Creatures

Agallia constricta (Constricted Leafhopper)

I was out in the yard this evening looking for things to photograph. We have a few things coming into bloom but I also noticed that there were more insects about than the last time I looked. I saw a dozen or so skippers, a few bees of one sort or another, and when I got down on the ground, quite a few very small insects. These are the things that you can easily overlook unless you pay close attention. This little fellow (or more likely lady, judging by the size) is only about 2mm long, sitting on the edge of a black-eyed Susan leaf. I was able to get fairly close but I’d love to get some extension tubes so I could get closer still. I think it turned out pretty well, though.

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

Albert, Brady, mom, and I went for a nice bird watching walk this morning at Martin Luther King Recreational Park in Silver Spring. We went there for a reason, it wasn’t just random. It’s a good place to see Baltimore orioles. The birds, not the baseball players. We saw quite a few although getting good photographs of them is not all that easy. First, they tend to stay up towards the tops of trees so usually you’re looking up at them through all the leaves. It’s made harder by the fact that I really don’t have a suitable lens for the job. In addition to the orioles, we saw 25 other species of bird. My pictures of an eastern kingbird actually turned out pretty well, but I’m going with this oriole picture, anyway.

Hyla versicolor (Gray Tree Frog)

I was coming back into my building early this afternoon when I spotted something out of place. In the lower right corner, just inside the metal frame against the large plate of tinted glass, was a blob. That’s all it really looked like at first. When I got closer, though, I noticed that this blob was a frog. I’m pretty sure it’s a common or eastern gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor). There is another very similar frog, the Cope’s gray tree frog (H. chrysoscelis) so I cannot say for sure, but this seems like a reasonable guess and the yellow patch on its legs (which you cannot see in this photo) means it is one of those two.

I moved him off the door so I wouldn’t be lying on the ground right there, keeping others from going in or coming out. The frog was very compliant and let me get quite close, as you can see.

Blue Jay Feathers

The youth retreat was this weekend, starting Thursday evening because the county schools were closed today (end of the grading period, or some such). I went up today, joining the group already there. At lunch time, some of us walked from the main building down to the house by the road. In the woods on the way down, I happened to notice these two blue jay feathers (Cyanocitta cristata). The blue in blue jay feathers is not because of any blue pigment but rather because of the physical structure that refracts different wavelengths of light differently. Either way, though, they are quite beautiful.

Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

The second picture I have for today was also taken on the walk that Cathy and I enjoyed in our neighborhood. It was taken just a few minutes later, still within sight of the oak trees in the previous photo. There was a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) singing in the bushes in front of a house. As we walked by it flew up onto a telephone wire, fairly close to where I was. Of course, “close” is a relative term and this is, after all, a small bird. This image is cropped from the center of the frame, but it’s still reasonably good. I know that it isn’t a migratory bird and is here through the winter. Still, birds singing are such a treat after the cold and snow we’ve had this year and it certainly felt like spring this afternoon.

Hawk With Prey

We were over at my brother’s today for an overdue celebration of mom’s birthday. We had a nice visit and of course a wonderful lunch. As we were getting ready to leave I noticed this hawk in the back yard. It is either a Sharp-shinned (Accipiter striatus) and Cooper’s (Accipiter cooperii) hawk. I’m leaning towards the somewhat larger Cooper’s although I really am no expert. Ralph was able to get a good picture from a long way away but I was stuck with just my 100mm lens. The hawk was on its prey, so it let me get fairly close without flying away. This isn’t the full frame, but I think it turned out reasonably well. I didn’t get any closer and it seemed relieved when I turned and walked back to the front yard.

Cardinal and Junco

Later in the day I saw a cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) out back. It really stood out against all the whiteness so I went to get my camera. As I came back to the back door he flew down to the bird bath, which has a de-icer in it so it doesn’t start to freeze until it gets down under about 5°F. This picture has the cardinal as well as what I assume is a dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis hyemalis). Not as good as what Albert would have gotten, but I’m pretty pleased with it. Just wait until I get a good 400mm lens.

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)

In the summer of 1993 Cathy and I took a trip to Newfoundland. We were mostly on the Avalon Peninsula but got as far “inland” as Terra Nova National Park. One thing we found interesting was their concern for “their Canada geese.” Apparently there were fewer of them than in the past, or something, we aren’t quite sure what the issues were. We found it a bit funny, though, because they are so numerous in our area and are something of a pest. In park land I don’t have a real problem with them, but they can be a bit of a nuisance. These are near my office building. Because there is an overgrown 12 (or so) acre lot next to my building and also because there is a small pond on the other side of my building, it’s actually a fairly attractive place for such wildlife as a suburban area as extensive as ours can provide.

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

I had a meeting this morning over in the next building. I took my camera with me and on the way back, wandered into the woods for a little while. There is a small drainage pond that has mostly silted up but, particularly during the wetter times of the year there is standing water there. It was unseasonably warm today, into the low 60s, and there were quite a few birds about. I watched this eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) fly from a branc near the pond and (I assume) catch insects just above the water. He’s fly down, hover briefly, and then return to the branch. Of course, I really need a longer lens, a tripod, and quite a bit more time if I’m going to get really good pictures of birds, but I like this one pretty well.

Funnel Weaver Spider

Those of you who didn’t like the photo of the millipede that I posted on November 4 probably won’t like this photo any better. I admit that I am a bit squeamish when it comes to spiders. Maybe that’s the wrong word, maybe chicken would be better. But I generally let them be, because they kill and eat things that I like even less. This one was on the floor at church and some of the kids were a bit freaked out that I was down on the floor taking pictures of instead of stepping on it. It’s the way I am. Sorry. This particular spider is a funnel weaver (family Agelenidae), one of 15 North American species in the genus Coras.

Woodland Ground Beetle

My go-to site for insect and spider identification, http://BugGuide.net/, is not responding this morning, so I had to identify this the old fashioned way, with my handy Peterson Field Guide to Beetles. I’ve identified this as a ground beetle (family Carabidae) and most likely a woodland ground beetle (tribe Pterostichini). Once BugGuide is back up, I’ll confirm that and try to get a genus and species. In any case, it’s a pretty beetle and not a pest to farms or gardens. I found it on the ground at church before youth group and put it in a paper cup in the fridge (to slow it down). Then I photographed it at home afterward, on a piece of white cloth on our dining room table. This is what Cathy puts up with. I released it into the front garden when I was done, none the worse for the ordeal, I believe.

Millipede

This tiny millipede was crawling across our kitchen floor this evening. I grabbed my camera and got down with him (or her, I have no idea). There are a lot of millipedes and I don’t have any idea which tis one is. It’s very small, about two millimeters in diameter and about no more than four centimeters long. The thing tat made it hard to photograph was that it kept moving. Maybe if I put it in the fridge for a few minutes it would slow down, even when I took it back out. But I didn’t try. When I was done, I put it in the pot of one of my large house plants.