Readers’ wildlife photos

October 10, 2025 • 8:30 am

Thanks to the four or five readers who sent me photos. Please keep ’em coming in!

Today’s photos come from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Here’s some randomonium I hope you can use. The unifying theme to these pictures is that they were all taken in my yard within the last six months .

The first picture was taken in May and shows us flowers from a green poinsettia (Euphorbia dentata)  waiting to bud:

This is a spotted bee balm (Monad punctata). It is early in the flowering season, so this one hasn’t developed the tiered layers that give the flowers the look of a wedding cake designed by Dr. Seuss, though it still has a whimsical look:

My yard has several patches of false dayflower (Tinantia anomala), and at first I thought that’s what these were, but the center looks a little different, and I believe this is an Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis). It doesn’t grow as tall or last as long as the false dayflower.

This plant is a more recent visitor to the yard and iNaturalist identified it as standing cypress (Ipompsis rubra). Online pictures show a plant that has a bright red flower, but I have yet to see this one in bloom, so I may have to wait till next year to be sure, although the leaves look like the pictures I found online. The plants in my yard are still very small, but it looks like they can grow to be quite large, so if the identification is correct, I’ll really have something to look forward to:

(I tried to take a second picture using iNaturalist, but this time the app identified it as Egyptian cypress and then froze up after I took the picture. I couldn’t find any plant called an Egyptian cypress when I did a search, so I’m not sure what’s up with iNaturalist.)

Our final entry is not a plant but a large, scary looking, but harmless zipper spider (Arigope aurantia). I saw the spectacular looking web the other day when I went around the side of the house to put some items in the recycling bin. It was so striking and amazing looking that I thought it would be easy to photograph, but I discovered that spider webs aren’t so easy to get good pictures of.

The spider gets its name from the distinctive zig-zag in the middle of the web. When I first moved to Texas, I was staying with a friend in the country and there were dozens of these spiders and their webs all around. I quickly discovered that the webs are not your typical little spider webs that can be easily brushed away; they are tenacious and sticky and you do not want to brush against one.

Although the spiders eat insects, small birds are vulnerable to getting stuck in the web. On one occasion I awoke to find a poor hummingbird stretched out spread eagle in the web. The spider didn’t take any interest in the bird, but it was a sad sight and gave me a lot of respect for zipper spiders and their webs. This one has taken up residence by the side of the house where there aren’t so many birds and I’m happy to let it stay as long as its web stays out of my face and hair!

The mighty web:

Here is her trademark signature. This one isn’t as dense or distinctive as some, but it still serves to identify the host. I wonder if our spider can spell “some pig”?:

The spider waits patiently:

Extra: Reader James Sulzer wants readers to help him identify this bird:

I took the photo today with my Canon camera at home in my backyard here in Kempton Pennsylvania. It was flying with a flock of turkey vultures that I was trying to photograph with my 400mm lens.
This was the best angle I could get before the birds left the area.

We do get a lot of hawks coming over the house because we are located a few miles from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. I might contact
someone there who may recognize the type of hawk or eagle this is. Thanks!’

Please put your answers (or guesses) in the comments.

20 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  2. The wildlife photos are quite beautiful. Please keep them coming in and publishing them! Sadly, I live in an area that is quite built-up, so my photo opportunities are limited.

    1. Yes indeed: immature Bald Eagle. I don’t think ageing immature bald eagles is that easy but, if I had to guess, I’d say it was in its second year, i.e., hatched in the summer of 2024.

  4. “randomonium”

    😆

    I think the spider has written a pretty accurate Greek “nu” and a “w”… or maybe “v•v”, so velocity squared… but, of course, in requisite cursive…

    PHANCY PHYSICS!

    😆

    1. Thank you for the kind words, David, but I had to laugh at the “technically skillful” part. If you saw me taking the pictures you’d see someone constantly fumbling, bumbling, and mumbling (and trying not to cuss!), trying to figure out what settings to use and where he put the lens cap! The camera stuff feels pretty overwhelming, but I am more relaxed and comfortable using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop for the post processing.

  7. I think your dayflower is Commelina erecta, not Commelina communis. Look closely at the spathe, the crescent-shaped structure that the flowers come out of. In Commelina communis, the spathe is hairless and open in the back. In Commelina erecta, it has hairs on the surface (clearly visible in your picture) and is closed in the back.

    1. Thank you for the careful observation! That would also make it a native and not introduced species. I rely on iNaturalist for my identification and then try to verify by doing image searches online, but you appear to really know your onions–and dayflowers!

      I’ve noticed that iNaturalist will occasionally oscillate between species identification. A friend pointed me to a discussion about that within the iNaturalist community, which you can find here:

      https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/gymnosoma-rotundatum-records-in-north-america/67664?fbclid=IwY2xjawNWBqBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEzdlB2eXRtVEtXOVBzcVE3AR58LlSb_x7PJTGqmnvN-QMbVXgdMKcw84qL4SebI0kBnaN8ajGPiuRPy59A9A_aem_esmASW6fZaVkk5fADSNl6g

      I particularly liked this suggestion:
      “Has anyone proposed that a query be inserted into the CV suggestion saying “this genus has X number of species, and ID is difficult. Here’s one that looks similar, but you should check to be sure this is a plausible ID”.”

  8. First dayflower pic, RH blossom: I swear that looks like some sort of Disney character in there against the blue bkg at first glance.

  9. Randomonium! Great word! It’s cool to look closely at the life forms that pop up under our noses unannounced. In our yard, spiders seem to want to build their webs just outside our front door. I don’t know how many times I’ve stepped out the front door only to find my face captured by a spider in her web. It’s happened numerous times. Delusions of grandeur if you ask me.

  10. Nice pictures! The Argiope garden spider is shy and harmless. The good news is that her deflated state suggests she has left an egg sac there somewhere. Like in Charlottes’ Web, you are likely to have some offspring who stick around next season!

    1. We have a huge orb weaver and her web on the pedestrian door on our garage. The web covers much of the upper doorway. I’ve just stopped using that door to avoid disturbing her. 😉

  11. I find that photo of the spider on her web, illuminated by the sun, just gorgeous. I plan to share it on Facebook (with attribution, of course.)

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