I believe that reader Paul Doerder, a biology professor at Cleveland State, hasn’t provided photos before, so this batch is his first, and nice ones they are. His comments are indented:
I’m inspired by your reader’s photographs. Some day, after my imminent retirement, I hope to work on my numerous plant and fungi pictures, if only for my own enjoyment.
Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapillus. Extremely common at bird feeders, the birds at an overlook at North Chagrin Reservation Metropark take seeds right from a hand. They literally feel light as a feather.
Green frog, Lithobates clamitans. These bookended frogs are abundant in ponds of the Holden Arboretum east of Cleveland. More commonly, they are found sitting on water lilies. [Update by Greg Mayer: Both of these frogs are actually bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). You can tell because the fold of skin that starts right behind the eye and goes over the ear turns down behind the ear, ending just above the arm. In green frogs, the fold continues backward toward the groin as the doroslateral fold or ridge. I’ve appended a photo of a green frog below the bullfrogs for comparison.]
Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii. This immature Cooper’s Hawk was a frequent visitor to our back yard, attracted by bird feeders. Though we rarely saw signs of a kill, we knew the hawk was near when the birds either quickly flew off or clung motionless to a tree branch. The hawk had a regular flight path when visiting the neighborhood feeders. Predators got to eat too!
Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum. Many trees have rather nondescript flowers, but when they emerge along with the leaves in the spring, they can be quite attractive. Perhaps it’s the delicate mix of pastel tones.
Ladybugs, family Coccinellidae. In autumn, a log on the south shore of Lake Erie was covered with ladybugs, likely not a good place to spend the winter. There were thousands, apparently of mixed species, unlike most photos on the web which show just one species. I don’t know the identity of the nearly camouflaged “bugs” also visible in the photograph.
Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. These native trees are also cultivated for their foliage and tulip-like flowers.. Even though the flowers are bright, they are not abundant and are often overlooked. The species is related to the Magnolias, many of which do have very showy flowers. This specimen was photographed at the Wilderness Center near Wilmot, Ohio:
Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus. Photographed in Allegheny National Forest of western Pennsylvania. This snake comes in both yellow and black forms, black being the most common in the area this basking snake was found.
I’m no entomologist… but the camouflaged bugs might be some kind of assassin bug? esp see halfway down here: (Diaditus species?)
http://www.austinbug.com/reduviidae2.html
That is real close. I am a bit on the fence because the membranous area of the hind wing has a vein pattern that does not quite match the veins on Diaditus. That sort of thing is key for Hemipterans.
Maybe the Damsel bugs (Nabidae), which is a predatory sister family to the Reduviidae
Nice pictures! I like the chicadee. I’m intrigued by the ladybugs: at least four species apparently! But I do not know american species… As a guess, the most abundant one, very polymorphic, is probably Harmonia axyridis, an invasive Asian species unfortunately introduced everywhere to control Aphids. At least here in Switzerland, they got the disgusting habit to concentrate on the grapes in autumn, what can totally ruin wine’s taste.
My autumn kale was ladybug central this year. Haven’t had that happen before. Repeated washing and vigorous shaking removed most, but not all, of them. Unfortunately, it gave the little Gnus one more reason to avoid the kale on their plates.
In the Lady Bug photo is the elongated one in the upper left a Diabrotica? (Spotted cucumber beetle)
Yes, and the camouflaged bugs look like Nabids, damsel bugs. So this aggregation contains at least three insect families, Coccinellids, Nabids, and Chrysomelids.
I knew if I waited a day that someone would tell me what the spotted beetle at the upper left was! Thanks!
The ladybugs are of course different species, but the large light orange spotted ones I think could be one highly variable species. The greenish oval one toward the left of course is a different family and is a spotted cucumber beetle.
I adore tulip poplars and that’s a great shot of one of the flowers!
Paul, these are really good and interesting pictures. I would look forward to seeing more of your stuff, ok?
Great pictures, Paul.
Lovely photos!
There once was a banded chickadee at a park I used to walk at who had lost one of his feet. He got around okay and, like the other chickadees, would land on your hand for food. I used to call him “Lefty” though all the banded chickadees had names.
Nice frogs too – where I walked there were a couple of different ponds – one had green frogs like these while another had mostly bullfrogs. I liked hearing the bullfrogs say “budarum”.
What a nice coincidence — this very morning, the kitty and I were watching youtube videos of songbirds, and there was one of a one-footed blue tit. She was quite a successful mother too, caring for a couple of broods. It was interesting to see her hang from a tree trunk with just the one foot. Here’s her little video; she is lovely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLz7VQJCyzM
Lovely pix! Welcome aboard!
The ears on the 2nd green frog picture are huge. I think this is a sexual dimorphism thing. Is that a female?
Yes, it is sexual dimorphism. Males have large ear drums in both bullfrogs and green frogs. The bullfrogs above are female; the green frog is a male.
Since male frogs call out to the females to mate, you’d think the females would have bigger ears. I’m sure there is a good reason why the apparent contradiction was naturally selected. Perhaps the males need to hear other males more keenly to stake out territory. Or perhaps bigger ears doesn’t mean better hearing. Evolution is always more clever than me.
Who do you think you are – Leslie Orgel?!
Beautiful photos and I appreciate the diversity. I’ve heard rattlers while hiking, but have never seen one. The photo is really nice with the snake’s yellow contrasted against the light blue rock.
The photo of the ladybugs and other assorted insects is strange and compelling.
Keep the photos coming!
These are great! I love the detail of the Japanese Maple in particular, probably my favourite tree.
“Predators got to eat too!”
Or, as Clint Eastwood would have said: “Hawks got to eat, same as worms.”
What the others said Paul – keep ’em coming! 🙂
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous photos all, Paul (even the rattler). Please keep ’em coming.
All of Paul’s photos are so bright!
Tasseled flowers with their languid droopiness are always for me such an unexpected sight amidst the hustle-bustle of spring.
I had a juvenile Cooper’s hawk in my backyard one morning last fall. I heard something large hit the sliding glass door, pulled back the curtain and there was the hawk sitting on top of a large flicker with a broken neck.
What lovely photos! I especially like the ‘abutting’ frogs. (Thanks, Merilee I think it was, for coining that amusing usage of ‘abutting’).
Yes, ’twas I, Smokedpaprika. Thanks;-)
What a treat! Hard to single out favorites since each is of a different, fascinating subject. I find myself especially appreciative of the botanical pics of late; and the focus on often overlooked inflorescences is esp. nice–grass flowers the other day, tree flowers today.
Impressive photographs, each and every one of them. I hope Paul will make a habit of sharing (t)his talent with us :-).