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.

Oncopeltus fasciatus nymphs (Large Milkweed Bug)

A week ago (August 11, 2014) I posted a photo of a large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus). These are nymphs of the same thing, also on the Asclepias tuberosa in our backyard. They feed on the seeds of the milkweed but don’t seem to do any harm to the plants, so I don’t mind them. Also, they are quite pretty, in a creepy, crawly sort of way. The adult bug is fairly large, more than 2cm long. These nymphs are quite small, though, 3 or 4mm long.

Cupido comyntas (Eastern Tailed-Blue)

The youth group had a pool party this afternoon and we couldn’t have had better weather. It was warm but not too hot, the sky was a beautiful blue with a few clouds, and the water was cool and refreshing. I took a lot of pictures but the one I’m going to share with you all is a butterfly. There was a little cloud of these, four or five, fluttering around an shady spot where water had been splashed onto the concrete around the pool. They are quite small, not much more than about one centimeter tall (about 3/8 of an inch).

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus)

With the fox that we had in our yard over the winter, I had hoped that we’d have fewer rabbits this summer. Cathy saw the fox this week, so it’s still around, but we’ve had as many rabbits as ever. Of course, for all I know, we’d have twice as many if the fox were not around. Anyway, this fellow (or lady, I don’t know) was sitting out in our back yard, happy as you please, this afternoon when I came home. The grass is lush this summer and they haven’t done as much damage to our garden as in some years, because of that, but I still wouldn’t mind having fewer of them.

They are cute, though. That’s something in their favor.