Marbled Orbweaver Spider

Not quite as big as the Holy Shit Spider from last month but still pretty impressive. I wandered down the drive this afternoon to collect the mail and there she was waiting for me. Her web extended from a Red Oak tree to the mail box and when I did dare to open the mail box she scuttled off into her lair among the leaves. I went back up to the house to get my camera and as soon as I tapped the web out she came out in a flash to find the juicy morsel that had become trapped in her web. Fooled her, it was the tip of my glasses. Hell, I wasn't going to touch the web with my finger, I might have got stuck to it! She's a beauty.

Marbled Orbweaver

Marbled Orbweaver

Marbled Orbweaver Lair in the folded leaf right of center.

A new Monarch emerges

This afternoon a new Monarch was born. I got a phone call and dashed round through to my neighbors yard where they had noticed a freshly emerged Monarch climbing up a Rhododendron shrub. Quickly setting my camera and tripod I rattled off a few shots as she was drying her wings. She then began to climb up the shrub and had a little flight to a higher branch where she was opening and closing her wings. She needed a name to send her on her on her way, I suggested the name Elizabeth after QE II. We wish her a safe journey down to Mexico and look forward to seeing her again next year on her return.

Drying her wings.

Climbing

Ready for departure.

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Black Swallowtails prefer Italian Cuisine apparently. The Italian Parsley plant has about 30 caterpillars while the regular parsley has none.

Black Swallowtail

Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River

I think it must be that I'm a Pisces why I like water so much. I like the sea, estuaries, rivers, lakes, lochs, loughs, ponds, creeks, streams, runs (no, not that sort of runs, a run is a waterway that drys up in the summer), canals. Anything to do with water. I think I'd rather be a Pisces than some of the other birth signs, doesn't bear thinking about really. Anyway, I digress. This is the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon  River in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a drizzly morning in September 2009.

Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River

Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River

Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River

Pocono's

Located in NE Pennsylvania are the Pocono Mountains. Part of the Appalachian Mountain chain on the Allegheny Plateau the Pocono's have long been a recreation attraction. It gets rather cold in the winter with heights reaching 2700ft but also hosts several ski resorts that attract skiers from Philadelphia and the New York area. Lots of scenery and wildlife and the fall colors are amazing. Heres a few shots in BW from the Paradise Falls area.

Paradise Falls

Paradise Falls

Pocono Stream

The Cottage

Cardinal

Digging through my old photo archive I came across this one of a Cardinal. Outrageously red and with the crest erect, one of my best Cardinal shots.

Northern Cardinal

Wood Warblers

Some of the warblers that I've photographed in the backyard.

Magnolia Warbler

Black and White Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Wilsons Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Malibu Killdeer

Charadrius vociferous easily one of my favorite wading birds.

Killdeer

Wikipedia Killdeer


The Killdeer picture was taken a few years ago at Malibu Lagoon in California. I was working nearby and after work I would often head down to Malibu to watch the birds in the evening light. The hotel I was staying at was right on Ventura Highway (Ventura Freeway nowadays). So for those old enough to remember this track here it is.

Hawkwatching, botanizing and a bit of Lepidoptering.

The conditions looked promising, nice southerly breeze, partly overcast skies but the Hawks didn't get the memo. An American Kestrel went through, a really nice male. The odd Turkey Vulture and that was it. As we were leaving an Osprey flew down Stony Valley on the North side of Second Mountain. There were a few Pewee's calling and just as we were  getting in the car a movement caught my eye and it was warblerish. Turned out to be a male Nashville, and a male Black-throated Green, but wait, theres more. A Yellow-throated Vireo followed by something we never got more than a glimpse of. Nice.

Anyway. There were these nice looking yellow flowers on the way down and Morris identified them as Tickseed Sunflowers. I took a few shots of them.

Tickseed Sunflower

I

Tickseed Sunflower

Tickseed Sunflower

This Great Spangled Frittilary was kind enough to sit still for a few milliseconds so I could take a picture. Don't know what the flower is.  [edit.] Apparently the flower is called Common Boneset

J

Great Spangled Frittilary

Monarch

Monarch caterpillars are pure munching machines, they stripped several Butterfly Milkweed plants in a couple of days. Monarch Butterflies lay their eggs on the Milkweed and thats what the the caterpillars eat when they hatch from the egg. Milkweed sap apparently is poisonous to most things so that why the Monarch caterpillars have evolved to eat it to protect them from predators (or something along those lines).

Monarch Caterpillar

Monarch Caterpillar

Monarch female.