Took only a few insect photos this past summer so today will share these with you.   I find dragonflies fascinating in that they come in such a variety of colours and sizes and hatch from alien looking nymphs.  Although I don’t like spiders they also come in such a variety of colours and sizes and today’s blog has another variety of orb-weaving spider.

Below:  Dragonfly newly emerged from nymph stage

Below: Orb Weaving Spider in the web

Below: Bee approaching a lambs ear plant

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Below: A silhouette of my cousin on the shore of Lake Manitoba.

Below: A dragonfly resting on a garden flower.

Below: Eastern Kingbird at a local pond.

Below: Cranberry Bush with ripened fruit.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

There are some things a person may only see once during their lifetime and I believe this may be one of those events.  Thousands of Monarch Butterflies had gathered in a little area of Moose Lake Provincial Park one very windy mid-August day.  They were in the air, on the ground and hanging from tree branches like bunches of grapes.  I am not sure but I think it was just too windy for them to fly across the Lake of the Woods Boundary waters between Canada and the United States so they just gathered in this remote little area of the park where we happened upon them while on a trail.  Enjoy the photos of what I believe was part of the great Monarch Butterfly migration.  It was an amazing sight!

Enjoy!

~Sharon

In about two weeks the chrysalis looked like this (below) . . .  the Monarch wings are clearly visible now and it emerged from its chrysalis about 4 hours after this photo was taken.

The next photo is of a brand new Monarch Butterfly – less than 5 minutes old.  It was very wet, orange droplets dripped from its still crumpled wings.

Its wings slowly unfolded and the butterfly started to slowly open and close them . . . This went on for a while and gradually the wings become stiffer with every wingspread while the necessary fluids were being pumped through them.   In the morning, this beautiful butterfly greeted me after which it was set free out in the garden.

The buttefly in the above photo is about 7 hours old.    A future post will feature photos of what I believe was a Monarch Butterfly migration which I happened upon while driving in southern Manitoba in mid August.   Thousands of butterflies were hanging on tree branches and fluttering in the air.  Watch for it!

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Considered one of the most beautiful butterflies – thus the name “Monarch”.  Monarchs will lay eggs on milkweed plants.  I planted milkweed to attract them and it worked.  The above photo from my garden – a Monarch on a coneflower.  The caterpillars grow and eat the milkweed leaves and then crawl up to a suitable place where they hang in the chrysalis stage.  Right now there are about 15 caterpillars happily chewing on the milkweed plant.  The are four generations each summer and only the fourth lives to make the migration all the way south to a forest in Mexico.  Try “googling” the Monarch butterfly to read about this most fascinating insect, their life cycle and amazing annual migration.

Below:  Monarch caterpillar feeding on a milkweed plant. They grow extremely fast in this stage.

Below:  Monarch chrysalis.  They are a very beautiful green colour with some gold trim.  If you look closely on the right hand side you can see the faint outline of the Monarch’s wing inside the chrysalis.  I will post photos of the developing chrysalis as it develops at a later date and hopefully of the butterfly emerging as well.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

You don’t have to take a trip to see nature because it is always around us even in our own backyards.  You can plant certain flowers that will attract butterflies ( Monarchs like the milkweed plant ), others will attract hummingbirds and so on.  Today a few photos from my backyard as I was  outside enjoying the sun and puttering in the garden for a few hours.

Above:  Butterfly gathering nectar from a Joe Pye plant      Below:  A House Wren chattering on the garden fence.

Below:  A few photos of bees gathering pollen

Below:  Not sure if this is a wasp or bee but if was flying around with a large piece of plant leaf and then landed.  A leaf-cutter of sorts.

Below:  This is a domestic garden plant that was tagged “Love in the Mist” when I bought one a few years back.  It seeds itself every year and produces these beautiful delicate flowers in blue and purple tones.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

There are three stages in the dragonfly life cycle – egg, nymph and the adult dragonfly. Today’s blog features dragonfly nymphs. They look absolutely alien! The eggs are laid in water and the nymphs live in the water only to come up on shore on a suitable day for the adult dragonfly to emerge and unfurls its beautiful translucent wings.  These photos were taken in June alongside a small creek and there were many nymphs on the grass in various stages of emergence.  It was quite fascinating to watch. It looked to be a struggle crawling out of the casing and took quite a while but, after freeing themselves of the nymph casing, the dragonfly would slowly unfurl its wings and then proceed to dry them before taking to flight.

Below: The empty nymph shells stuck to the side of a boathouse.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

I found this moth in my garden last summer. It is called a Polyphemus moth – a member of the silk moth family. It was an unsual find for me so naturally I took the opportunity to photograph it. The body was plump, soft and very “hairy” – about the size of a mouse’s body. The wings spanned about 6″ across.

Next, a macro shot head-on.  You can see how hairy it is in this photos.

Enjoy !

~Sharon

Dragonflies are good right? Yes – they eat those nasty summer pests while flitting about and seem to love sunning themselves. They have beautiful transluscent wings and come in a variety of sizes and colours.  Close up they are not so pretty . . . Today’s blog “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” features some close up photos of dragonflies dining on wasps and flies.

The photo above and photo below is of a Chalk-fronted Corporal.

Below:  Shadow Darner

Below:  Marsh Bluet – a small blue and black damselfly

NOW . . . for the UGLY.   Not really ugly or bad if you have an interest in spiders and such. They are very fascinating creatures if you stop and take a closer look.   This very large spider sighted on a dock.  Unfortunately you cannot get a feel for the size of the spider from the photo but I can tell you it measured about 5″ across from leg to leg. We just refer to them as dock spiders as I have always found them on docks in the midday sun. Most people I know have an aversion to spiders.  They won’t attack you but I do know they can  give a nasty bite and to people who are sensitive to any type of insect bite it can be painful, causing swelling and may require medical intervention.  One person I know of ended up in the hospital on an IV antibiotic drip from a spider bite. That is bad!

I believe this spider is known as the “dark fishing spider” of the family fishing/dock/nursery web spiders.

~Sharon

I love dragonflies not only for their delicate transluscent wings but because they eat those most nasty of summer pests – mosquitoes. Yesterday a swarm of dragonflies flew in – they were everywhere. Was it a hatch? Was it the city releasing dragonflies to assist in mosquito control – possibly. Anyway, I looked up in the sky and they kept coming and coming. A little unusual I thought but they were gracious enough to land and spend time in my garden area sunning themselves and most importantly sweeping up on the mosquitoes in mid flight. Many people collect items with dragonfly decor. These photos would enlarge very well.  Try “clicking” on an image  (2x)  to see a larger view – the wings are really beautiful.

I really liked the fact that the blue summer sky was the background in this photo.

This picture is a little deceiving – at first it looks like the twig has wings but you can see a little of the dragonfly body behind.

A few more . . .

Enjoy!

~Sharon