a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

“Past peak”? It’s all beautiful!

Happy Diwali and Happy Halloween!

As a Diwali bonus, I also saw a weasel but wasn’t able to get a photo of it.

Bald Mountain trail and Artist’s Bluff trail

Aka Comet C/2023 A3

Cropped and a bit more contrast. You can see the coma a bit — I think? The view optically through the 15×70 binoculars definitely had more detail.

Unfortunately, I got there a little too late for the really spectacular action. But there was still quite a bit left. Towards the end, we got a lot of the green (lower atmosphere monatomic oxygen, see https://sciencenotes.org/aurora-colors-explained-southern-and-northern-lights/) with some nice interesting shelf-and-curtain structure.

I started off with longer 18-25 second exposures and ended with 8 second exposures, which showed more details and less color.

Here you can see some of the green projections:

8 second exposures:

A little late in the year for too much bug action, but there was certainly activity, especially in the stretches where the sun was shining.

Hymenoptera

Ichneumonid, maybe Pimplinae?

Ichneumonidae, maybe Pimplinae?

Hemiptera

Diptera

Lepidoptera

Pyrrharctia isabella, woolly bear moth caterpillar, Isabella tiger moth

Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Erebidae
Subfamily:	Arctiinae

Spider

Salticidae, maybe Pelegrina perchance?

Cyclosa

Pisaurina mira

Pityohyphantes suggested, although if so, this seems an unusual specimen of that genus. Another possibility, Anyphaenidae aka ghost spiders?

Dictynidae

Tetragnathidae, maybe Tetragnatha

Mangora?

No bugs

Not sure where the rock comes from, but it’s at Keuka Lake now!

Found at night outside the Community Center, I believe pickerel frog, Lithobates palustris, is a good fit.

This dragonfly was hovering and returning. I don’t know if they oviposit at this time of year, but that was my first thought.

Autumn bird identifications are tough, but I guess some sort of flycatcher, perhaps a Tyrant Flycatcher? Maybe a phoebe? I don’t know.