Stairing Contest with the Merlin Falcon

 Today in Valley Forge.  I was standing directly under him.

"Uh, Oh! Dropped the Seed"

Bluebird - Early morning - Valley Forge
 

New Book "B U G S from A-Z"

I've just finished a brand new book of wonderful macro photographs called BUGS from A-Z. It's a lot of fun.  If you want to take a look just click the link: https://www.blurb.com/b/12205712-b-u-g-s

The Fields in Valley Forge Are Being Mowed

And that means you can see a bit more of the wildlife because they have no place to hide.  Here's a little fox and a harrier and another hawk that posed for my camera this morning.

Bluebird and the Cannon - Today in Valley Forge

 

The Chipmunk

Yesterday as I was walking through Charlestown Meadows I saw a little chipmunk with a few nuts in his mouth scurry across the path, run across the leaves and down into a hole.  I waited and waited and the chipmunk emerged from the hole and ran back across the leaves, jumped up on a stump, jumped off the stump and then found a few more nuts and repeated the whole process.  I sat down with him for at least an hour and got a few fun shots:

"Bird Island" The Book

Well, I finally pushed the button on the Bird Island Book.  If you want to take a look, just click the link.  You can preview the whole book for free,  Don't buy it, it is way too expensive.https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/10394832/2e45374a0ff3b1b6204b3dfaba72b0b2aaf6af3d

The Lovely Lacewing and Other Recent Favorites

Lacewing Beetle

Blue Faced Dragonfly

It's so wonderful to walk the fields of Valley Forge this time of year.  The bugs are bigger and more fully beautiful.  

The Lady Praying Mantis

 

Territorial Dispute

I was deep in the woods and came to a wetland where there were so many frogs hanging around.  I saw a green heron in the opposite side of the pool.  Walking through the high grass, I finally settled down next to the pool and waited and waited and waited.  Finally the Green Heron walked away from me and started squeaking and then up in the air another one flew and I was lucky enough to catch the shot.  I came back the next day and got a few more.  They are such photogenic birds.

 

Teenage Praying Mantises Posing for her Picture

This very morning in Valley Forge.   And the second one was in the field off of Ship Road in Malvern.  Oh they have such wonderful faces.

Ailanthus Webworm Moth on a Purple Headed Sneezeweed. Say that ten times real fast......

This garish little moth posed for me this morning in the rain in Valley Forge.  See those little water droplets on the petals of the Sneezeweed??  

And here he is turning his head and looking right at the camera!

Bunny at Breakfast in Charlestown Meadows WINS FIRST PLACE

Rabbit, Rabbit

 

Bird Island!!!

I'm here on Bird Island in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean east of Tanzania.  Truly a tropical island and a bird lover's paradise.  I'm here with two of my favorite photographers, Denise Ippolito and Paul McKenzie.  It is hotter than hot (at least 100 degrees most days), totally humid, bugs galore, but the photographic opportunities are incredible.  Here's a few of what we've found so far.

Sooty Tern Greeting

Sooty Tern - Tonsil Check

Seychelles Small Day Gecko - Look at those eyes!!

Tortoise at Sunrise on the Beach

Tiny Hermit Crab at Dawn

Talking to the Blue Crab

Fairy Tern Showing me her egg!!!!

Baby Fairy Tern waiting for Mom

Giant Tortoise - Could be over 100 years old

Blue Crab - My Favorite

Momma Fairy Tern feeding a fish to her baby

Noddy Terns in the Boudoir

Fruit Still Life

Tropic Bird - Look at that Tail

 Noddy Tern with Nesting Material

Noddy Terns in Love

Noddy Tern and Red Flower

Another of Mom and Babe Fairy Tern

Baby Noddy Tern

 

"Bluebirds" win Second Place in BetterPhoto March Contest!!

Mr. Bluebird offering a little treat to his sweetie.  This was at Brightside Park near our house in Charlestown Meadows.
 

Macrosiagon - Otherwise known as the Wedge Shaped Beetle - Look at those Antennae!!

Brand new bug for me.  And not such a good one.  I learned that they hang around flowers that wasps like.  Then the female beetle lays her eggs.  The eggs hatch and the larvae are carried by the wasp to their own nests.  "Instead of eating both the wasp's egg and the pollen stored in the nest, the wedge-shaped beetle larva waits for the host's egg to hatch, then burrows into the wasp larva. It consumes the larva from the inside for a while, then rips its way out of its still-living host, wraps itself around the poor host's neck like a spiny collar, and proceeds to eat away at its victim from the outside, eventually killing it." (Insects Their Natural History and Diversity). Oh what a world! 

"Would You Like to Go Out With Me Tonight?"

 

"Mommy!!!!"

 Baby Orchard Oriole begging mom for a little something to eat this morning in Valley Forge

And here is the beautiful Willow Flycatcher who was perched near the baby Orchard Oriole.  Another great morning in Valley Forge.

A walk in the Field in Valley Forge

I got up early one morning this week and drove out to my favorite bug field in Valley Forge.  Oh, it was so good.  They are all young bugs for the most part.  Tiny and difficult to see, but they still have all their body parts.  Here's what I found:  First the Ambush Bug.  The ambush bug looks a little like a flower and hides on the side of a plant or on top of a flower and grabs his prey with his huge forearms.  

Then next was the Jumping Spider.  If you look closely you can see a reflection of my macro lens in each of his four front eyes.

     

Then came this imposter:   The Camouflage Looper Inch Worm.  He is a regular inchworm except that he bites off the flowers he is eating and using his spit, he glues the flowers onto his body to act as camouflage to his predators.  

And here is a plane old regular inchworm on a little flower. 

Finally the fabulous Robberfly.  Look at those compound eyes.  He is perched on a plant where the camouflage looper inchworm had gotten his camouflage.  Check it out by looking above at that looper.  Oh the wonders of nature.