Photo gallery – Page 4 – Brennah's Backyard

Flying Ants

swarming ants — Ant workers and queens on a leaf

A couple of times this year, I have witnessed the ant colonies in the yard swarming. Or at least, that’s what I’m inclined to call it; as a beekeeper, swarming means colony reproduction to me. But the process is different for ants, and I’m not sure swarming is the right word for their colony reproduction. All the colonies send out their young queens and drones (is drones what it’s called for ants?) to mate and presumably hibernate and start new colonies next spring. The workers do not accompany them as honey bees do. Each colony sends out dozens if not hundreds of queens. The queens seemed reluctant to leave; it looked like the worker ants were herding them out, and appeared to be chasing and even biting the young queens. The queens have good reason to be reluctant; their odds for surviving their flight are terrible. There’s a reason each colony sends out so many.

ants swarming — A queen being herded to the edge of a leaf

By the time I started taking pictures, most of the queens had taken flight already, (this first part happens impressively quickly) and many of those that were left had damaged looking wings. They were trying to leave, and the workers were insisting, but their wings were causing them difficulty.

queen and worker ants — This queen is actually missing one of her wings

ant queens and workers — Ant queens and workers on a leaf. A couple of them have slightly battered looking wings.

ant queen and workers — This queen seems to have good wings

ant workers and queens

All colonies of a particular species of ant sends out their winged offspring at once, and for a few hours, the air is thick with flying ants. Not too surprisingly, any creatures that like to eat insects see this as a brief opportunity to feast.

jumping spider eating queen ant — This is how most of the flying ants will end up; as food, not necessarily for a jumping spider specifically, but for many different predatory insects, spiders and birds.

I have seen ant colonies sending out their queens in previous years, but this year, not only did I see it happen twice, it seemed like there were just a lot more ants. It seemed like every few feet was another clump of ants, sending off their young queens. ant queen and workers

Cool Weather Crops

Fall can be a very productive time for the garden. All the cool weather crops we’ve planted for winter are reaching maturity now, and it hasn’t yet become cold enough to kill the warm weather crops (which right now is mostly just tomatoes, since we weren’t able to plant much for summer due to the flooding this spring). Most of the cool weather crops we planted should continue to be harvestable into winter, and although options are fairly limited now, there are still seeds that can be planted. For the most part, though, plants grow very slowly during the dead of winter, so it is important to have most of what you want to be eating in the winter pretty much full size by late fall.

endive and escarole — Endive and escarole, but which is which is confusing with these varieties since they both look more typical of the other type… but it doesn’t matter too much, as they taste similarly. They are both the same species and are actually a type of chicory.

mustard green leaf — The frilly edge of a mustard leaf.

This is Tokyo bekana, a plant in the mustard family that is mild enough to use like lettuce.

The purple veins of a variety of flowering broccoli

Mizuna, another mustard/cabbage family crop. Sometimes we may rely on this plant family a little too much… it has a huge amount of variety, but many of the ‘different crops’ are actually the same species. This is the same species as the flowering broccoli and the Tokyo bekana, as well as other crops we’ve planted that I haven’t included here.

tomato flowers — Most of the tomatoes around just came up on their own, and this one came up pretty close to winter, but nobody wants to just pull it out…

Mushroom Gallery

Mushrooms are not my most familiar subject, especially as far as specific types go. Most of the ones I can specifically recognize are the distinctive looking ones (exactly the ones you’d expect). Mushrooms are undoubtedly worth knowing about, but so far I have mostly just been observing (and photographing) them. And I’ve been spotting some interesting ones lately.

bird's nest mushroom — This is some sort of bird’s nest mushroom, but these ‘nests’ are not open yet…

bird's nest mushrooms — Some more bird’s nest mushrooms, and these ones are very ripe (and smushed together pretty tightly).

These mushrooms were growing from a chunk of earth torn out of the ground by a fallen tree in the woods. This is the spot where they were thickest, which was in deep shadow, and it was dusk, so this picture is pretty dim, but it captures the scene quite accurately.

turkey-tail mushrooms? — These are the mushrooms I think might actually be turkey-tails. These were on the fallen cherry tree last February, and the only ones I’m including in this series that weren’t spotted in the last couple months.

Aster Season

The time of year when the asters and goldenrod are blooming (late summer to early fall) is the time of year when most social insects (insects that live in colonies) like honey bees are at their highest population for the year. The asters are one of the last major nectar flowers for the honey bees, and the asters are covered in them. At first glance it may seem to be all honey bees and other social insects (like hornets and bumble bees), but there’s actually quite a wide variety of pollinators drawn to them.

melissodes (longhorn) bee with pollen on aster — Melissodes (longhorn) bee with pollen on aster

probably an andrena bee, on an aster — This is most likely an andrena bee, but the andrena clan is one I’ve not gotten around to thoroughly figuring out yet, so I’m not quite sure.

Painted lady butterfly on new england aster. I often don’t have much luck photographing butterflies when I am specifically trying to, but while just photographing whatever I could find on the asters, this butterfly landed directly in front of me.

bumble bee on new england aster — Bumble bee on new england aster

Cucumber beetle on heart leaved aster. This aster is less common in my yard, and I’ve been trying to encourage it. These flowers are on some new plants found in the lawn this spring and preserved from mowing.

Hover fly (sryphid fly) on aster — Hover fly (sryphid fly) on an aster

Wasps and Hornets, Garden Allies

Paper Wasps

Social wasps like paper wasps apply the large workforce of an insect colony to a different task than that of the honey bees (although wasps are still pollinators): pest control. Adult wasps feed on nectar while their larvae eat other insects. The larvae aren’t able to catch insects to eat on their own, so they rely on the adults in the colony to hunt for them. Paper wasps seem to be pretty non-aggressive from what I’ve experienced, so these are the ones I hope will establish nests around my garden.

Paper wasp (polistes) on goldenrod — Paper wasp on goldenrod looking a little startled to see me

Paper wasp (polistes) grooming on goldenrod — Paper wasp grooming on goldenrod

Bald-Faced Hornets

Like paper wasps, bald-faced hornets hunt insects for their larvae, but they also have a reputation for being ferocious, and having very painful stings. I suspect though, that the temperament of individual colonies varies. For one season there was a colony of bald-faced hornets on the from of my house. No one got stung in the time it was there, even though I got pretty close to it a few times. Either way, the foragers (not by the nest) are fairly calm, most of the time. I’ve always thought they were really cool looking, but this is the first year I’ve been able to get pictures of them I’m satisfied with.

Bald-faced hornet (dolichovespula maculata) on goldenrod — Bald-faced hornet on goldenrod

Platydracus Maculosus Rove Beetle

I took these pictures of a spotted rove beetle (platydracus maculosus) at the beginning of this month, but I saw what I think may have been the same (individual) beetle again yesterday. My main reason for thinking that is that I found it in exactly the same spot as last time.

Rove beetles don’t seem to be very well known and it wasn’t easy finding any information that was specific to this species. I found out about them when this spring’s flooding drove them out of their usual cover, and now I seem to be keyed in to them because they’re very unique looking and I find them cute.

Willowherb

Willowherb is a plant with a very small pink flower, that I’ve always looked at with mild curiosity, but it wasn’t until I noticed its seedpod that I decided to identify it (there’s always a variety of things to identify, vying for my attention). I’d not seen a seedpod quite like it before, although I’d seen plenty of other interesting seedpods. Both the flower and the seedpods of willowherb are small and all these photos are larger than life size. The seeds are probably about the size of poppy seeds and the flowers about the size of a lentil. I don’t know a whole lot about them yet, but they did finally manage to catch my attention!

A fascinating Silk Moth (Antheraea Polyphemus)

A couple of days ago, I spotted a very large moth in the hoophouse. It was apparently nocturnal, and seemed to be sleeping. When I went out a little later to photograph it, I found it resting on the side of the hoophouse, with its wings spread and the light shining through them. This made for a very good opportunity for pictures since I had all the time I needed, and… mostly enough light.

antheraea polyphemus moth? — The moth in the hoophouse. I think it may be an antheraea polyphemus moth, or at least something closely related. It doesn’t seem to even have a common name (at least, I haven’t found one, it seems to just be referred to as ‘polyphemus moth’) but the subfamily it is in has a common name: silk moth.

I returned at dusk to make sure it was able to find its way out of the hoophouse, and it became even more clear that it was nocturnal.

Snapshot of an Alder

Alders are a water loving, nitrogen fixing tree or shrub (depending on the exact species and growing conditions). We planted ours in 2015, and we already knew that the water loving part was important. Now, after the floods they’ve been through, the alders are looking beautiful.

Alder branches with leaves, cones and catkins — Alder leaves, cones and catkins

Alder leaves, cones and catkins covered in ice from freezing rain

Alder branches with leaves — Alder branches

Spring Flooding (part 2)

As I was wading around our land taking pictures of the flooding, I started to notice a lot of little creatures taking refuge from all the water…

Ants, a jumping spider and a snail — Some ants, a jumping spider, and a snail on a blade of grass

Garter snake up on our wood pile, out of the water

In this clump of grass sticking out of the water, there were hundreds of pillbugs and sowbugs clustered there to escape the flood. Pillbugs and sowbugs are crustaceans (like crayfish and lobsters). They are the only crustacean families that have adapted to live on land… making it a bit ironic to see them all fleeing the flood.

Pillbugs — A couple of pillbugs on a blade of grass

Rove beetle and another insect — A rove beetle and another insect (I’m not sure what at this angle)

Rove beetles, other beetles — A variety of small creatures on a dried stalk of grass

Pillbugs, sowbugs and a millipede — This is another case of my noticing something after the fact… I did not see the millipede when I was taking this photo!

Spider standing on water — Spiders are the show offs, as they can run around on the surface of the water. They look like they are running on a super slippery surface, and they probably prefer having something solid to stand on.

Ants and beetle — Three ants and a beetle

Cluster of ants — A clump of ants clinging to a twig