Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
This will probably illicit some, “Oh, gross!” type comments but it is kind of neat. I spotted these two (look close) spiders on the side of our house recently.
Initially they were separate and I was photographing the bigger of the two. Suddenly, the big one lept at the second and, well, it was clear its intentions were less than kind.
Yeah, definitely a bit of ick-factor to the shots but also kind of cool. 😉
So here is your chance to laugh at me.
This cool dude was hanging out on one of our patio chairs just a bit ago. I ran inside, grabbed my camera, mounted my macro lens and came out and started snapping pics. I was squatting down with the end of my lens hood was only five or six inches from the spider and I don’t think it liked that because it jumped right down the hood!
This is the image I got just as it leaped into the air. That startled me as I was worried the dang thing had landed on me, and I fell backwards, right onto my butt.
My wife, worried I would panic, yells, “Don’t throw that camera!” LOL! I didn’t throw it, thankfully, and gently got it out but, boy, it sure did startle me. 😀
This is apparently an Apache jumping spider – and clearly it can jump. Kind of a cool looking dude.
Check out this little dude! I spotted him in my backyard and had to grab a pic of it. You can tell by its size in relation to the grass just how small it is. I would say it was at most a half inch long. Its bright green color was really kind of cool and certainly helped it to blend in with the grass.
This is one cool looking dude when you get a close view. As my wife’s flower gardens are in full bloom, I have been taking my macro lens out to play with the bugs.
While bees don’t really bother me, I have to admit, wasps kind of freak me out. I figure if a bee stings me, at least I have the satisfaction that it will die afterwards. Wasps though, those buggers hit you and keep coming after you – and I have had it happen.
Last week there were quite a few paper wasps sucking nectar from the flowers so I set aside my irrational fear and stuck my camera right up close to some. I really can’t help but be amazed at the intricacy and detail of their coloring. They do look pretty danged neat – as long as they aren’t chasing me. 😀
Doing some research, I learned this is a European paper wasp (Polistes dominula) – distinguished from the more common yellowjacket by its yellow / orange antennae.
They were first found on the East Coast in the 1970s and have worked their way west, first arriving in Colorado sometime soon before 2000 and are now quite common.
Interestingly enough, they are generally less aggressive than yellowjackets and some types of bees. I guess maybe I don’t need to be so freaked out by them. Haha.
Sitting around the campsite one evening recently, my wife and I were watching this good-sized dragonfly circle around. It proceeded to land on a nearby tree and stayed put for quite a while. This gave me the opportunity to grab my camera and take a bunch of pics of the cool, multi-colored insect.
I’m not really a ‘bug person’ but did find this one way cool! I’m not sure, but doing some searching I think it is a female blue-eyed darner. If anyone knows any different or can confirm, I’d certainly welcome the input.
Not particularly great pics but kind of fun. A couple weeks ago I was photographing the butterflies that were migrating through and hanging out on our miniature rose bushes. I spotted this mean looking dude staking out one of the flowers. It never tried to get one of the butterflies but when a bee would come, it would jump at it and try to snag it. It wasn’t successful during the time I was watching but it was kind of fun to see.
Last week I went for a walk after work through a local open space area. Wildlife was scarce but I did capture a few images of this guy. Notice how part of one of its wings is chewed up. Moths in the closet?? 😉
I post this picture not due to any great photographic quality but simply to illustrate how some of our gorgeous mountain areas in Colorado have been affected by this little bug.
This mountainside, as you can see, has had at least 50% of its pine trees killed. For nearly 20 years, this insect has feasted on our trees, aided by dry and warm winters that failed to stem the tide.
The good news is that the things have pretty much eaten themselves out of habitat now and their numbers of declined significantly. However, the effects will linger for decades with sad scenes like this in the high country. ?
After a week of vacation, yard work and chores took priority today but that didn’t keep me from whipping out my camera.
We have had quite a lot of dragonflies here recently for some reason and many of them were hanging out on a neighbor’s slash pile (don’t get me started on that!). While I don’t approve of his rubbish, at least it gave me a chance to snap some pictures today.
If anyone knows the specific type of dragonfly this is, please feel free to chime in and educate me. They are very cool and these particular ones were very colorful and fun to watch.
Oftentimes confused for dragonflies, damselflies are actually a different species. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica. The cool thing about them is that they actually prey on other insects making meals out of flies and mosquitoes.
