When the yellow Lantana come into full bloom, I begin looking for Sphinx moths. Unfortunately, they start showing up after dark and I’m no good with flash. I hope I didn’t blind the little guy.
Tag Archives: ezpixels
Hylephila phyleus
These tiny butterflies caught my eye as I was passing by the dining room window yesterday afternoon. I’m 99.9 percent sure this is a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus).
Shot hand held with Canon 180mm Macro.
mammillaria fruit
Keep an eye out for fruit on Mammillaria. If you’re lucky, you’ll find one with a full circle of these neat little fruits. They’re pretty tasty, by the way.
grab shot
I’m busy working on a project and almost forgot my photo today. So I walked around the yard quickly and found this web. I’ll bet it looks great at first light so I’ll check it out again.
sprinkler
Sunrise backlighting Creosote seedpods and the sprays of a sprinkler bouncing off branches and leaves. Kind of cool.
share the road
Gopher Snakes are common here and great to have on your property as they keep the rodents away from your house. We gladly share the road with them 🙂
Buprestidae
I had narrowed down the genus of this bug to Trichodes but I was just informed by Mike Thomas at BugGuide.net that this is a Buprestidae aka Jewel Beetle. Thanks for the ID, Mike. (Next time I’ll wait for an ID before I post!)
There were so many of these bugs on this Cordia that the flowers didn’t stand a chance. Maybe when I get over the fascination, I’ll think about discouraging the plant eating bugs in my yard 🙂
(canon 24-70 at 70mm w/500D diopter. Color in background is decomposed granite.)
Cochineal at work
While looking for a photo this morning, I found what I knew to be a Cochineal infestation on a Prickly Pear cactus. The history of Cochineal bugs is very interesting if you’ve never heard it. They are a source of red dye considered so highly prized at one time that it was listed on the London and Amsterdam Commodities Exchanges. Click here to read all about it.
We rarely see Cochineal on native cactus. This Prickly Pear was purchased at a nursery.
technical
We rode from our house to Amphitheater rocks this morning (about 18mi round trip). This last section is much too technical for me and I feel no shame in admitting it 🙂
The weather this summer has been cooler than normal and this morning was especially nice.
lightning
We had a spectacular lightning storm last night but I didn’t grab my camera until it was almost over. Darn. This shot is from an upstairs window. I braced the camera against the frame of an open window while holding down the shutter. (recently lost my cable release)
(ISO 400, f/8, 21 sec)