Insects are cool

Insects....Love them or hate them.

I used to hate them with a vengeance. 

Years ago a neighbor girl who was 9 years old used to ask me to go 'bug hunting' with her. I went along, she had her net and she'd net insects and tell me what they were. I'd photograph them.

She and her family moved away, but my fondness for searching for insects continued.

Below is the much disliked Japanese Beetle that everyone really dislikes. They do quite a bit of damage to certain plants and are horrible pests. This year's batch has been mild or they dislike the flowers I've planted.

 My absooooolute favorite insect in July is the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. They are hard to spot but patience is a virtue. Every day starting mid July when the Monarda or Bee Balm in the garden start to blossom, I go out no matter how hot is and sit in a shady spot to watch for them. 

They are fast like the Hummingbird which is also active on my Bee Balm. Each year I think about taking the outhouse down but the growth of flowers around it bring in the bees, hummingbirds, and the Clearwing beauties.

The one below was by the house which surprised and pleased me. 

I used rapid fire tracking and took two shots and composited them together for the shot below.

 

I like to do that with butterflies also. To me it shows their quick movements.

I just think they are so unusual and beautiful.

Now that you have seen the pretty ones...

How about my August Favorite Insect???

Phone shot. Yes, I got close...

I walked through thigh high grasses and weeds in the neighbor's meadow and squatted among my 'friends'.

I used to be afraid of these spiders but I realized that they are not interested in me at all. If you bump the grass that their web is on, they disappear into the grasses and return once you are gone.

Soon there will be thousands of them with larger webs

I just think they are so cool!  [Long lens]

I can't wait to find some of the very large ones. They are absolutely beautiful.

I leave you with the Buck Moon setting Thursday morning.

Looking to find normal

 or something that might be normal. I imagine people who have lost a loved one go through this also. I found myself this morning just standing in the kitchen area wondering what to do next.

I felt as if I was stuck there. Stuck to the floor with the kitchen sink staring at me. I blinked. I sighed. I wondered, did a few moments go by while I was in 'Stuck Land'?

I shook it off and decided another morning walk would be the right thing to do. I needed to go check the pasture fences even though no mules where in the meadow.

This is one of our morning views. Fog branches trees, a large wild meadow....

I didn't have my zoom lens I use for wildlife with me, but this guy showed up in our meadow. I did crop this hard. The buck is a 10 pointer. I will only admire him with photos. Though I wouldn't mind some venison myself this winter.

Sunrise in the fall is magical. The heavy fog and dew create a magical place for photographers.

My 'friends' the orb spiders are still building nightly webs in the east meadow. I am enjoying walking among them and feel slightly honored to be able to photograph them up close and personal.

I had a lunch date with my MIL's cousin who may be in her late 80's but is no frail flower. She is a force to be reconned with. We often try to meet up at least once a month through the spring to fall months and have lunch together. She is stubborn and strong like ... well myself. She has opinions and insights and is just an amazing woman who is struggling with her husband's Alzheimer's. 

She is an independent cuss just like me. She doesn't speak Bull-it, she speaks her opinions, for that I love her. 

We missed 6 months of lunches but made our date today. She is an elder that I have the utmost respect for. She has lived most of her life with her husband who lived on the road and has an independence streak that would put most elderly ladies to shame.

I see her and I feel comforted. We are comforting souls.

This afternoon I had a Pet Trailer for my bike delivered. I like bike riding and there are several choices of nice flat riding trails within 45 to 60 minutes from my house.

I figured it was NOT fair to Charlie to leave him home alone all day while I went exploring. So I did this....

He isn't too sure about the whole thing, but he likes the treats he finds inside the trailer. 

Charlie is now my soul-sole companion. We can adventure together. We can watch out for each other.

I think I will find out how good my leg muscles are soon after not having much exercise for the past 6 months.

My ex daughter in law sent me a card today and I took her letter and card to heart.

The pain of a loss
Reflects
How deeply our Hearts
Have Loved.

alive...

After a week of feeling like crap, I'm finally doing better.

I found out what it is like to be short of breath and feel as though I was wading through mud up to my shoulders. It is not a good feeling and I empathize with anyone who has experienced this.

This was a strange one for me. Sore throat for a day and then a fever for a day. Finally, the feeling of not being able to breath for days. I could breathe, but the feeling was horrible. 

I did get out last Friday early in the morning to see my friends the Orb Spiders and enjoy some quiet time before the tree guys came in with their machinery.

I don't think I will ever see this sort of scene without gasping. Just imagine if you were afraid of spiders, how would you react?

This is about 5 acres of meadow and it all looks like this when the Orb Weavers are busy. They actually are around in the spring, but they are tiny. They mature in the fall and the Females build large webs, the males sometimes build webs too.

More about Orbweavers here from the BugLady who writes for UWM Saukville, WI. Her site is full of cool information about insects. She actually has a featured blog for Bug of the Week.

A small Orbweaver according to the BugLady's latest news on Orbweavers, this could be a male...

Beautiful webs...

All I know is that I had to carefully poke my lens alongside one web to photograph this spider from the side. I was looking to get the dew drops on its body and the amazing maze of webs behind him/her.

This year has been pretty sad for butterflies. I saw one Monarch flutter by this week and am hoping that my Zinnias attract more! I spent one afternoon chasing a Swallowtail earlier this summer on the Bee Balm, but haven't seen one since late July.

When I look back on my archives on I noticed that I didn't get a lot of shots of Monarch until the start of September. So perhaps I need to be patient and keep an eye out for them. I had shots of Monarchs from September 1st through October 2nd.

A shot from last year:

In the meantime. I'm going to be grateful I can breathe much easier and I actually feel like making supper.

No more spiders today. Maybe I can find some awesome and cool looking fungi this weekend now that I feel like doing something again!

Cool Bugs and Storm Fronts!

The day the grands left we had a hard long day of rain. We received 5+ inches of rain overnight and during the day.

Yesterday was a pleasant day. It was too muddy in the garden to do much but lament about how muddy it was in the...garden.

I took a very long rest again yesterday as I hadn't been feeling well at all. It may be from the long overnight shifts and trying to do too much with too little sleep.

I think it finally caught up with me and knocked me down. 

However during the nice sunny humid day yesterday I found some interesting bugs.
My neighbor kids love bugs and since they are so excited to share their finds with me, I now too have an interest in insects.

This handsome...not so handsome caterpillar we identified as a caterpillar that would develop into an Imperial Moth.

Then I found this curious insect. I found it to be incredibly beautiful in its colors.

I found out with some help from some folks that this was actually a Blue Mason Orchard Bee.

I have never seen one before, but hope to find them again. This one at a glance could be mistaken for a fly.  It was making a nest in a piece of wood I had on the porch.

Then late yesterday I saw a small spider on the porch. I grabbed my camera with the macro/micro lens and decided to try and get a shot of it.
This proved pretty difficult as when I get near, she moved. I had to sit pretty still for a long time for her to come back into the center of her web.

After talking with another photographer last week, I would so love to be able to get a 100mm macro lens, but alas, I'm afraid that will have to wait for Christmas perhaps?
The photographer told me there was no other way to do fantastic macro shots. I believe him....but...sigh.

Anyway I'm going to keep finding bugs and trying to do decent shots. The only way possible, is by practice!

This iridescent beauty is called Basilica Orbweaver. Aren't the colors simply amazing?
This morning there was a storm front moving in rather quickly. I saw it while moving the vehicles.
Rich told me to go up on the ridge if I wanted to get some awesome cloud photos.

This is a panoramic from 4 shots that I did hand held. There was no time to set up a tripod.

I sent this shot to our local NOAA office and they sent an email that simply said "Wow! Thank you!"

Now I am sad as when the first frost comes through, the bugs will disappear and I'll have to wait until spring to hunt fantastic and cool bugs with the kids.

All good and fun things come to those who wait.

Meanwhile, after my 3 days of work, ... perhaps I can go out and find some really cool fungi and there are always slugs!