Midewin - 8.15.10, Post 2

I found this sign kind of interesting. Blow it up and read it if you can, but the short version is "There may be archeological and anthropological stuff on these grounds. Don't touch 'em."

Um... this used to be a MUNITIONS plant storage site. A.) If those are the A&A artifacts, I wouldn't want to touch them anyway. B.) If they aren't - if there's actual Native American or even colonial American stuff there - I'm really, really, really surprised the Army didn't deal with it when this was their land and I'm not sure I want it. I didn't see anything old and interesting.

A Carolina Grasshopper (Carolina Locust). These things are pretty huge for bugs. Maybe three inches long? And they fly as much as hop. When they do their wings give them a vaguely butterfly-ish appearance which kind of freaked me out when they landed in front of me and *weren't* butterflies. They also look like pieces of wood lying on the path, until you step near them. Then they jump up and fly in your face, which is rather shocking.

[Carolina in Central Illinois]

I'm pretty sure this is a Silver-Spotted Skipper. A type of butterfly I hadn't seen before.

[Silver-Spotted Skipper Sips]

So yesterday I posted a little about the butterfly watering hole. This is a piece of one shot, where you can see how thick the butterflies got over there.

[Crowd of Cloudeds]

Okay, this shot is *lousy*, even this small, but it's a red-tailed hawk. I saw several circling around the meadow.

I *think* this is a Citrine-Tail Damselfly. I know it's not the sharpest shot ever, but it's a very small critter - too small to be a dragonfly. And the only all yellow-tail damselfly I can find online is the Citrine-Tail. If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Vibrating Citrine-Tail]

I believe this is a Pearl Crescent. I love in this shot how he seems to be sitting on the tip of the shadow the same way butterflies sit on the tops of flowers and grasses. These are teeny tiny guys - about 1 or 1.5 inches across.

[Perched on the Edge of a Shadow]

A White-Faced Meadowhawk. Probably one of the calmest dragonflies ever. This guy was pretty far back from the path so he was harder to shoot than I would have liked. In some ways it was good that I didn't schlep my tripod, but it would have made this shot much better.
[White-Faced Watcher]

Two Dogbane Leaf Beetles. Gotta love the internet, because seriously, who learns about "Dogbane Leaf Beetles" in school and can identify them like you can, "Oh, that's an ant/bee/fly." I think we need to change the old expression to "The birds and the bees and the beetles" if you know what I mean. ;)

[Beetles: Like the Birds and the Bees]






Okay, that's ten. More later. :)