I can't resist bugs (+ herps + quiz answer & winners + bb gets a name)

It is not my GOAL to constantly take and share photos of bugs.

crab spider on zinnia

Esp. bugs on flowers.

crab spider crop

tiny flight toward cleome

But, it just keeps happening...

tidy flyer

a  honey of a tummy

another TINY crab spider, on cleome bud

itty-bitty crab spider Eric Eaton (@bugeric) ID'd for me

bee dip

 Of course, there are other things in the garden that I like...

Sierran treefrog (Pseudacris sierra)

and wandering around the property,

young, beautiful Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer)

morning, noon, and night...

one of our local black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus)

but, I keep coming back to the bugs.

Guess we'll all just have to suffer.

[By the way: if you wanna see photos sooner or more frequently, you could follow me on twitter @biobabbler,  or if you want photos & less blather, check out my tumblr account xoxo]

****************

Quiz Winners!!!

Sue and Diana Studer NAILED it.
You two have my never ending respect. =)

WOO-HOO!!!

The word was: haconechloa.

Pronounced hawk-in-uh-cloh-uh,
rhymes with walk in the snow, duh.

It's a deciduous perennial grass used in gardening/landscaping, native to Japan.

Photo by and (c)2006 Derek Ramsey. Location credit to the Chanticleer Garden.
Obtained via Wikipedia.

I'd heard it listening to the Good Enough Gardening podcast.
I listen to them over & over;
they keep me company as I putter in the garden
or do chores in the house.

Apparently, that word got in, and required explanation.


So, enough about the GENIUSES who got it right:
now, for the GENIUSES who guessed wildly.

I'd HEARTILY encourage you to read the
MYRIAD, super entertaining guesses you creative people came up with.

*happy sigh*

Love when y'all go there. =) You rock.


Thanks EVERYONE for participating
and just generally being your cool selves.

xoxobb

p.s. Navel Gazing: I now call myself Samantha Biobabbler on twitter, 'cause why not have SOME real name, right? I'm not really anonymous for any particular reason, so, there ya go.

Wordless weekend: May 27 fieldwork snippets

  

 

bb

been in the field, pardon... =) 2 rattlers, today!!

 
So, my fatty Nikon D50 is harder to carry around, yank out of my pack at a rattler, etc. BUT, it has the advantage of me knowing how to USE it to actually, you know, FOCUS. On the SUBJECT.

Today's BEST shot of a rattlesnake. (erg.)

The BIGGEST rattlesnake, of course, I did NOT get a picture of. My task was to grab it out of a burrow and move it to the happy side of the wildlife fencing (i.e. the side that does NOT lead to cars and squishing). Did not succeed 'cause it decided it did NOT want to move so glided further into a ground squirrel burrow complex (outtareach and undaground).

I will admit that it was HUGE, I was a little intimidated.

Here's a co-worker moving a very cranky gopher snake to the happy side of the fence.

Doin'

the go-fa-snake

shuf-fle.

Zoom in on me. The chick who took my photo cannot use her new camera, so every time she crops a shot, well, almost, the computer says the new shot is 0KB. And I'm handsome!

Honestly, I just ate a scone post dinner (what's up with that??) so I gotta get to the gym right now. More some other time. When?? Hard 2 say.

=) Back in the field next week, more snaky rescue, possibly with my bulky-yet-beloved Nikon fatty. =)

Hope y'all are well!

xobb

Phriday photo quiz #6 solved!

 
By MObugs (honk honk!). Nice job. She got "gopher snake" and "Pituophis" and I merely added catenifer catenifer (based on where I found it).

Sweet. So, yes, it was a Pacific gopher snake in the grass. Found it lying along a widllife fence (which kept it out of danger-yay!), all stretched out. I'm guessing the fence material (what the grasshoppers are on in Mumday), being black, was both warm and a little out of the wind (cool, windy day), so was appealing to this poikilotherm.

Anyhow, leaned over fence to take it's picture and it started moving, and showing me and the nearby work crew folks whom I grabbed it's lovely self. LONG snake!! The stake it's by is at least 4' long (tho' granted not entirely in pic).

I love this picture. It works for me on so many levels. =)

And zee mystery photo is above. Isn't it just like being there?

Snaky says, "Yessssssssssssee ya!"

biobabbler