Winter's in the air

[Radman]

A Brendalet, now over one year old. I see these critters often enough that I can actually recognize individuals. This is one of the lighter-colored ones, the other two are much darker.



That's a plumeria blossom at its feet.

[gwangi]

Went camping this weekend and came across some cool (and "prehistoric") plants. Enjoy.

Horsetails


Club moss






Indian Pipe




Sensitive Ferns

[Radman]

Okay, so here are two crummy pictures of a ruby-throat hummingbird female sitting on a tomato cage wire on my patio:





Eventhough I removed the hornworms, my tomatoes never recovered, and they died back in the next few weeks without producing any more fruit. Serendipitously, though, this left the top portion of the tomato cage as an attractive perching position for the hummingbirds. I'll try to get a decent shot of a rubythroat feeding before the end of the summer - they are at the feeder constantly - but I really need a new camera; hopefully I will get one for my birthday in September.

The feeding scenes are quite cool, especially if the hummer is fighting off a wasp, ant or another hummer - I hope to get some cool shots before the summer's over!

[Radman]

Jul 2, 2011 3:37:50 GMT paleoferroequine said:

Jul 2, 2011 2:27:05 GMT Radman said:

This bad boy was buzzing around my patio door just a few minutes ago, so I caught him and took a few pix for inspection:





Beautiful eyes! I have no idea what species this is; probably some kind of wood-boring beetle. A few years, I would have tossed this impressively-antennaed specimen into the freezer for mounting into my bug collection later, but now I'm happy just with a few pix; I let it go immediately after the photo session. See, my dino-collecting hobby is helping the environment!?

Anyway,
Cookie for whoever identifies it!
Probably common, but I don't feel like looking it up and ya never know.

Easy peasy!! Tile-horned Prionus Beetle - Prionus imbricornis , 18-20 segments on the antenna identifies this one. Part of the long horn beetle bunch. Of course I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Cookie for Paleo! I think I already gave you cred on another post but I forget where...
Found out it's a hardwoods pest, so maybe I shoulda tossed it in the freezer?

[Radman]

So, the arachnophobes may want to look away for a few pictures...
Here is a young Agriope spider, likely A. aurantia:



The body is approximately the size of an adult pinky finger's first segment, so if you're viewing this on a laptop, it may be about life-size.
It just captured a leaf-footed bug:







Here you can really see the spider silk coming from the spinnerets:



The big seam where the web is stitched together is also obvious and typical. These spiders are fairly common around these parts, and I usually see a dozen or more in my yard by late summer, this one's actually early. It will likely grow to twice its size by October. The web is hard to see, but it's about the size of a standard open umbrella. They are not poisonous, but they are not shy either - poke a finger in the web and they may come out and investigate and give you a look-see. I have never been bitten by one, although I have several times had the uncomfortable/creepy experience of walking into a full web at dusk or night when they're hard to spot.

[totoro]

I grew up in the Midwest Radman, and remember these. We called them garden spiders, and I recall the females later in the year having abdomens that swelled to a gargantuan size. They sure were creepy. I confess that as a child, more than a few were the target of my BB gun. I have repented many times for those sins.

[gwangi]

Jul 17, 2011 0:23:57 GMT totoro said:

I grew up in the Midwest Radman, and remember these. We called them garden spiders, and I recall the females later in the year having abdomens that swelled to a gargantuan size.

You mean like this? ;D





I used to work on a farm that was literally infested with these guys. On occasion I would accidentally step into a large patch of them and look around as dozens would slowly show themselves all around you. They seemed to prefer moist areas with think stemmed plants. On a few occasions I even got to brush them off my pants!

[totoro]

Haha, yep! I mean, you could hardly miss one of those with a BB...not that any decent person would shoot one *hangs head in shame*

I also recall brushing a few off in the woods. Most of my encounters were in our family garden, where they thrived by the dozens. They were awfully useful to toss at little sisters, though, I will say that!

[gwangi]

Jul 17, 2011 1:17:16 GMT totoro said:

Haha, yep! I mean, you could hardly miss one of those with a BB...not that any decent person would shoot one *hangs head in shame*

Don't beat yourself up too much, I used to smash every invertebrate in site when I was a kid, mostly for the young ladies. Now I just remove them unharmed which seems to impress them even more.

[sbell]

So after finally getting the pond in our yard running (it was here when we got here, but needed filters, plants, etc) we've had our first new resident:


It was down in the pond, and I spotted it while cleaning the filter! We've seen them around before, but it's nice to have one in residence.

Hopefully the garter snakes aren't far behind (not to eat it, just because they're cool).

[Radman]

Wow, what an awesome tiger salamander. How big is it, it really looks cool, more pix please!

[sbell]

Jul 17, 2011 22:52:14 GMT Radman said:

Wow, what an awesome tiger salamander. How big is it, it really looks cool, more pix please!

It was about the length of my hand--I've seen bigger here (including one that we found in a mousetrap at the T.rex Centre). We don't have a lot of photos (didn't want to bother it too much:


Showing it to the kids:


We're pretty excited to have it; like I said, I only noticed it because I turned off the pump to do some cleaning. There are lots of worms and arthropods in there for it to eat--plus the surrounding garden as well. Last year there was a really big striped garter snake in the yard, and we are hoping that it (and others) find their way in.

[ikessauro]

What a nice thread is this. Great pics everyone, love to see animals and plants from every corner in the world. Here's my contribution.

Not a recent, pic, took it some months ago (We're in the winter here now).
A group of Chromacris speciosa pupas, a quite common kind of Grasshopper in here.

[totoro]

Awesome, Ikessauro! I bet I'm speaking for the rest of the forum when I say you cannot submit too many photos of wildlife from your part of the world!! More! More! (Please... )

[DinoLord]

I never knew there were so many interesting types of bugs! Great photos everyone.

[Radman]

Some more hummer pix:



crappy shot of a male sitting on the tomato cage close by. Tomatoes were decimated by disease after the hornworm attack - I still got about 20 good tomatoes out of each plant so, not bad.

Female rubythroat at the feeder:





These guys are endlessly fascinating - they are not very sociable and constantly divebomb and chase each other away from the feeder. Obviously, the males and females get along a little bit, but not much from what I can tell. Mostly, fun to watch!

Good news is, my birthday is coming up in 2 months, and I'm hopefully getting a new (and much better) camera! ;D

[Himmapaan]

The idea of hummingbirds in one's own garden still amazes me.

I thought I might contribute a little. I meant to post these a while ago but kept forgetting. These were taken from the Blackburn Pavilion in London Zoo. Since nature won't come to Himmapaan, Himmapaan must go to nature; to paraphrase an idiom.





Beautiful orange-headed thrush. What was my surprise when, after taking his pictures, I turned around and discovered:



I surmise that that must be his mate and chicks. Here's another photograph, unfortunately blurred, but you get a good view of one of the chicks.



These were taken towards the end of June, so I expect they'll have long fledged. I meant to go back sooner to observe their progress, but never managed it.

[Radman]

Here is a juvenile male caught in midflight:



It looks like a female, but there are small tufts of red feathers beginning to sprout in the throat area - it will be a brilliant ruby gorget by wintertime.



A byproduct of the feeding is little drops of nectar falling onto the plants and ground below. Which is quickly exploited by these red harvester ants. They are large, (over 1/2 inch) and very rapid-moving. I have to put petroleum jelly on the feeder wire to keep them from swarming it!





Good thing, is, they keep the plumeria free of other vermin.

[paleoferroequine]

Cool pictures, I wish I could get pictures of the ones in back of my store. There are trumpet vines there and about a dozen of so of the hummers mostly females. Problem is the hummers are always fighting among themselves and are moving too fast to get pictures. Throw in a bunch of bumblebees and red paper wasps for the hummers to argue with also and there is a real maelstrom of buzzing and chirping! ;D

[Radman]

Here is a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) resting on a banana leaf in my front yard. Commonly mistaken for the slightly-larger and more common Monarch, the Viceroy is easily distinguishable by the black bar running across the hindwings, which the Monarch lacks. This is a male who has set up the yard as his patrolling territory. He makes a circuit of the yard every 2-3 minutes, then returns to this spot on the leaf. He is quite fearless and accepted my finger as his perch once. He engages every butterfly that comes by and chases them away, presumably hoping one will eventually be a female viceroy ;D



I will see him constantly for a few days, then he will disappear, whether due to predation, moving on to new territory, old age, I really don't know. This happens several times each summer.
Regardless, it's always nice to see them.