Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Newt]

*Ahem* Turkey condors. 

Nice shots!

[Viking Spawn]

Now THIS is an interesting thread!   I will have to go back and scroll through the history of this one.  In the meantime, I hope a lot of you like Entomology.  I love my backyard jungles.....

[Doug Watson]

Hey its great to see more than the usual suspects contributing here, we are getting some great shots. Only problem is now I have no idea what to call a carrion bird with a bald head and a hooked beak anymore

Paleona - I love your flowers but one bit of advice, when you see a Japanese Beetle....KILL IT... and when your done....KILL IT AGAIN! They feed on over 400 varieties of plants and thanks to the no spraying laws our province brought in I have had an infestation this summer. They skeletonize the leaves of my roses, cherries, beans plus they eat the flowers of the roses and my potentillas. Oh by the way.....KILL IT! If you can't spray there as well I have been using the Japanese Beetle Traps and they work surprisingly well and don't trap other species.
Oh yah, did I mention...KILL IT!

paleoferroequine - that is my kind of neighbourhood. Great shots. How much you want to bet those Turkey Vultures were saying to each other, "You touch the wire" "No you touch the wire"

Viking Spawn - Great Mantis shots! I had never seen their egg laying and hatching process, facinating.

[Viking Spawn]

Thanks Doug!  I have plenty more too.  I love Mantids!  Those pics were taken late last summer about 100 feet from my home where there is an overgrown field.

As for the other insect you mentioned......  I wonder what you mean?   

[Doug Watson]

Thanks Doug!  I have plenty more too.  I love Mantids!  Those pics were taken late last summer about 100 feet from my home where there is an overgrown field.

As for the other insect you mentioned......  I wonder what you mean?   

Pretty beetle....KILL IT!

[Viking Spawn]

Thanks Doug!  I have plenty more too.  I love Mantids!  Those pics were taken late last summer about 100 feet from my home where there is an overgrown field.

As for the other insect you mentioned......  I wonder what you mean?   

Pretty beetle....KILL IT!

LOL 

[Paleona]

Newt- thanks for the ID for the chicory!  I hadn't gotten around to looking it up.  They're beautiful little wildflowers, I probably won't eat them, but that's cool to know that they're edible.

Doug- glad you like the pictures and thanks for the advice, haha.  I'l definitely 'take care' of the next beetle I see.  This year I had problems with burrowing beetles getting to my summer squash, so I do NOT want any more pests eating what I grow. =/  I'm new to gardening, but I really enjoy having my own fresh herbs around and whatnot.

Those are some beautiful mantis shots, Viking Spawn!  I wish I could find some around here.
 

[paleoferroequine]

Those mantis pics are really great. I see quite a few around here but only solitary females. Would love to find what you did. Probably haven't looked good enough.

[Viking Spawn]

Thank you.  Glad you all like the mantis pics!  They have reached maturity and should start mating and then laying eggs in the next 2 weeks.   I follow their cycles every year.  They are truly unique animals!

[Tyto_Theropod]

Great pictures, everyone! Lordy, I seem to have started a birdie revolution over the whole hawk/buzzard/vulture/condor thing! I'm a bit nerded out over raptors of the avian kind ATM as I'm doing a falconry course, and I can tell you that real raptor training is nothing like Jurassic World!

Viking Spawn, I love the mantis shots - they really are beautiful insects, but sadly we don't get them here in the UK. I see thought that one of them is making a meal of a bumblebee, something we do get here and that I love photographing. I should really get off my backside and do more Photobucket uploads so I can show you some of my recent shots, and some of my pictures of birds of prey.

[Newt]

Tyto_Theropod - Do it!

Viking Spawn - Great mantis shots! Are those Tenodera sinensis or T. angustipennis? I've been seeing a lot of the little native Stagmomantis carolina lately, but of course never when I have my camera handy.

[Viking Spawn]

Thank you again everyone.  The species is Tenodera sinensis, which is common across Ohio.  T. augustipennis is found only in a few eastern states from what I've read.  T. sinensis is more widely distributed and currently the most dominant of the introduced species.  Occasionally, I see mantis religiosa as well.  But those are rare in my area.

[Newt]

I took a ton of photos while walking at a local wildlife management area this Saturday. I'll post more soon, but for now, seeing as it's lunchtime - just those of animals feeding.

Clip-winged grasshopper eating grass


Leaf-footed bug sipping cocklebur sap


Goldenrod soldier beetle eating the pollen of a DYC (*$#% yellow composite)


Skipper (as yet unid'ed - skippers are tough!) feeding on nectar of same plant


Less fortunate skipper met a white-banded crab spider pretending to be a ray flower


Smeared daggermoth caterpillar eating a willow leaf


Bush katydid demolishing a rose-mallow blossom


Eastern pondhawk chewing up a cranefly


And finally, black-and-yellow argiope with silk-wrapped prey

[Viking Spawn]

I love insect photos, so keep them coming!!!  But for some odd reason, I'm getting hungry.   

[Newt]

Thanks VS! There will be more bug pics, but first - an anuran interlude! Three of my eight local hylids.

Green treefrog on black willow trunk


Green treefrog on river cane leaf


Treefrog juvenile on leaf - this little fellow could be either a Cope's gray or a bird-voiced treefrog; I don't know any reliable way to distinguish them at this stage


And some of the many color variations of the eastern cricket frog:

[Viking Spawn]

Beautiful animals..!  The only thing I ever see around my home are toads in various sizes.   But the darn things need to do a better job of ridding my yard of mosquitoes!   

[Doug Watson]

Thank you.  Glad you all like the mantis pics!  They have reached maturity and should start mating and then laying eggs in the next 2 weeks.   I follow their cycles every year.  They are truly unique animals!

Some more great Mantis shots!

I took a ton of photos while walking at a local wildlife management area this Saturday. I'll post more soon, but for now, seeing as it's lunchtime - just those of animals feeding.

Great shots Newt. That Crab spider shot reminds me of the times I have leaned in to smell one of my roses only to see a Crab spider with its arms wide open to greet me. I haven't seen any this year probably in a large part due to the damage by the Japanese beetles on my flowers.

Thanks VS! There will be more bug pics, but first - an anuran interlude! Three of my eight local hylids.

Wow! All we have is the Eastern Gray Treefog, that Green Treefrog looks like something out of the Amazon!

[Newt]

They're expanding their range - wait a few years, and you might have green treefrogs in Ontario! 

[Newt]

Everyone loves lepidopterans, right? Sure they do.

First, some butterflies...

Silver-spotted skipper


Bronze copper


Cloudless sulphur


Common buckeye


Gulf fritillary


Hackberry emperor


Viceroys


Pipevine swallowtail


...then some moths out in the daylight:

Yellow-collared scape moth


Goldenrod stowaway


Not bird droppings, but a pair of fruitworm moths!

[Viking Spawn]

Beautiful pics!  I too, happen to love butterflies...  Here are some of mine taken this summer!