Creatures

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.

Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

I’ve posted photographs of the orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) a few times before. This one was taken just outside our front door, but her web, fortunately, is not stretched across the walk. I noticed the web two days ago but was not home when there was enough light for a photo. Actually, that was true today, as well, but I took this with flash.

As spiders go, the orchard orbweaver is quite colorful and, to my way of thinking, beautiful. I love the green color and they have a great pattern on their abdomen, although it doesn’t really show up in this photograph. The fact that they eat all manner of small insects also helps endear them to me. And this is one spider that I see quite a lot but have never seen indoors.

Trachelas tranquillus (Broad-Faced Sac Spider)

It’s time for another spider. This is a bit of a creepy looking spider, too. It’s about the right size and build for a brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) but I’m happy to report that it is meerly a broad-faced sac spider (Trachelas tranquillus). This is a fairly common spider along the central east coast and as far west as Kansas and Minnesota. While most spiders are venomous, the bite of this spider will cause pain similar to a bee or wasp sting. They only bite when provoked, however, so live and let live.

Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper)

I was out photographing things in the yard early this afternoon. There were some very small flies on buddleia leaves and I was trying to get pictures of them. Then I noticed this fellow, down on a black-eyed Susan flower. It was a bit dark and it’s a dark spider on a dark background, but still not too bad. It is a bold jumper (Phidippus audax), one of the many jumping spiders, family Salticidae.

Alobates pensylvanica (False Mealworm Beetle)

I went out to get some coffee this morning and when I came back I found this fairly large beetle on the floor of my office. I took a few pictures of it on the floor before moving it up to the spider plant on my window ledge, where I took some more photos.

I like beetles. The beetles are the largest order in the animal kingdom, with more than 350,000 described species worldwide, representing about 40% of known insects (per http://bugguide.net/node/view/60).

Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

I know that not everyone is particularly fond of spiders, so I apologize if this creeps you out. I actually don’t mind them in their place. Mind you, when walking through the woods, my face is decidedly not their place. But outdoors, eating other insects, they are good friends. They can also be quite beautiful and surprisingly colorful, to say nothing of the fabulous webs they often spin.

This is an orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta, with venusta being the Latin for beautiful), and they are quite common in our area (and I’ve never actually seen on indoors, which is just as well). This one is only about 8 inches off the ground, which made getting down under it for a photograph a bit of a challenge, but I think it’s turned out pretty well.

Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans)

It was another sweltering day today. Summer seems to have arrived at last and at one point the thermometer out back read 98°F. In the afternoon we took a short outing to the Agricultural Farm Park to enjoy their garden. This little fellow, which I believe is a green frog (Lithobates clamitans) was in a little pond in the garden. While we were there, it started to rain lightly and shortly came down quite hard for a while. The temperature dropped more than 20°F, though, so the rain was more than welcome.

Hemaris diffinis (Snowberry Clearwing)

Dorothy and I went out the Rocklands Farm this afternoon. We were mostly there to pick up a few things from Janis, but as usual, I took the opportunity to take a few pictures. The first of them is this sphinx moth, a Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). I’ve seen them many times, usually hovering around flowers and posted a picture of one back on July 07, 2013. This one was down in the grass on the edge of a field and I’m not sure how I even spotted it. I’m glad I did though, because I was able to get quite close. I took some of the entire moth but I like this close-up, that shows the details of the wing.

Micrathena gracilis (Spined Micrathena)

I had to go the the next building over this afternoon so I took my camera with me. Then, on the way back to my office I walked through the woods for a little while. I nearly walked into a spider web, which I don’t particularly enjoy, but stopped in time. Then I got some pictures of the little lady minding the web. Actually, I took about one and a half dozen pictures, but all of them are blurry or out of focus except two. First, it was fairly dark in the woods. Then, the web was moving back and forth a little in the breeze. Finally, I was standing on a fairly steep hillside, trying to avoid falling into the spider’s web. When I went around so that the sun was behind me and when the spider moved into a very small shaft of sunlight, I was able to get this picture, which I’m pretty pleased with.