Diana MacPherson, now bereft of everything but hummingbirds and chipmunks, nevertheless manages to take adorable pictures of them. Here are some chippies:
I thought I spotted some juvenile chipmunks (Tamias striates); they are smaller (especially the ears) and they are more active than adults. I put out a bunch of sunflower seeds to lure them for photos but only one of the resident adults showed up. This one has a notch out of her ear and I recognize her as the chipmunk who lived in the front yard. Judging by how fast she stashed the seeds, I think she has moved to the backyard and I’m pretty sure she was the naughty chippy who broke off much of my moonflower vine while digging out her hole.Here she jams her finger in her mouth to stuff the seeds in so she can carry as much as possible.
I love how she looks so suspicious in these next two pictures. I think she heard something & froze. You can see the notch out of her ear.
From reader pyers, we have what looks like a European garden spider (Areaneus diadematus), also highlighted yesterday. Pyers’s email was titled “packed lunch”:
I went into our greenhouse today ( Keats’s “Season of Mists and Mellow Frightfulness“ etc etc ) and unwittingly disturbed a spider that had spun its web across the sliding door. I looked closely and noticing that it had its packed lunch with it . Now, my knowledge of British (or anywhere to be honest) arachnids is about nil so I have absolutely no idea what the species is but it was rather fun to watch it as it gathered up the trapped insect ( again no idea !) and retreated to nom elsewhere.Not brilliant photos – opportunistic on my mobile .
Finally, three elk (Cervus canadensis), including a magnificent big-horned stag, from Stephen Barnard’s ranch in Idaho. Sadly, I’ve lost his captions, but I expect he’ll provide information in the comments below.
Cue old British joke: if those are the chipmonks, where is the friar?
Now, my knowledge of British (or anywhere to be honest) arachnids is about nil so I have absolutely no idea what the species is but it was rather fun to watch it as it gathered up the trapped insect ( again no idea !) and retreated to nom elsewhere.
Almost certainly a European garden spider, even if it’s one with relatively subdued markings. As the name implies, they’re commonly found weaving orbwebs in people’s gardens, though you don’t usually see them in buildings. That job goes to the originally named house spider.
Could you see what it was eating? Could be another Araneus? Male? They will let you get really close with the camera – I took a photo from about 1 cm away.
Trouble is the depth of field with small creatures like insects & spiders, especially the quick ones.
I was surprised how good the photos look. Spidey must’ve been so annoyed at the disturbance that he just put up with the close ups. 🙂
I keep thinking its eating a kind of small carrion beetle. this does not seem to be a perfect match, but it shows why it looks like one.
It does look a bit like another spider, possibly another species of garden spider, but it’s hard to tell through the webbing.
Usually when spiders kill one another there are legs & fangs everywhere. Perhaps this spider left those behind his “crime scene”? Maybe he dispatched it later since he was disturbed.
It’s grizzly to happen upon the aftermath of a big ass spiders brawl. Heh, sounds like a country song.
Both would be kind of raggedy-assed after the brawl.
Spider says, “you’ve ruined my work AND my lunch!” Then shakes 4 of his 8 legs to punctuate his anger! 😀
“Here are some chippies:”
“Chippies”? You are calling them chippies? I don’t understand. The last time I heard someone use that term it was my mother in the early 1960’s. As best I can recall here’s the sentence; “Your father and I will pull you out of college and put you in the army if you don’t stop carousing around with that damn chippie!”
I didn’t understand then, and I don’t understand now. Could you, anyone, please explain?
Clearly you were hanging around with chipmunks & getting into mischief. You were probably stashing seeds all over the place & breaking plants by tasting them to see if they were good to eat, maybe even digging up potted plants to hide seeds.
In the UK, a chippie is either a fish & chips takeaway, or a joiner/carpenter.
The two bull elk are different but nearly identical animals and the photos were taken within seconds of each other. You can see slight differences in their antlers. They were vying for control of the herd. I really wanted a photo of them fighting, but no joy.
Nice elk. I have never gotten a picture of them fighting (or playing, it is hard to tell with teenage elk), but they are loud when they smash into each other.
Sub
The first squirrel is trying to tell us something…like, “Doesn’t it rock to be a squirrel, since we don’t invent stupid things like religion.”
ummmmm, chipmunk;-)
There’s something archetypal about that first one, with a chipmunk standing on a shore made of sunflower seeds….
b&
Apocalyptic maybe? Like an alternate ending to Planet of the Apes – after Charlton Heston delivers his famous line: “God damn you all to hell!”, the camera turns to this chipmunk, eating a bunch of seeds and looking like this.
LOL! I’m cracking myself up.
Cracking!
b&
Brilliant. “the edam is stranded”!!
True story. Last night I was grabbing a couple things from Whole Paycheck that I had forgotten when there over the weekend (but, alas not all I’d forgotten…grumble) and looked for some smoked gouda in the cheese counter, couldn’t find any. Must be stranded somewhere….
b&
I’m wondering if Diana’s “adult chipmunks” might actually be golden mantled ground squirrels. It’s a bit hard to see in her photos, but chipmunks normally have prominent stripes on the sides of the head extending right through the eye. If I’m right, her “juveniles” might be actual chipmunks (which are smaller). I’m no expert, but I suspect that among squirrels in general, juveniles are not much out and about until pretty much full grown. I’ll send some comparison photos to Jerry.
Nope these are definitely chipmunks. The young ones are slightly smaller than the adults, are still friendly to their siblings, have tinier ears and are way more energetic. They all live around my house so I typically know whose who.
Also, I live in Southern Ontario, Canada and we don’t have golden manteled ground squirrels here. They’d probably have dust ups with the chippies anyway and I’d end up with only one kind around my house if I were in their range.