Spiderwort and drop
Spiderwort (Tradescantia) is a midsummer flower with vivid colors (some purple, some pink), and three petals. When you look closely, the flower center has three elements: a straight pistil, a group of yellow-orange anthers, and surrounding them, feathery filaments. In this image, I caught the filaments in a drop after a rain:
Taken with my high magnification lens, this is at least 3x and cropped.
Filed under: Flowers, Macro, art | 4 Comments
Tags: art, Flowers, Macro
Long-legged fly
Long-legged flies are tiny, brightly colored, and common. You find them on broad-leaved plants looking around for smaller flies to lunch on:
Some are iridescent green like this one, some are orange/red. One of the crowd of interesting bugs you can find on a milkweed or blackberry leaf in midsummer.
Filed under: Macro, Nature, nature study | 3 Comments
Tags: Insects, Macro, Nature, nature study
Harris’s Checkerspot
This was the target species for a butterfly walk I took yesterday. An uncommon butterfly, you have to go to particular spots to find them:
I saw lots of skippers (Least skipper, Hobomok skipper, Cloudywings, Silver spotted skipper) and summer nymphalids (Viceroy, American Lady). And an unusual bug I’ll post later…
In Massachusetts, Harris’s checkerspot is local to sunny wet meadow areas containing the caterpillar host plant, flat-topped white aster. If you look at range charts, you’ll see it’s widely distributed in the northeast and central areas, but you’ll only find it in the right habitat. Not a likely backyard butterfly.
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Tags: Butterflies, Nature
Daisies
Just some common June flowers in a meadow:
Not as colorful as some spring flowers, but groups of them are a beautiful sight.
Filed under: Flowers, Macro | 6 Comments
Tags: art, Flowers, Macro
Green Lacewing
Pretty and delicate, they have transparent wings and golden eyes. Very common, there are hundreds of them flying around now:
They are also flighty, they take off at the slightest disturbance. They aren’t flies, they are in the insect order Neuroptera along with antlions.
Filed under: Insects, Macro | 2 Comments
Tags: Insects, Macro, nature study
Pearl Crescent
Pearl Crescent is common, but beautiful:
Thought I’d try a low angle and selective focus for a different look. Now is a peak time to go butterfly watching – there are lots of species flying in the Northeast.
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Tags: Butterflies, Macro, Nature
Wood Poppy
A wood poppy from this spring:
I took this a few minutes after the fern image in my last post. It was a great morning – overcast light, not much wind. I’ve never captured the prickliness of wood poppies before. This is a pretty typical threesome, they don’t all bloom at once. Either there are buds and a bloom or blooms and a spent flower or fruit on one plant.
Filed under: Flowers, Nature | 6 Comments
Tags: art, Flowers, spring
Out of the blue: fern
An unfolding fern among bluebells (that’s the hazy blue in the background):
It’s just a simple plant, but I find all those curves and edgy details exciting. The bluebells were fading, but they were great for color. Taken at Garden in the Woods, the wildflower arboretum of the New England Wildflower Society (http://www.newfs.org).
Filed under: Macro, Nature, Photography | 8 Comments
Tags: green, Nature, Plants
Foamflower
A portrait of a common wildflower in the northeast:
The spring leafing out is becoming complete. Maples are in full leaf, grass is up, the oaks are greening up. There are lots of butterfly species flying now – today I saw three species of elfin, American Lady, Spring Azure, Juvenal’s Duskywing, Pearl Crescent, American Copper, suphurs, whites, and my first dragonflies and tiger beetles of the season.
Filed under: Flowers, Macro, Nature | 2 Comments
Tags: Flowers, Macro, nature study, spring, wildflowers
Henry’s Elfin
Elfins are tiny spring butterflies, many of them brown. Henry’s Elfin is one of the more attractive ones:
Henry’s is somewhat uncommon, the one seen more often is Brown Elfin. You find Brown Elfin on heathy hilltops around lowbush blueberry. You can find Henry’s Elfin in the same areas, but I sometimes see Henry’s perched higher, sometimes in trees. Brown Elfin usually perches pretty low on the ground or on lowbush bluberry. Elfins love to chase each other, once one appraches another by a few feet, they take off, it’’s fun to watch. It may be a territorial behavior. They chase other butterflies, not just their own species. I’ve seen an tiny elfin try chase a big Mourning Cloak – the Cloak didn’t seem to notice the elfin at all.
Filed under: Butterflies, Insects, Macro, Nature, nature study | 4 Comments
Tags: Butterflies, Macro, Nature
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