Category Archives: bugs

Spring arrives

  The temperature now rises above freezing day and night at the bottom of the valleys. The trees begin to bloom, and skunk cabbage sprouts in moist areas. Birds mate and build nests. Migrants arrive and some pass northward. This … Continue reading

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Nesting on wooden pilings

  Wooden pilings are used by a few species for breeding. Now that these pilings are on their way out, how will this change? Metal pilings are the new standard. This is the second of a two part series on … Continue reading

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Eye to eye

  Within a few hours, I stood eyeball to eyeball with two predators. Well, neither was after me; I am just too big for them. One was a raccoon kit. Like the bobcat before it, it was checking out the … Continue reading

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Striped coralroot

  The striped coralroot orchid is widespread across southern Canada and western U.S. However, it is sparse throughout its range for it does not use leaves to synthesize food but obtains it nutrients from fungi in the ground.   This orchid … Continue reading

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Fairy slipper deception

  Our first orchid of the year, the fairy slipper (Calypso bulbosa) is beautiful, but remarkably deceptive. There is a nearly universal contract between pollinators (such as bees) and flowers: The bees provide the flowers with pollination in exchange for … Continue reading

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Giant ichneumon wasp

  What is any wasp, let alone this one, doing around here in the later half of October? Most wasps have died out except for their queens who have bedded down for the winter. There are a great many species … Continue reading

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August’s goulash

  This is a collection of August’s pictures that lacked a posting of their own.  This strange looking bird is just a juvenile Robin. Wintering in the Amazon, this Red-eyed Vireo is near the limit of its summer range. The … Continue reading

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Fighting butterflies

  The butterflies were fighting. This came as a surprise to me. I had always thought of butterflies as being cooperative and peaceful creatures, but it seems that they can have conflicts.  This fight went on for ten to 15 … Continue reading

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Crab spider

  The hover fly is an innocent little fly, and with the advent of warm weather, there are a number of them about doing what they do: pollinate flowers. Not all creatures view them so benignly. A few hover flies … Continue reading

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March’s goulash

  This is a collection of March pictures that lacked a posting of their own.  Spring migrants arrive in March, although this year, their arrival was delayed by snows so most  migrants appeared later in the month. A few weren’t … Continue reading

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