a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

A basilica orb-weaver at the base of Mount Greylock.  (Perhaps Linyphia triangularis instead?)

From the top of Mount Greylock, we went on the Overlook Trail.

The overhead sunlight was harsh on the photos, but you snap what you get.

We spent a week in Acadia National Park, and had a wonderful time.  Not much time for photography, and a lot of that was during the afternoon, when the photos tend to get washed out.  Still a great visit!

Here’s a loon that was nesting.  To be clear, we did stay outside the roped-out area, so as not to disturb it.

There was a Pelecenid wasp at our house, and those are always very photogenic.  Those ovipositors are spectacular!

I went to photograph a Syrphid fly, and it turns out that there was an elephant weevil in the photograph when I looked at it later.  Embarrassingly, the elephant weevil was in better focus than the Syrphid fly.

I love this photograph of a caterpillar — the perspective works!

Some beetle hanky-panky.  Sorry.  Let’s move on.

As mentioned earlier, the photographs did not do justice to the scenery.  Apologies for that, and it means I need to make another trip.

I went to catch the sunrise at the beach, but missed the peak color by a few minutes.  Here are a few photos that I was able to take.

I’m going to add the black and white versions, just to see how they compare:

We had a welcome visitor on our door.  I love mayflies — please read this blog post.  This one was tired enough to let me take a lot of photographs.  Take a look at this photo, and let me know if you notice anything missing:

Did you notice that there are no mouthparts?  Many species of mayflies do not eat in the adult stage, and so don’t need mouthparts.  They have one order of business: reproducing.  That’s why their (adult) lifespans are proverbially short — the order is called Ephemeroptera for a reason.

Good luck, buddy!

I hadn’t been to King Phillip’s Rock in a long time.  It’s the best place I’ve found for insects, for whatever reason.

Here’s a gorgeous wasp, Ichneumonidae:

I love scorpionflies for their alien appearance:

I think this is a bee-like tachinid fly.  Maybe Epalpus cf signifer.

A beautiful Derbid planthopper:

I like the light in this photo:

Caterpillar:

Theridiidae?

There was a stag beetle I was trying to photograph, but it escaped.  As it escaped, it led to a congregation of dozens (maybe hundreds) of click beetles (Elateridae).  I think this was mating behavior, don’t know what else it could be.

This is either a robber fly (Laphria) or a golden-backed snipe fly, with its Elateridae prey.

There was a major infestation of moth caterpillars, perhaps gypsy moths.

Nothing improves my mood like a walk in the woods.

Late spring means, among other things, lots of salamanders. Almost every time I picked up a rock, there was an Eastern red-backed salamander beneath it.

Salamanders are not all you see under logs and rocks.  There were lots of sowbugs — but I didn’t get to see any sowbug-killers, spiders belonging to Dysderidae.

This spider (Linyphiidae?) was hanging around doing some yoga:

Note sure yet which version I like better.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken the camera out for a walk.  Late winter is more like early spring this year.  It’s a season of change.

There was still snow on the moss in select places, as you can see.  Not sure if I like that photo better, or this one:

There was some kind of cockleburr that was very amenable to macro photographs:

I spent most of my time lying on the edge of a vernal pool.  I got to see some very nice Dytiscid beetles swimming underwater, though I couldn’t get any photographs.  It was still worth getting wet for.

It’s always nice to go out soon after a snowfall. We didn’t get Snowmageddon, but we had a bad time last year, so we deserved not to.

I cannot believe I’ve never really explored the Beaver Brook trail. I was happy to make good on that today.

I tried hard to capture the feeling of the snow drifting through the air, captured in the sunlight. Can’t say I nailed it, but will keep trying.

This boulder was dragged in by the glaciers thousands of years ago, and is enormous. I was trying to give a feel for its brutal sense of massiveness by not giving the photograph (and the viewer) too much breathing room on the right. I hope it worked.

Ice crystals preserved in a hole in the wood, perhaps made by a beetle grub:

We went for a Christmas Day walk at Borderland State Park to enjoy the special weather. There were prominent sundogs in the sky, as well as this circumzenithal arc :

November and December are the brown months. The spectacular fall colors are gone, and the snow usually hasn’t coated the ground yet. It takes a little more effort, but what stand out at this time are the more subtle patterns from the bare branches.

Another crop of the same photo:

Continuing my obsession with this particular view of wood and rock. One of these days I’ll get this photo right; so far, every one I’ve taken has had just that one thing wrong with it.