By Amy, on October 7th, 2011%
When I took the shuttle from St. Mary in Glacier National Park my first day, my intent was to go to Logan Pass and hike a trail to Hidden Lake. Unfortunately, Logan Pass was still full of snow in July. The road had been cleared only days before my arrival, and while I knew that, I somehow wasn’t expecting what I saw when the shuttle arrived up there:
I didn’t take the picture above, by the way. My stepfather, Jim, did, when he and my mom met up with me a couple of days later. Thanks, Jim!
Anyway, when I saw all this snow my first day, I didn’t even bother to get off the shuttle. No way was I hiking on that! Instead, I rode the shuttle back toward East Glacier. Halfway to St. Mary, I got off at the Avalanche Creek stop. I’d been intending to spend time there, anyway, as I heard on the Glacier podcast that Dipper birds could be found there. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any Dipper birds (more on those in another post), but I did see this butterfly:
No, I don’t know what kind of butterfly it is. I really need to get some insect guides!
The creek was charging with runoff from the melting snows and quite impressive. Very difficult to adequately capture, though, as the stream bed was well below the path and there was considerable contrast with the sun appearing quite brightly in spots. If I’d hung out there longer, perhaps I’d been able to figure out how to take better pictures. However, I really had to pee and there were no public restrooms. That meant finding a convenient bush. So I hurried through some shots and headed up a trail above the creek, knowing I needed to go a ways in before I’d be far enough away from crowds to feel reasonably sure nobody would stumble into me at an inopportune moment. I also needed to find a bush that wasn’t too hidden, as I didn’t want to accidentally run into a bear. Which is worse–running into a bear, or getting caught peeing? You might feel like you’re gonna die from embarrassment if someone sees you peeing, but bears have big claws and teeth, and I am soft and squishy.
Ah, the challenges of nature photography!
Here are the best of the ones I did get of the creek:
When I was taking that last photo, I had to lean over a wall a bit and look straight down. Not an angle anyone else was using to view the creek, and I attracted quite a bit of attention. Folks walked over to see what I was looking at–the flowers were only visible if you looked down. Then they’d mimic my shot with their own cameras. Made me laugh. Especially since some folks waited patiently for me to move off so they could look for themselves! Walk around with a honking big camera and lens, and people assume you know what you’re doing.
By Amy, on August 27th, 2011%
When I decided to plant a veggie garden this year, I had no idea it would create a habitat that would draw such an interesting variety of insects. One of the biggest surprises was this bee:
Googling around, I learned that it is a squash bee, which specializes in pollinating squashes and cucumbers. Two things about this bee fascinate me. First, how in the heck did it find my squashes? It’s not like there are tons of veggie gardens near me. Second, what is that drop of liquid between its eyes?
I don’t know if I’ll ever understand the answer to the first question. But I found a blog about pollinators written by a grad student, Athena, who studies bumble bee foraging ecology, and she answered the second question for me here. It turns out what I thought was a drop of liquid was an illusion. The bright lemon yellow patch you see just in front of the antennae is part of the bee’s exoskeleton, and they have a little bump there.
I was interpreting the yellow patch as highlights from the squash blossom reflecting in liquid. The illusion was compounded by the fact that it’s easy to think the bump is a drop of liquid if you’re already thinking along those lines, and if you think of the dark areas in between the eyes, which make a rather circular pattern, as shadows at the edges of the drop.
By the way, Athena also told me that only males have that yellow patch. Now I’m curious as to whether it’s used to attract females or compete with other males. So many questions about one tiny little bee! I’m definitely planting butternut squash again next year and keeping my eyes out for these guys.
In addition to bees in my garden, there are little brown butterflies, which I’ve never seen before. I presume they’re feeding on pollen and/or nectar as well:
And, of course, the insects that are drawn to my garden have their own predators, in the form of dragonflies:
I’ve always felt good that I have a couple of small plots of native wildflowers in my yard. I put those in specifically to provide habitat for native animals (although the Japanese beetles are helping themselves as well, darn them!). It never occurred to me that I could do so much by planting food for myself. Definitely a bonus, not to mention the cheap entertainment I get from watching and photographing all of these critters. Plus, I’m learning new things. This is definitely a project that has paid for itself!
By Amy, on July 15th, 2011%
One weekend back in June, I had the itch to take pictures, but no energy to go anywhere and do my usual tromping around. No problem–there are plenty of subjects in any yard or neighborhood. In this case, I stepped out the side door, where I have a small plot of native wildflowers. The spiderwort were in bloom, and they have an intriguing bluish purple flower. They also attract interesting polinators like these flies:
I have no idea what kind of flies these are. For all I know, this insect is actually a type of bee, but from the eyes, I don’t think so. I find it really difficult to identify the insects I photograph–Google searches rarely help. Many can only be identified by experts, and only with magnification. Any time you think that human beings are the dominant species on this planet, remember the insects. They vastly outnumber us, and the number of species is staggering–some 900 thousand species and an estimated 10 quintillion individuals. As folks are fond of saying, only cockroaches and Twinkies will survive a nuclear blast.
Anyway, whatever these are, they’re pretty. Yes, I just called a fly pretty!
Look at the body of the one above. See how it’s black and yellow? Well, some of the flies have a more reddish look towards the end of their bodies:
The one on the right is yellow-only, and when you look at the two color types together, you can see that their eyes are also different colors. I am guessing this is a gender difference, though it could also be that these are two different, but related species.
Anyway, polinators are important. They’re the reason our crops produce food, and we’d be starving without them. A lot of plants have very specialized relationships with particular species of polinators, even. Other polinators either aren’t attracted to them, or are not shaped correctly to accomplish the fertilization the plant needs. Heck, even the mosquitos we all loathe serve a useful purpose. Lots of ducks rely on the acquatic larval stage for one of their main sources of food. And then there are other birds like chimney swifts that eat the adults.
This does not stop me from swatting mosquitos, of course.
|
|
Welcome This site is typically updated once a week, generally on the weekends. If you like what you see, please stop by again. Thanks for visiting!
|
