Recent Photos

A random assortment of photos from the last couple of months.

I saw this Tiger Swallowtail through the window and grabbed my camera, ran outside, and managed to get a few photos before it flew away.

This skipper butterfly (Woodland?) posed nicely for me.

Most hydrangeas come from Asia but some are native to the Americas. I like the wide variety of shapes and colors.

Lots of other flowers around, of course.

Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot) sometimes has a tiny red flower (the "ruby") in the middle of their large white blooms. It's only about the size of a grain of rice. One of the theories for its evolution is that it looks like an insect visiting the flower, which makes other insects think it's worth visiting.

There are still a few of last year's seeds around.

For a different aesthetic, here's a few abstracts.

I haven't seen as many otters this summer but I spotted this mother and juvenile near the marina.

Whereas, there seem to be more harbor seals around than other years. The babies grow so fast that, from a distance, it soon becomes hard to tell them from the adults.

The Great Blue Herons ignore the seals and go about their business. Usually they catch fish but if you zoom in you can see this one caught a shrimp.

And a few more birds.

Spot the Kingfisher. Unfortunately I didn't have my telephoto lens. The Kingfishers were scarce earlier in the summer, I wonder if they were nesting somewhere else? But they seem to be around more now. Several times I've seen one chasing another, chattering noisily. That's probably the parents kicking the kids out of their territory.

In Saskatoon I enjoyed seeing the Jackrabbits (actually hares). Here it's cute little Cottontails.

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Metamorphosis

A while ago I posted some photos of a Silver-spotted Tiger Moth caterpillar. Later in the summer I came across another one and decided to keep it and see the moth. (I actually spotted it just as Shelley and I were going out. She waited while I ran back to the house, got a container, and got the caterpillar. It's a good thing she's patient with my eccentricities.) Four weeks later, here's what emerged:

Back to the beginning, here's what the caterpillars look like:

The first challenge was what to keep the caterpillar in. At first, I used a large mason jar. But I realized that wasn't going to work well when the moth emerged. I'd have to get it out of the jar to photograph it, and it would be hard to do that without disturbing the moth. I eventually found a food canister from the dollar store that I could use inverted. That way I could remove the main part of the canister with minimal disturbance. I drilled some holes in the bottom (now top) for air. I also needed something to hold the pine twig with the cocoon and a longer twig for the moth to climb up. Shelley found me a jewelry ring holder that worked perfectly with a rubber band to hold everything together.

The morning after I captured the caterpillar it started to build its cocoon. It started with a faint ghost shell of silk, which it reinforced with its hairs. It worked very slowly so it didn't seem to be doing anything, but every time I checked on it the cocoon was a little more substantial. I'm not sure how it managed to remove its hairs and build them into the cocoon. With its mouth presumably. Here's the mostly completed cocoon.

It was supposed to take 3 to 4 weeks for the moth to emerge. After 4 weeks I was starting to think it was dead. Instead, I should have been watching it more closely. Sadly I missed the emergence. Late in the evening I walked by the kitchen table where I had it, and out of the corner of my eye noticed something different. The moth had emerged from the cocoon and climbed up the twig I'd placed for that purpose. I was afraid it would emerge at night, but late evening makes sense - a little warmer, and lots of darkness ahead. I scurried around gathering camera and lights. It looked like its wings were fully deployed so I was afraid it would be ready to fly. But it sat motionless when I removed the container and throughout the bright lights and photography. And it was still sitting motionless when I left it outside and went to bed. No surprise, it was gone in the morning.

Butterflies just have a chrysalis - a hard shell around the pupa. Moths have a similar shell around the pupa, with a cocoon around it. Moths first have to escape the hard shell, and then the cocoon. Some moths produce a "solvent" that weakens the cocoon so they can push their way out.

It's amazing that all the materials to make the moth were completely repurposed from the caterpillar. No more, no less, no construction debris left over. (Other than the cocoon and the pupa shell.) The moth basically liquefies inside the shell, and that liquid reorganizes itself to build a moth. Amazing. Endless forms most beautiful indeed.

June Beetle

I happened to be in the sun room when the condo gardeners were beside our deck. I heard one exclaim at what he had found. He put it on the deck but I couldn't see what it was. I couldn't resist so I went out to see. It was this large (1 inch?) June Beetle, a Long-haired according to iNaturalist. They're also known as watermelon beetles, for obvious reasons It wasn't very lively, and it was missing a leg, but still impressive. It made a half hearted attempt to fly away at one point but barely got its wings out.

June Beetles are a kind of scarab beetle, like the Egyptians revered. Dung beetles are also scarabs. Like cicadas, they spend most of their life (several years) as larvae (grubs) underground. Once they emerge as adult beetles they only live a few weeks.

I was surprised when I picked it up to reposition it for photography and it hissed at me. Quite a loud hiss. Apparently they squeeze the air from their abdomen (no lungs). It doesn't seem like a hiss would be a very effective defense against predators, but maybe if you're small enough to eat beetles it would throw you off.

This looks like a female due to the smaller antennae. Males have much larger fan shaped antennae that they use to track down females by smell.

Animals

A few photos left over from our spring road trip.

I always enjoy seeing Pronghorns. It's cool that their closest living relatives are giraffes.

Driving over the Bighorns from Five Springs to Sheridan we often see moose.

Of course, we saw lots of squirrels and chipmunks.

We look forward to seeing the yellow-bellied marmots at Five Springs but this year they were scarce. And the few that were around were very skittish. There was a rock where one seemed to like to hang out, but it wouldn't let us get closer than a few hundred yards. I needed my longest telephoto lens for this shot.

There is a park in Sheridan with a pond where we go to see turtles, frogs, snakes, crayfish, birds, and other wildlife.

As with many places, the bullfrogs seem to be taking over. There were lots of giant tadpoles and adults.

There are Bighorn Sheep around, but we'd never seen any on previous trips. This time we saw them twice around Bighorn Canyon, first on the State Line Trail, and then beside the road driving out. They were all females so no big curly horns.

Also for the first time we saw the Pryor Mountain Mustangs, descended from the original Colonial Spanish horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish.

I didn't spot many lizards this trip. I think this is a Common Sagebrush Lizard.

On the way home we drove through Yellowstone park. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but the bison are hard to miss.

We've visited Bend before, but this was the first time we'd been to the High Desert Museum. It's worth a stop if you're in the area. They have some rescued birds and animals.

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