
After a bout of grasshopper leaping and chasing Rocket headed to the shade panting, 31° Celsius…good thing there is a breeze! He is not quite as svelte as when the leaping picture was taken, his “flabdomen” has filled out! Ha! I missed getting his athletic flying and leaping poses this morning! There is always tomorrow morning! I’ll leave you with the sunrise a few mornings ago. Smoke, mists and haze early in the morning. Groot said it was time to get up at 5:30…😉 Good cat! We still had some leftover smoke from the West coast drifting around…so much beauty, and so much destruction. My heart aches for the forests out West and up and down the North American coast. Check out the smoke map here…crazy!
Stay tuned for more caterpillars and our poor raggedy hummingbirds, the male is molting, no more dashing and debonair Don, it’s shambling shaggy sad Sam now! Saludos amigos!
