Corkscrew Swamp - 10.7.12 - Post 5

One last creeper, and then, a truly weird thing... the only bird for this trip. 

Spotted Orb Weaver (053 - 2012)

This is a Spotted Orb Weaver.  They were *everywhere* in the swamp.  Which makes sense since their endemic in the southeastern U.S. - again, something I won't find in Illinois.  The neat thing about this shot is that you can see that the first segment of his legs are red where as the rest are black and white.

This is not a shy spider.  They make huge webs you could see from the boardwalk and then sit right in the middle of them.  Sometimes you'd find them or their web hanging right in front of you.

I like this shot because even though the web is hard to see, the spots (from his name) are easier.  Look at the white stripe right down the middle of his abdomen.  He has gray spots down the white line.

Pileated Woodpecker (054 - 2012)

And then there was my one major bird find for this trip.  There were a few other birds, but none of them photographed well.  I may fight with them later, but for now, there's this Pileated Woodpecker.

These guys have the weirdest range.  Up the U.S. West Coast, through a swath of lower Canada and then down through the northern Midwest and Eastern states all the way down to the top of Florida.  But nothing through the Southeast, most of Texas or the Northern U.S. around Wyoming, the Dakotas and Montana area.  And he was drilling and drilling and drilling.  I hope he found some awesome bugs for all the work he was doing.  They are in Illinois, but I don't think I've seen one here yet.

Okay, reptiles and amphibians are next and last.  For this shoot.  There were many, many, many more pictures taken while I was in Florida.

Just a few last things from Tennessee - Post 4

These are the odds and ends pictures for Bledsoe Creek (which, by the way, I never did see a creek there.  There was a lake... no creek.)

 The Tiger Swallowtail and the Pipevine from the first post were actually hanging out together when we were shooting them.  That was one of the major reasons I thought the pipevine was a black morph tiger.  Just look at the accent color schemes on both - the same blue and orange dots.

American Funnel Web Spider (2012 - 014)

 Wow, I think I was actually able to research the name of a spider.  It's harder than you think.  There are a truly stupid number of different spiders out there.  Also, I kind of gave myself the heebie-jeebies while doing it because of the pictures of Black Widow spiders on the same page.  Being from Illinois, especially northern Illinois, I forget that there's a lot of really, really dangerous wildlife in warmer parts of the country.  We don't have poisonous snakes or spiders to speak of up here.  So anyway, this is an American Funnel Web Spider.

Here she is in her entrance, the stripes on her legs a little easier to see.

And here is her funnel web.  Which, honestly is what made her so easy to identify.  Apparently there's only one particular funnel-web in Tennessee. :)





 

Northern Cardinal (2012 - 015)

 While going through my older posts for the comprehensive lists I realized I'm ignoring things I find commonplace.  Mallard ducks, robins, red-winged blackbirds...  And cardinals.  Like the Blue Jay, I want to get a really good cardinal picture some day.  This is about as bright as Illinois constant-dwellers get.  This one was seen in Tennessee, but we do get them up north and I need to stop ignoring them just because *I* see them all the time doesn't mean everyone else does.

And as a closing note... Cyprus tree nodules.  These projections are coming up off the Cyprus tree roots.  There's something very "medieval people go to Stonehenge" looking about these odd bits of tree root.




So that was my nature-seeking in Tennessee.  Chicago's starting to warm up now so I'm getting some baseline shots.  What animals are here now, in April, so that as the migrations start in the next couple weeks, I can track the timing of various species coming and going.

The rest of the bugs and a few other critters... Willowbrook Wildlife Center - 6.18.11, post 2

So here are the rest of the bugs and the amphibians I saw when I was out last weekend.

The firey skippers are making their way back out.  I know there were scads of them at the South Pond last year, but I haven't seen them out there yet.  This was the only skipper I found at WWC.  But the summer's young. :)

 When I shot this, I thought it was an ant, it was so small. There's a reason for that - it's called (from what I could find in the research, though, oy, this was not easy!) it's called an Ant Spider, or an Ant Mimic Spider. Photographically speaking, I love the starkness of the red and black against the white rocks.  (And for the record, yes, I lumped the arachnid in with the insects.)

I'm pretty sure this is a Cabbage White butterfly.  No spots on the outsides of the wings, black tips on the inside.

 And with the nice warm weather came some really fun spottings.  Bullfrogs!  Lots of bull frogs.  Many, many of them heard me long before I saw them and lept into the water before I could get at all close.  Those guys have some stretch.  Some were hitting the water about ten feet out from the banks!

 This guy was not at all afraid of me.  He watched me as I watched him.  He even sat there while I changed the data card in my camera (timing is everything).

 And in case you couldn't see the one in the water, they're good sized frogs.  I'd guess five inches, nose to vent.  Probably over a foot when you stretch out those monster back legs.

 Which puts these guys in really, really stark contrast.  First of all, they're insanely small.  Probably 1 cm nose to vent.  Maybe 2 with their legs.

These little buggers are making me insane.  I cannot figure out what they are.  They're *probably* toads.  The skin is rough and dry and when I walked near them, they scattered, but I don't remember seeing or hearing even one of them going into the water.

 I love the false eyes on the back of their heads.  I also find it interesting that his eyes are flush with his head.  Most frogs have those, well, you know... frog eyes where their eyes sit on top of their heads so they can leave just their eyes above the surface of the water and keep an eye out for lunch.  His eyes on on the sides more than the top.

I was even able to find an itty-bitty tadpole committee.  They have stripes on their tales that will be the stripes on their legs and spots on the bodies of both the tadpoles and the adults.





Okay, one last post on this trip tomorrow. :)  For today, little tiny frogs/toads and ant spider are added to the list which gives me 41 new species for the year.  Almost there!

Volo Bog - 9.04.10 - Post 2

  So like I said yesterday, it was really windy when I was shooting.  So even though some of the animals and plants were being pretty cooperative, it was still a tough shoot when the winds picked up.  On the flip side, it did make the insects want to stay on the plants to avoid being blown half way to Oz.

Bee Examines Loosestrife

One of the clearest shots of a bee's face I've gotten.  Getting their backs is pretty easy.  I get the impression a lot of the time that if you're behind them, you aren't of interest, so they keep doing what they're doing.  But if they can see you they tend to take off.  Yes, they have stingers, but I'm probably about one million times their body weight or something.

Bending Bee

Here he is again.  I've never seen a bee 'bend at the waist' before.

Hover Fly on Arrow Root

 I think in a previous post I may have labeled this insect as a wasp, but further digging has me coming up with the fact that it's a Hover Fly.

Arrowroot, Flies Right (and Left)

As I was watching, he got a friend. :)

Goldenrod Reaches Out

This is a goldenrod branch in very bright light (so I could use a very fast shutter) in very strong wind.  It reminds me of the kid who realizes they're shooting the news near him so he starts sticking his head or hand into the frame, just because he can.

White-Faced, Faced Away

Alright, I can't see his face, but I'm pretty sure this is a White-Faced Meadowhawk, he has the white tail-tip of the species.  He's smaller than the Red Saddlebags, and has, you know, no saddlebags.  He's also smaller than the Band-Winged Meadowhawk and doesn't have the brown patches on his wings.  So, deduction leaves me with White-Faced Meadhowhawk.  He's a perfect example of what I was saying when I said some of the insects and animals found a place to cling to and held on for dear life as the wind picked up.

Not the Gator You Thought I Was

 What do you see?  I saw a very small alligator, which, this being Northern Illinois was pretty improbable, but I did a double take!  It's a bit of duckweed on a piece of reed.

Home-making, Spider-Style

 This appears to be a Common House Spider.  She was busily spinning her web as I watched.  (Now if I could just do *something* about the spider that's living in my wing mirror, who makes a new beautiful web after every time I drive my car, but keeps hiding in the mirror housing, so I can't relocate her to somewhere more stable.)

Leopard Frog Tadpole (Can we get another Animal in there?)

 There were two of the three frog species I found in my last post.  Here's a tadpole of one of those frogs.  Go figure, it's a Southern Leopard Frog Tadpole.  Even as a tad his spots are obvious.

Telling Polliwog Tails

 And here's what happens when he starts to grow up!  I actually contacted some herpetologist friends of mine because I was worried that there was some kind of mutation happening here.  I'm not used to seeing a frog with such well developed limbs and frog face-structure with so much tail.  I've been assured it's what's called a polliwog and he's perfectly normal.  (If a bit odd looking. :)

Business End of a Wasp

And then there was this.  A really cool picture of a Yellow-Jacket's backside.  The details of his stripes are clear as is the veining of his wings.









Okay, about half-way done I think. As I got going around the tamarack forest I got some really amazing landscapes.  Not my usual fare, but some really amazing pictures. :)

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 1

I feel the need to preface this post with the surrounding details.  I went to run a few errands in Lincoln Park, and it ended up being a bust - the things I needed to pick up weren't done.  So I walked the South Pond since I was there anyway.  When I got home I found that my little ferret, Magick, was in the process of passing away.  She was almost 8 years old - which is quite old for a ferret - and she'd had cancer for a year, so this wasn't unexpected.  However, even when expected, losing a beloved pet sucks rocks.  And while I am absolutely certain that me not taking this walk wouldn't have changed things for her, there's still a little bit of me that says, "Damn, I should have gone straight home."  You know?

So, I'll miss the little muppet.

Magick - January 1, 2003 - August 30, 2010

Anyway... this is what I saw while I was out.

Great Black Wasp on Bubbles

This is a Great Black Wasp.  Buried in the algae he's walking on just above his head is a skipper butterfly who apparently got sucked in.  What I was really interested in here was the bubbled surface of the pond algae that the bug is walking on.

Fiery Skipper on Marsh Thistle

 Fiery Skippers are having a great year at the South Pond.  There are hundreds of them.  Here's one on a Marsh Thistle.  At least I'm pretty sure it's Marsh Thistle.  It's next to the pond, but the maps I find usually say that the southern edge of the plant's range is southern Wisconsin.  Though, you know, Chicago isn't a ridiculous distance from southern Wisconsin, so it's not unreasonable that the park folks would choose to install it here.  ANYWAY... if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the butterfly's proboscis as he feeds from the flower.

Argiope on Railing

I wish this guy had sat still just a little bit longer.  He's roughly half a cm from front foot to back end.  Really, really tiny.  And pretty hyper.  If you can't tell what he's on, it's the railing to the pond boardwalk.  I almost discovered him the hard way as I trailed my hand along the metal.  I think it's an Argiope - also called a Yellow Garden Spider.  I'll need to keep an eye out to see if I can get a better shot of one next time I'm out there.

I'm Ready for My Close Up

There was a gigantic flock of sparrows hanging out between the zoo gate and the part of the pond closest to the zoo.  If you got too close they came up off the ground and into a tree, but if you waited a minute, they'd all head back for the ground under the boardwalk.  I think it's a song sparrow (seriously, until I started looking, I had no idea how many kinds of sparrows there are out there.).  Anyway, I loved the way he turned his head up to look at me as if trying to decide if I was enough of a threat to bother him into moving.

Pondhawk on Broadleaf

An Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly on a leaf over that same patch of bubbly algae.  I was playing with the bokeh a little.  I wanted an angle where I wouldn't get that dead leaf under the dragonfly's leaf, but my mobility was kind of limited on the boardwalk.  Still, I think the dragonfly pops out.

Upside-Down Tachnid

 I was ridiculously pleased with these shots of a Tachnid Fly on a Rattlesnake Master.  I mean, sure, it's a fly, but as pictures of flies go, I like these. :)

Rightside-Up Tachinid

Look how prominent his antennae look against the plant.  You can also see how he's holding on with all of his feet.

Fl-eye

His eyes are so pronounced in this shot.  He's not looking at me head-on, but your eyes still go straight to his red ones.

Cuckoo in the Rattlesnake Master

Same kind of plant, different kind of bug.  Google tells me this is a Cuckoo Bumblebee.  And if you read up on these things, they're nasty!  They infiltrate hives of other bees and take over.

Fire Colored Beetle on Rattlesnake Master

Obviously the Rattlesnake Master was the plant of the day.  Here's a Fire Colored Beetle (something new :).  I was captivated by his antennae which never stopped moving.

Eye Catching Monarch

Monarchs, Monarchs everywhere.  I'm starting to see more Monarchs in Chicago.  I don't think I've taken a walk all summer where I haven't found at least one.  This shot is fun because it has this great 3D effect where the butterfly and the branch it's perched on seem to stick out from the leaves in the background.

Milkweed Unmunched

 
This is Butterfly Milkweed.  Not only are they a beautiful, bright flower, they attract the Brushfoot Butterflies and their larva.  This will be key in the next post. ;)






Up next... the amazing shots of the first caterpillar I found all year.  Go figure it was almost September before I could find one!