Visitors

We had some visitors a few days ago.  One was my brother, the mother, and the others were moths.  That's not a typo - my brother is a moth-er.  He's also a birder.  So, as you could easily guess; while he was visiting we looked for moths during the evening and went birding in the morning.  

He brought his mothing equipment and set it up in our yard.

This consisted of a piece of an old white sheet, some rope and clothespins to hang it up, and a pole to hang a black incandescent light nearby.  We put a couple of bricks on the bottom of the sheet so it wouldn't move around if a wind came up.  Then we plugged in the light. 

The next step in getting ready for potential moth visitors was to paint some moth bait on tree bark.  (thanks to my sister-in-law, who had mixed up a batch and sent it along).  A tree in our yard was selected, along with a tree right at the edge of the water down by the swamp -- in the hope of attracting some boggy-type moths.  

Now, all we needed was for some moths to show up, and it didn't take long!

As soon as it started getting dark, the moths started coming to the light and landing on the sheet.  No one seems to really know for sure why moths are attracted to light.  There is an interesting article about that subject by a Penn State entomologist you can read by clicking here. 

Once the moths land on the sheet, most of them will stay right there while you photograph them.  My brother photographs each kind and then later looks them up in his field guide.  He prints out a photo of each new species he sees and adds it to an album.  I did not ask him how many kinds he has in it (and I'm not sure he knows the number, as he's more interested in seeing them than counting).  But he already has one album full and has started a second.  

We would look at the moths on the sheet for awhile, then go check the baited trees.  This is the one by the swamp:

We didn't get too many moths on the trees.  The moon was very bright that night and it was clear and cool.  This made it a nice night be be outside, but those aren't optimum weather conditions for seeing moths.  (A mild, cloudy, still night is best).  However, we did have fun tromping around looking!  It was bright enough to see our shadows from just the moonlight, which reminded me of how we used to play shadow tag on the farm when we were kids.  (We could turn on the 'barn light' which was on the peak of the dairy barn and run around the driveway - do kids play shadow tag anymore?)

Not being used to taking photos in the dark of small creatures on white sheets, it took me awhile to get the hang of it!  While my brother was clicking away, I did manage to get a few nice shots though.

Hemlock Looper

I don't have a field guide to moths and so I will have to wait for my brother to tell me what these are. (Update: I've added the names in the captions).
It's nice to be able to depend on your big brother for many things.  *wink wink*

One Spotted Variant (melanic)

There are more kinds of moths than there are butterflies...but less study has been done about them, so 'citizen scientists' can add to the information known about them by contributing information about their sightings.  If you are interested, here's a link a to a pdf called "How to Start Mothing" that has lots of good information (it's from an organization in the UK called Moths Count - which actually makes it kind of fun to read just because they use different terminology like 'torch' instead of flashlight).

Meanwhile, back to our moths...

As I said, many of them would land on the sheet and remain there, but there were a few that fluttered around and didn't stay put for a photo.  We would turn our 'torches' off and hope they would land, and then spot light to try to see what we had.

They could be anywhere on the sheet...

My husband found a few by looking on the nearby tree trunk, too.  We didn't get many to come to the bait though.  My luck with photographing them was also not the greatest.  It wasn't exactly easy to use my camera in the dark!  Here's a somewhat blurry photo of one moth that came to our bait.

Greater Black-Letter Dart

Different moths showed up at intervals so we kept checking for awhile.

Grass-Veneer (??)

One of the 'prettiest' ones we had was this Harnessed Tiger Moth.

It hung out for awhile with some buddies.

That little green one is neat!  And, I liked their glowing eyes in that shot.  There were some other little insects... namely mosquitoes, but I didn't get any bites.

The moth in the above photo is a Horned Spanworm Moth.  When I looked it up online I discovered it could also be called an Antique Map Moth, which I like the sound of better! (see article here).

Horned Spanworm

It was getting late, and though we were having fun it was time to get to bed... so we could get up and go birding in the morning!  (I love my big brother!).  He and I saw 42 species of birds (and numerous butterflies and dragonflies) the next day before he had to leave.  

Thank you, brother!

Coloring Craze

I like to be on the cutting edge with this blog.  Well, not really-- but today I'm (sort of) going to be!

I've always enjoyed coloring.  When I was going to have my first child, one of the things I wondered about was when she would be old enough to color; because then I would have an 'excuse' to color, too.  You can tell I took motherhood seriously!  

Here's my oldest daughter with some early refrigerator art.  (This is from around 1986 - yes, we had a Harvest Gold-colored fridge).  We collaborated... I think I was vainly attempting to teach her about circles.  She was probably a little young for that.  But you can tell she is happy and proud of her art.

Fast forward a few years, and now I'm old enough that I don't care about having an 'excuse'... I can color if I want to!  And anyway, now it's quite the thing-to-do.  Parade Magazine even had a feature article about adult coloring in their July 10th, 2015 issue.  Click here to read it.

As it turns out, coloring is not only fun, it helps to reduce stress and unwind.  Having trouble falling asleep?  Try coloring before bedtime.  I might add, you can also learn things by coloring.  I'll get to more about that in a bit.

Here is my craft table with some of my coloring books and supplies.

I use crayons or colored pencils, not usually markers, though it depends on what I'm coloring.

Dover Publications has over 150 coloring books on every subject you can think of.  Of course, you can see my favorites are nature ones... wildflowers, birds, and scenes from the woods.  I've had all of these for quite awhile.  In fact, the daughter whose photo appears above gave me the "A Walk in the Woods" one several years ago for a gift.

This double-page from that book was done with good-old crayola crayons.

This particular book has text which goes along with the pictures (hence the learning!) and reading it is also helpful for deciding which colors things should be.  

Pink ladyslippers, a brown wren, and common blue violets in this close-up...

 and a Common Yellowthroat with nest.  Then, a little surprise...

a Red-bellied Woodpecker peeking out from behind a dead tree.

The wildflower book has small pictures on color plates at the front and back of the book to help you with color choices.

I used color pencils to do the New England Asters.

The bird book also has color plates.

It's a fun way to learn more about birds.

I chose to put some blue strings in the nest, since our Orioles usually find pieces from my husband's blue tarps to weave into their nests here.

You can find adult coloring books now at many stores, order them online, or simply search on the internet for free pages to print at home.  

Anyone else like to color?  If not, I suggest giving it a try.  You'll be right in style!

Soaking Up Summer and Hummers

Yesterday was Sunday, a day of rest.  It was also August 9th... how did it get to be August already?  I said to my husband, "It still seems like it should be June."  Well, it isn't.  So, you and I both know what is coming.  That's why I decided on a day of rest to just soak in the beautiful summer day.  I didn't even go for a hike, I just stayed in my yard.  I wanted to soak up the sunshine, the flowers, and most of all, the hummers.

First, let me say not all of these photos were taken yesterday.  But all have been taken in the last few days.  So, come join me in our yard and enjoy the hummingbirds.

First we'll sit on the kitchen deck by the pots of Geraniums 'Vancouver Centennial'.  We won't have to wait long until a hummingbird appears, because they love these flowers.

I can think of many words to describe watching a hummingbird as it goes from flower to flower within a few feet of me.  Awesome, wonderful, fantastic... even breath-taking.

They are like tiny 'jets'... with amazing flying abilities. 

That one is going to have to go perch for awhile and clean its bill!

Yes, they do perch, in between chasing each other around the yard.  I've been seeing 3 at once, flying 'formation', like miniature jet fighters.  Sometimes they fly within almost striking distance of me.  

Other times, they sit... but they are always watching... and guarding 'their' feeders and flowers.

This male sat one way, with the sun lighting up his ruby-throat for awhile, then turned.  Out of the bright rays of the sun, he should be called a black-throated hummingbird.

The immature ones and females have white throats.

They all love the sugar water feeders.  We can watch them at the feeder hanging under our apple tree...

or the one on the kitchen window.

 

Even having two feeders does not keep them from fighting over the territory.  Neither does having lots of flowers.  I guess they are just 'angry birds'.  

 You can see the hanging feeder on the left and the window mounted feeder on the right, just above the chair, and the Geraniums 'Vancouver Centennial' in between.  From here, we can also watch them as they go to the flowerbed.

They like the sweet-smelling Garden Phlox.

And, even though they are not the typical tubular-shaped flowers you know hummers like, they do like my Zinnias!

Zinnias also make a nice perch.

They don't care what color the Zinnias are, either!

Those photos were taken from our front deck, looking down into the flowerbed.  We can also see hummers very close up while sitting there, as they like the red Calibrachoa flowers and pink and white Geranuims in the deck boxes.

When I wrote about our trip to Columbia, South America, I somewhat facetiously asked why God only gave us one kind of hummingbirds (click here to read that post), compared to Columbia's over a hundred.  But, you know, I have to say ours are so beautiful and amazing that I'm very thankful for them!   I am enjoying them immensely and I hope you enjoyed a little visit with me to watch them in my garden.

No hummers in this last photo, just flowers.  Thanks for visiting!

Portrait Session: Anne

Sometimes when I go for a walk, I get fixated on one thing.  On a recent walk, that thing was Queen Anne's Lace.  I wrote a post about this beautiful flower back in July 2013 (click here to read it), so I'm not going to write much this time-- instead, I hope to provide you with a visual treat.

You will notice that I have used some special effects for Anne's portraits.  

How do you like her in black and white?

Of course, different props and backgrounds are fun to use in portrait sessions.  Here, she poses with an old tractor.

Next, she shows off her wonderful shadow on a rusty barrel.

Of course, we need to see her different profiles...

How about a close-up of that side view?

But wait!  Who is that strange creature?

It's a Misumean vatia (a Goldenrod Crab Spider).  You can read about these fascinating spiders by clicking here.  Another common name is Flower Crab Spider, which fits this one better, since it's not on a Goldenrod.  The 'crab' part of the their name comes from the way they can walk sideways like a crab.

Queen Anne's Lace seems like a good flower for a spider to live on, since they are often home to a lot of small insects.  Such as the fly (above) or the mosquito (below).  Did you notice the spider to the right of the fly?  The fly flew away before the spider got him!

Or the next one with a sleepy bee.

 In case you don't like 'bugs' , now I'll get back to just flowers.  Here's a nice pink bud, which will fade to white as the flower opens.

That one was quite pink, the pinkest I found.  Of the many buds I looked at, pink ones were fairly uncommon.

The simple beauty of a bud and flower stands out, but sometimes 'accessories' are nice in portraits, too.

Alone or in groups, I admire the beauty of my 'models'.

And, I don't usually come out from behind the camera, but I thought it would be fun to show you how tall these Queen Anne's Lace were... some taller than me!

 

That's it for this portrait session... sorry, I'm not available for weddings or Senior photo shoots! :-)