Author: Brennah

Last Aster Standing

Back in 2021 we started some native wildflowers from seeds. Since they are perennials they didn’t really fill out until the next year, though a few plants produced a scattering of flowers in their first year. One of of the species we planted was the aromatic aster. I chose it because it was supposed to be an especially late blooming and drought tolerant  species (we’re mostly in a wetland, but had one dry area to plant) and by early November of last year it was the last aster still blooming. (To be fair, the most exuberantly blooming plant was in a favorable spot for soaking up late day warmth, and nicely mulched, which does help extend the growing season.) It was also one of the last few flowers blooming in general, so not surprisingly, it attracted the attention of all the remaining pollinators and concentrated them in a small patch of flowers. In particular, the asters were covered in bumble bees.

It was pretty easy to get some good pictures of the bumble bees since there were a whole bunch of them and they didn’t seem at all concerned about having a camera right next to them.

So many bees concentrated together in this patch sometimes led to bees foraging in close quarters…

These two got a little too close, and are trying to fend each other off here.

This little halictus bee also wasn’t too comfortable with having a big bumble bee wandering up behind him.

Another halictus bee resting on a flower. She hung out on this flower for quite a while.

There were a couple of drone flies hanging out in the midst of all the bees. Drone flies are a type of hover fly, also known as flower flies (and both names are quite accurate).

After the encounter with the bumble bee this halictus bee decided to groom himself and have a little rest, giving me a particularly good opportunity to take his portrait.

There were a few of these tiny, colorful agapostemon bees darting around. They’re tricky to photograph because they’re fast, but I noticed they would pause and rest every once and a while, so I managed to get a couple nice pictures of them.

Autumn Leaves

I was really enjoying photographing the Autumn leaves last fall, and I wound up with quite a lot of leaf photos. Here are a few of them.

Most of the time the leaves on the blackberry brambles turn to a deep red or purplish color in autumn, but they don’t usually do this. This one plant I found at the edge of the woods has some sort of almost variegated look to it’s leaves.
An elm leaf I found in the driveway and held up to the light to photograph. Elm leaves have cool patterns in the serrated edges of the leaf and the leaf veins that I like to photograph. I’m not sure where this leaf came from though, because there aren’t any elms near the driveway.
This sassafras leaf was still on the tree when I photographed it. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to try to get one of the large dark spots in the picture, but then under the macro lens it was kind of reminding me of a sunspot so I decided I liked it.

A Wren and a Moth

I saw this little house wren at a nearby park last summer. Looking through my telephoto lens I was able to see the impressively large moth the bird was carrying. As I watched, the wren flew down from the tree and landed next to one of the metal posts that was marking out the parking area, and went inside (they were at least partially hollow). I could see the movement of chicks inside the post as the wren fed the moth to one of them.

Sunset Spiderweb

One evening recently while I was in the woods, I noticed some spiderwebs being backlit by the setting sun. As it turns out, my newer lens works great for spiderwebs, and after taking a couple fairly standard head-on pictures, I started experimenting with the angle. I didn’t have very long to work with this scene, though, because the sun was only illuminating each web for a few minutes (there were three webs that I found). I would have enjoyed more time with this subject, but I was happy with this photo.

Announcement

Lately I have been working on setting up another way for everyone to connect with me and my art. I have started a Patreon page where you can become a patron of my work! If you want to help support what I’m doing, please check it out. There are a number of different tiers and benefits for joining. Hope to see you over there!

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=79336712

The Many Moods of Prunella Vulgaris

Heal-all (also known as prunella vulgaris as well as a bunch of other names) is a common plant, and I frequently walk past it any time I’m out and about. Sometimes it catches my attention and I take pictures.

The flowers are probably the most likely part of the plant to catch someone’s eye (and yet this is the only picture of the flowers I picked to share). In this case it was the neat ring the flowers were arranged in that got my attention.
This is heal-all in late December. Recognizing plants in winter when they’re dormant adds an extra bit of challenge. This photo I like because of the water droplets inside the dried flower structure.
This one (taken on the same day as the last photo) shows a part of the plant I thought was pretty cool looking. It seems to be sort of like a shelf at the base of the flower cluster.
This one was taken in late summer and shows the flower cluster after it has dried up.

It’s interesting to see how different plants change throughout the seasons and which ones catch my attention in the winter.

Spotted Sandpiper

This little sandpiper landed not too far from me while I was out with my camera one day. I didn’t immediately recognize this as a species I’d seen before because it looks quite a bit different from the last one I photographed:

This is a photo of a sandpiper I took last summer, shortly after getting my telephoto lens.

When I went to identify my more recent sighting, I realized the markings suggested a young spotted sandpiper, and then I noticed the patch of downy fluff on the back of the neck of the bird in my photos… So the bird must have just molted into proper feathers and not quite shed all the fluffy chick down yet.

This photo shows the downy patch particularly well, but it was visible in almost all the photos.

The young sandpiper was also making some fairly exaggerated bobbing motions while probing around for food, which also turned out to be characteristic of the spotted sandpiper.

Sandpipers are shorebirds, so they forage around the edges of bodies of water. It’s good to be able to provide a bit of habitat for them, and nice of this youngster to provide me with a good clear view.

Harvestmen

A harvestman on elderflowers. This one had especially interesting markings.

I am quite fond of harvestmen (aka daddy long legs). I’m not exactly sure why I like them so much; the best way I’ve managed to describe it is that they just seem like peaceful little forest spirits… although they’re not found only in the woods, but they do seem particularly plentiful there. So, I suppose, much like the woods, they are a calming presence. Getting good photos of them, though, is a bit tricky. It isn’t that they are uncooperative (they’re actually probably more cooperative than most creatures), but super close up pictures of them tend to look pretty awkward with their legs mostly not in the frame, and they like to hang out in fairly dim places, making it hard for their colors and markings to be visible. I am now finally building up a small collection of harvestman photos that I like.

A harvestman on a mossy patch on a fallen tree

Despite being pretty common, easy to find creatures, not many people seem to know what harvestmen are; they are often called spiders, but, though they are arachnids, they belong to their own group. (They’re actually thought to be more closely related to scorpions.) The name ‘harvestmen’ refers to the order opiliones, which is a pretty general category. (For example, butterflies and moths are an order, and beetles are another order. And so are spiders.) So, not surprisingly, there are lots of different kinds of harvestmen. They come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors and have a variety of diets and habits. The harvestmen in these photos are only a tiny fraction of their variety.

Harvestman on a black raspberry leaf

Although harvestmen look similar to spiders, they don’t have two distinctly separate body segments as spiders do. They also don’t produce silk or venom. Instead of venom carrying fangs, they have a pair of tiny pincer like claws. (I’ve actually seen them carrying things with these claws, though I haven’t gotten a good look at the claws themselves as they’re tucked under the harvestman’s body.) They also use their second pair of legs (from front) as feelers and I’d noticed them probing around with them (and also that that pair of legs is often extra long) before I was able to find information about it.

Harvestman on a hydrangea flower cluster
Harvestman on a mossy fallen tree.

I’m always happy to see these little guys even if I don’t end up taking pictures of them, but I do hope I’m able to get better at photographing them.