We have contributions from a new reader, Keith, whose notes are indented. Be sure to send me your GOOD wildlife photos, as the tank truly is running on low.
Here are photos of two of my favorite flowers: a Jackson Perkinks Rose called “Brass Band” in my front garden, and a day lily with bumblebee.
Attached you will find photos of praying mantis hatching in my back yard. I thought at first it was saw dust from my window but later went out and found this and took many pictures from beginning hatching trough the summer including two eying each other up for lunch in my planter. I am amateur photographer and I just tried to focus and shoot and I could not tell what I had taken until I downloaded them.
I include an early morning spider web with thistle-seed hulls caught in it. The web deteriorated shortly after I took the photo:
Finally, Stephen Barnard sent photos of elk (Cervus canadensis) doing what elk do: trying to increase the number of gene copies
There was a bit of a disagreement about whose cows these are. The bull with the biggest antlers wins.
These are wonderful!
I’m the submitter of these photos. They were actually taken by my mom in her back yard. Despite living in the city, she’s got a nice little wild-life haven going on.
Thank you for posting them! She will be thrilled 🙂
Just great photos! All of them.
The spider web was really a master piece of art—
Wow, in that first photograph, a rose really is a rose is a rose. Or, to invert Ms. Stein’s other tautological saying, there is a “there” there.
Very nice. Those are Chinese preying mantises, judging from the form of the egg case.
In the spider web, you can possibly see the spider lurking in the cup thingy hanging near the top of the picture. These spiders, when they are home, are generally found above the web in a hiding spot.
Thank you Mark, I took these pictures and I never noticed the spider,this wasn’t the clearest one but the only one with the feeder in it and I was only able to take two and it deteriorated in the wind. Thanks for the second pair of eyes.
A nice variety of creatures.
Sorry to be so dense Jerry, but how does one submit a photo? I can’t for the life of me find an email address.
Go to the “Research Interests” link at the top right of any page. There’s an email address there.
thankyou!
Look at all those praying mantis eyes!!
Fantastic photos!
Stunning rose. I’ve pinched it for my photo library, credited it too.
LOVE the mantis series! Nothing cuter than those cut-throat, cannibalistic little first instars. 😀
Surprises me the way they all seem to be “dropping” out of one hole in the ootheca in the first shot.
Love the baby mantises!
I’m curious as to whether the Mantises prey on each other upon emerging- if they don’t, I’d be curious to know exactly why…..
Oh, famously so!
While taking many pictures of this hatching we observed that they moved away from the egg case quite rapidly and changed to a gray-green color. More hatched from this case the next day. I could find praying mantis in my small yard all summer and took a picture of two eyeing each other on my porch planer, I saw near adult catch a bumble bee in tall white hosta flower in August and also observed one shedding its skin. This was a very wonderful experience
Wow – you got a lot of mantis in this summer! I too like watching them but it is rare to find them hatching or hunting.
They are remarkable patient with getting a camera lens shoved in their faces too – you see that dark dot of the eye looking at it but they stay still.
Lucky you! I primarily only notice them as adults, and suspect that’s because they’re more active, searching for mates, etc. Otherwise they’re Just. So. Cryptic!
I’m glad all those memorably observable moments happened in the yard of someone who noticed and really appreciated them. 🙂
Yep, they eat each other upon hatching so the little beasts need to be quick!