A Few Local Critters

I actually thought there would be more opportunities for some types of pictures here. I know there it's just that they've not come my way. It is the dry season and it is dry. I have seen one species of toucan's once. Fleeting glimpses of a gecko. These sound like a bird at night. The ones I've been around made no noise. Butterfly's and dragonfly's have not even given me a chance to turn the camera on.

Fleeting glimpses of small lizards. Did see that huge garrobo and the little one here at the place. The only reason I got these two pictures is that this bird allows you to get fairly close like 20'. Other than that my camera has a tough time. This is the same bird in both pictures. In most light conditions it is very intense blue.

The local type of land snail.

This is a termite nest and there are a few around. They are built in trees but not far from the ground. The termites are small maybe a 1/4" long or so.

One of the resident kitty's hopefully laying in wait.

Some pretty intense color here and he was easy to see. Not quite a 1/2" long.

There are leaf cutter ants not far away. Something new to me and I find it interesting to see little pieces of green moving along the ground from say 10-15' away.

You need to stop and begin observing the ground. Eventually you will see one and then you bedin to see more and more.

I've taken a number of pictures over two days. This is the best of the bunch. It was the very first one. The rest are throw aways.  

What Will Be Left

And also whose table we will be on. Some think we as a species and as a planet are/will come to an end. Their is debate of course on when this will happen. Sooner or later take your choice it isn't worth arguing about. No one knows so that makes this opinion just as valid as anyone's.

I think the earth is past the tipping point and humans cannot sustain themselves at this level given the circumstances we have now.

Whether you agree or not one thing is for certain - when humans start dropping these fellows will be there to play their part in the worlds ever changing ecology.  

There are three pictures here in an attempt to show the size. These don't seem to get much bigger and there are not great numbers like some of the others. Notice the undeveloped wings. This is not quite two inches long and comes in one other color I've seen which is a reddish orange.

 Clicking on the pictures makes them bigger twice.

This is something else though. Gross out city I tell you. A mature Mormon cricket. When small they easily pass for a grasshopper. This is actually the first time I've seen some this big.

The other day went out to the same place I saw this one and did not see any large ones. Yesterday I saw several about half the size and they were much darker in color. They did not survive and what was left was dark as well. The one below was about 2.5" and just plain huge. They get get up to 3" in length and can and have cause devastating infestations. I hate to imagine what that would be like.

Not sure where this guy is headed whether it's mature or what have you. This is where the brighter colors are these days is on the ground. Time for breakfast.

Macro Monday

Not much going on these days. Seems like slim pickings. These are recent pictures and a couple have used before. There is nothing here  that reaches much over 3/4 of an inch. The green thingy with it's antenna is the exception.

Another red spider -WHAT!! Plus it's a jumper.

Please click on this and take a closer look at the eyes. This ain't right.

The first time I saw one of these it fooled me twice completely. Just what it's supposed to do. This picture is not representative of that ability for this moth.

What do you call this guy. "The Wrapper"?? It appears it is actually wrapped in cloth. I am fairly sure this is the fellow who takes on much more fearsome looking opponents and wins. 

The Eyes Have It

Walked back to this wetlands area early this morning where yesterday was able to capture some decent pictures.

I've seen guys like this before. Click on the picture and take a closer look. The eyes are pointing straight up. Back in da boat they were green. Maybe this one will be green later. What they do is hover and then go straight up and come back down to where they were before.  


A new guy on the block with the dark deep red for eyes but looking closely they may not be the eyes.


I have several pictures of the same but I think this is better and think these eyes would be the perfect shade of green for a really poor scary insect people eater movie.


Lookee here - he's dining.


There was an inland sea here those millions of years ago. This was one of the reasons for today. In a way this picture seems appropriate. The ones flying back then would probably be trying to take a chunk outta ya for lunch.


I do pay attention b b b b b but I almost stepped on this bull snake's tail. I then payed more attention. He did not move as it was warm up time. No eyes here but they were had.




Cross posted @ The Picture Place

Denver Billbug

This is going to be real short. My friend is taking an online turf grass course and right now it's entomology time for him. He found these on our golf course just yesterday and they can be harmful if there are enough of them. You can read more here if you would like to learn more. You do not spray for them but endorse the help of other insects which I like.

Took a dozen or so pictures and I'm glad I got these two. This is a real ugly bug but the reason for these is the red ring on this creature in the bottom picture.We're not sure what is hanging on to the bottom of this. I don't think it's young but to me it looks like mites.

 I find this interesting.

Saturday August 2010

Here are a few pictures from today except for the first two which are from Friday. The first one was taken a little after 6AM and may be the best one of the bunch. If not the last one could be pretty good but it's hard to tell. Didn't do well today and even accidentally deleted a video of a small rainbow taking my fly.

Some of these can't be good for the simple fact that beetle kill is just plain ugly.

The landscape pictures are taken above the Colorado River at Radium.

A Few Recent Flowers

Right now the flowers are going crazy both wild and other. It is so pretty. Even though several of these  pictures are similar each is still fun to look at. Saturday early in the morning I think there is going to be a serious effort on taking pictures of  flowers.

Dragonflys

These creatures are fun to watch and can make very interesting pictures. I'm glad they don't bite.

There are hardly any red ones. These pictures are not too good. The blue ones are my favorites and it took several days to finally get some decent shots of them.