South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 5

Okay, wrapping up that last August walk.  Just a few more shots...

Seven of Swords

 Another Blue Vervain shot.  I'm really taken with the little clusters of flowers that aren't quite on the tip of the stem and the way the long stems are separate from each other, instead of clustered together like they would be on a Bull Thistle or something..

A Dash of Blue

Another Familiar Bluet.  This thing is perched on the edge of a fragile, dying leaf.  It's so small and so light that the leaf doesn't move at all when the damselfly takes off or lands on it.

Neon Damselfly Glows from the Inside

 Here he is close up.  He's almost neon the way he seems to glow against the gray algaed background.  You can even see his little tiny feet hanging onto the light edge of the leaf.  His wings are so transparent you can see the segments and black stripes right through them.

I'm Pretty Sure Your Nose Is Longer

Fiery Skipper drinking from a (I think) purple milkweed flower.  Check out the proboscis.

Skipper with a Drinking Habit

Here she flipped to give me a side view - you can still see the proboscis - but now you can see those prominent front legs.

Buckeye: Inverted

Buckeyes have a weird habit of hanging out upside down.  I don't know if I've posted about this before, but I know it's not the first time I've seen an inverted Buckeye.  I don't know if it puts those big fake eyes at the top - fooling any predators that might come along - or what.








Okay, next up - Volo Bog.  A very interesting place to shoot.  Too bad I did it in hurricane force winds!

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 4

Okay, so I finally walked away from the Claude the Caterpillar and continued my way around the boardwalk.

Purple and Orange

An Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly on Butterfly Milkweed.  I love contrasting colors, so his purple on the orange is very striking.  And it was nice that he was showing off the insides of his wings.  So many of the butterflies that sit still long enough to be captured are folded up and the undersides of their wings aren't as interesting in most cases.

Eastern Tailed Blue Flies Off

He flew off for a second, giving me a great view of the dark lines on his wing edges.

Eastern Tailed Blue Wings: Inside and Out

But then he came back and landed facing me, which was nice.  You can actually see his wing-tails in this shot.  And he got a little buggy friend on the far left flower bud.

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer with Faded Edges

Several things decided to sit still for me on this walk.  Considering it was (apparently) one of the last really hot days in Chicago for the year, I was expecting the cold-bloodeds to be more active, but hey, not arguing. :)

Purple, Green and Yellow

This one is neat for the way the color slashes across the really drab background.  The purple flowers and then the yellow of both the bee and the flower buds, not to mention the bright green stem.

Familiar Bluet, Brilliant Blue

A case-in-point for why cameras have a manual focus.  There's no way in the world my auto focus would have been able to grab something as slender as this Familiar Bluet damselfly.

Mrs. Pondhawk

So a female Eastern Pondhawk finally sat still for a second.  I've got tons of shots of the very blue males, but the females tend to be more active and/or blend in to their surroundings to the point that they're much more difficult to shoot.

It's So Easy Being Green

She flipped over to another leaf and I loved the way she added color to a very green shot, even though she's green too.  She also moved out of the shadows making the temperature of the picture change drastically.

Pensive Gull

So in Chicago we tend to just refer to these as 'seagulls', but more properly they're Ring-Billed Gulls, for reasons that are pretty obvious in this shot. As I'm getting more specie of gulls, I need to try to be more specific. :)  I typically get annoyed when all I can get a good shot of is an animal's back.  It's easier to get their backs sometimes because they aren't looking at you and don't see you coming, but the picture isn't as good.  I came up from behind this guy and he turned his head just enough to be seen.  It makes him look pensive.  As if he's debating what's out in that pond for him.

Profile Gull

When he turned to look at me more fully he looses that 'thinky' look and becomes a little more evil looking. Which, to be fair, isn't all anthropomorphication - these birds have very little fear of humans and can be very nasty.

Japenese Beetle on Stem

Okay, I was finally able to Google a species on this guy, who I first noticed at Midewin.  He's a Japanese Beetle.  Very shiny.

Antennae Like Leaves

He's hanging on for dear life here, but it gives a great view of the white spots around his shell and the little fringes on the tips of his antennae.

Seems Well Behaved Enough

This is apparently called an Obedient Plant.  Where did I find it listed?  On a list of "Most Unwanted" plants for Kentucky.  So much for obedient if it can't stay out of areas it isn't wanted. ;)

I'm actually kind of keen on it's odd shape and the fact that it blossoms from the bottom up.  It reminds me of Thai-style decorations.







Okay, I have one more card of shots to go through from this walk and then I can finally move on to a new location. :)

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 3 (The Very Hungry Caterpillar Gets a Very Stripey Friend)

Okay, yesterday I posted a huge batch of pictures of a monarch caterpillar.  Well, while I was planted on the boardwalk snapping away, a wasp came over and joined Claude.  (We'll call him Claude.  'A monarch caterpillar' gets a little old after a while, and after all, I've gone on about him for two days, so he deserves a name. :)

Claude and a Wasp

Here's Claude and his friend the wasp.  The wasp is drinking from the flowers... Claude is eating the thing whole.  I'm really thrilled with how clear this little wasp came out.  You can see how he's using his antennae to hold himself still and his bright green eyes are mesmerizing.

The Wasp Sees Claude

In this one you can see in the space between the wasp's eyes.  And you can see Claude twisting to work on that slightly raggedy flower.  You can see the stem left from the flower he was eating in yesterday's post just to the left of Claude's antennae.  You can see the black splotch on his back in this one.

Parallel Stripes

This may be the best shot of the two of them.  The wasp came in ridiculously clear.  This is the shot that let me identify him as a sand wasp.  Which explains why he was so content to be so close to the ground.

Parenthetical Insects

This one gives the effect of a set of parenthesis turned 90 degrees. 

A Closer Inspection

Here the wasp comes down to check out Claude.  Claude seems way more interested in sucking down that milkweed flower.

Wasp Eyes on the Photographer (Claude Doesn't Care)

Now the wasp is looking at me.  I mentioned a few posts back that I need to become re-afraid of things that can puncture me.  Apparently this was not that day.

Friends Come in Every Stripe

 I have to say that I did love that Claude and the wasp had the same colors and are both stripes.  It makes the visual effect simpler and, I think, more striking.  There's probably a joke about them calling each other to coordinate their outfits that day. :)









Okay, I'm still not done with the day's hike, but I think I may be done with Claude.  He was an awesome 'portrait model' though, and I wish him well in his butterflying days ahead.

South Pond - 8.30.10 - Post 2 (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Americans (at least) of a Certain Age were raised on children's books by Eric Carle.  One of my favorites was always The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was written in 1969 (so it's just a bit older than I am. ;) and while on this walk, I finally got to meet The Very Hungry Caterpillar. :)

I had been thinking just before went out that day that I'd seen so many varieties of butterflies this summer, but I hadn't seen even one caterpillar. I was sure part of it was that butterflies *grab* your attention.  When something flies across your field of vision, you follow it. Caterpillars inch along slowly and hope to not be seen, since they can't exactly bolt if they're detected by someone who wants to eat them.  So I made a mental note to look harder.  And sure enough... big, beautiful monarch caterpillar on my very next walk.  Even more fortunate, he was busily munching away on a milkweed plant that had sprung up between the boardwalk and the fence, so I was able to sit (and when necessary, lay) on the boardwalk and shoot from any angle I wanted to without anything between us blocking my view.

Monarch Caterpillar Munches Milkweed

Here he is, looking right at me.  Well, I think he is.  His eyes aren't exactly well-defined.  His antennae were amazing to watch as they wiggled and probed and twisted.  You can see here that he's munching away on the milkweed flowers.

One Petal at a Time

You can sort of see it at this size, but if you enlarge this one it's a lot easier to see; he's holding the flower petal with his front feet as he eats it.

"Bite Size" is Subjective

So much of the detail in these shots is lost when I scale them down.  In this one, you can see where he's taken a bite out of the flower petal right in front of his 'nose'.

Redefining 'Plant Food'

Here he's holding himself up with his front feet as he continues to work on the flower.  He's actually caught the flower and pulled it down to him to make eating easier.

All You Can Eat Milkweed Buffet

Here he is in context.  I love how you can see the difference between the slim front feet he'll keep as a butterfly and the stocky, blocky back feet that he needs to move his little caterpillar butt along with his front.  Again, great views of his antennae.

Petal Power

Here's a closer version from that same sequence of shots.  (You can tell it isn't the exact same shot with a different crop by his antennae positions.)

No, You Can't Have Any

Here he's coming straight at me with his antennae out like the ears of a dog.

So Many Flowers, So Little Time...

I pulled back and shot with my kit lens for a few minutes to give a greater depth of focus.  I can just hear him thinking, "So many flowers, so little time..."

Flower Powered

Here he is coming at me again, still working on that flower he'd pulled down.

*burp*  All gone.

But this is my all time favorite of him alone.  He's eaten the whole flower.  You can see the stem still on the plant.  And in his four front feet he's holding the very last bit of the flower as he chows down.  This shot, more than any other I took, makes me think of the caterpillar from "Alice in Wonderland".  I think it's the pose.




Now I need to keep an eye out for a chrysalis.  I know it's getting to the end of the season, but hey, they still seem to be procreating, as this guy proves.

Up next, my little buddy here gets a friend.

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!

The Magic Hedge - 7.20.10 (2/2)

Okay, here's the rest of the shots from my last walk in the Hedge...

I actually got in front a very large bee.  Check out the weird bee eyes!  I believe this is a Bull Thistle flower.

[Bee Eyes over Thistle]

Another chicory flower.  I love the way the tips of the stamens are such a bright white while the stalks are dark gray.

[Chicory Reaches Out]

A path near the hedge.

[Road Less Traveled]

A

A buckeye butterfly lands on some prairie grass.

[Buckeye Butterfly Takes a Breather]

This is a milkweed plant.

[Milkweed Stands Tall]

These are milkweed beetles.  Go figure.

[Milkweed Beetles on Namesake Flower]

A red admiral butterfly on a milkweed plant.

[Red Admiral on Milkweed]

I was worried about this bee for a while.  He was so still while I was shooting, I was afraid he was dead.  But not so much.  He crawled around after a few minutes, but his wings did seem pretty badly damaged.  I wonder if this is an 'old' bee?

[Old Bee on Anne's Lace]