Nature & Wildlife Thread

[JBtheExplorer]

Took a hike in the woods today.

Poison Ivy, I believe. I won't be testing to see if it is or not.

Interesting insect on a back-eyed susan.

Common Milkweed

Joe-Pye Weed

Swamp Milkweed. The white dots are Monarch eggs.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Great day exploring the prairie for summertime blooms. For every flower I either said "I can't wait until mine blooms" or "I want one of those"

 

[RobAmy]

Nice shots JB. Do you know what that top flower is? I just took a butterfly on it the other day

Black Swallowtail by A & R Photography, on Flickr

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Nice shots JB. Do you know what that top flower is? I just took a butterfly on it the other day

Black Swallowtail by A & R Photography, on Flickr

That's Orange Milkweed. Asclepias tuberosa.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

A few flowers at Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary.

Purple Prairie Clover.

Rattlesnake Master

Globe Thistle

I plan to add all three to my native garden (even though Globe Thistle is not native here, local pollinators still benefit from it). Actually, I already have Purple Prairie Clover, but it's about two inches tall.

 

[johan]

+1 on Globe Thistle. I have these in the garden and the bumblebees love them. Pics from this morning and yesterday: Froggie in our pond. Very happy froggie

And a Damselfly. Cunningly hidden.

 

[addy1]

Neat shot love the damsel fly one!

 

[johan]

This is a nice little butterfly that's quite rare in the UK, a Silver-studded Blue. I've had a bit of a motivation boost to my photography in the last week because Pentax have made me something called a "brand ambassador", which is a nice feather in my cap, and pleasing to me as I am a bit of a self-confessed photography geek.

I did a macro calendar last year via my site which funded my 15/y old son's trip to India, but a lot of my eq is in storage so I'm trying to pick up a slightly different niche in macro this month, butterflies, with maybe a view to doing another calendar. It's quite tricky getting all of the details right - this shot isn't too awful but I'd have liked it to sit on a less prominent plant. But fun - and I might bore you with some more of these in the weeks ahead, sorry . That damselfly above did ridiculously well on Flickr. 64K views in two days, crazy, and it wasn't even explore #1.



A rare Silver-studded Blue butterfly by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, on Flickr

 

[addy1]

bore away, your photos are stunning!

I might bore you with some more of these in the weeks ahead

 

[JBtheExplorer]

This interesting insect was assessing the situation in my garden.

 

[johan]

Yeah they do . Cricket nymph, boy I think

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I went walking yesterday and found a couple interesting plants.
The first is Whorled Milkweed. The leaves look nothing like a typical milkweed plant, and actually resemble pine needles. It's a narrow plant with white flowers. I have one of these in my native garden but it hasn't flowered yet. This is the first time I've seen one in the wild.

This one is called Great Blue Lobelia. It's a close relative to Cardinal Flower. The photo doesn't do it any justice but the bright blue and purple really stood out. It's on my list of plants I need to add.

Back in my garden, my Monarch caterpillar has gotten huge. It's only a matter of time before it crawls off to form a chrysalis.

 

[johan]

That Great Blue Lobelia looks spectacular

 

[johan]

Two sleepy butterflies



Chalk Hill Blue Pair by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, on Flickr

 

[johan]

Backlit butterfly, shooting almost straight into the sun. I had to overexpose by 3 stops to get any detail on it - otherwise all you see is a black silhouette. I hope to have the opportunity to try this again with a gold reflector this week sometime, that's supposed to look good - never used one before though...

The shaft of yellow in the middle is quite nice I think, looks as if there's light shining down. But it's just an illusion I used, it was some stalks of grass (but they're very out of focus because I used a wide aperture (low f/stop))