The county fair & photo exhibit + 3 bonus photos just 4 u. =)

 So, 1st: apologies for NOT POSTING in MAY. Wow.

(Throws biodegradable glitter to distract you.)

Fair Foto Fun

Annnyhow,

I entered some of my photos in a nearby county fair at the end of May.

Very exciting & less totally nerve-wracking than last time.

Perhaps experience breeds calm? Or, at least lack-of-total-freakout. =D

The fair itself was last weekend, and that's when I learned how I did.

Which is pretty well! =)

Got 1st & 2nd in 8/9 photos.

I'll take it! =D

I ALSO got to ogle other's lovely & inspiring work.

Which is MOST enjoyable.

One professional/advanced photographer's work I LOVED was Christopher Viney.

His 1st place photo in landscape:

gah!

And his 1st place agriculture photo:

How surprising & abstract is that for "agriculture?" Too cool.

So, I got curious & googled his name.

Apparently, when he's not being a rockin' great photographer,

he is teaching physics at UC Merced.

Clearly, not much goin' on, there. =D

Here's another shot I LOVED (flower)

but unfortunately didn't get the photographer's name in the shot.

Crazy good.

DH's party shirt (white horseshoes on red background)

& me & my Trader Joe's bad made some weird reflections, therein.

Also ogled sundry gorgeous cows.

 Mama & junior looking coy (typo was "cow"). =)

DH in his happy place: Part I

 Petting the cute little goats.

DH in his happy place: Part II

 Look out, honey, your Midwestern heritage is showing!

They have a pretty nice range of old tractors there so we took in the tractor parade.

Fun was had by all.

=)

Bonus Pics

And just for fun, the elegant sphinx moth (Sphinx perelegans) I found on our garden gate

(species ID confirmed by my moth-y expert friend, Dr. Dan Rubinoff)

"Don't see my eyes!"

This is a LARGE moth. From ~3.5" to 4.25."

Made my DAY.

And it blended in PERFECTLY with the faded grey wood. =)

Dr. Dan said they raise their young on manzanita (among other things),

so this pup could have grown up right here. =)

Last, this flower went into a windstorm with wet hair,

and now looks AMAZING! =D

And when open, this bee was VERY happy to be there.

Note the white pollen coating its legs. =)

Thassit! I hope your summer (or winter) is starting out well.

It's been AMAZINGLY mild & wonderful this last week, 

but is on schedule to fling itself into the 100s soon, 

so I'll have to start taking Stop Whining pills then.

For now, I will simply bask in the glory that is our world right NOW.

=) 

xoxoxoxobb

Flinging photos: Sierra Nevada lower-montane life in early March

 This appeared at our window last night & I almost had a heart attack:

It's a ceanothus silkmoth (ID thanks to @CrawliesWithCri), 3.5-5 inch wingspan. AMAZING.

Just look at that gorgeous abdomen! So stylish, jeepers.

After taking some photos w/my confused camera (why shooting at night??)

I went back inside & turned off our lights so it would stop being confused by us,

and continue on toward finding a mate, or whatever it would normally do. =)

So, walking in the dark house, smiling quietly,

my husband said, "Welcome to Samantha National Park."

I'm glad he understands. =)

Baby Blue Eyes and Friends

Photographed first baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) on our property this year, March 3rd.

When I uploaded the photo, saw I captured one of

the so tiny (presumed) globular springtails in focus. So cute!

If you scroll back up to the flower photo, can you find the tiny bug?

For amazing shots of all kinds of these cuties,

much clearer, and much closer up,

check out Ed Phillip's photos on Flickr.

Truly, his work is superb,

and there's such diverse colors & patterns in these species.

He finds them in leaf piles on the ground. So, so cool.

Love and Death

Just this morning, saw evidence of a spidery romance on our window...

I think it's a female up top, and a male down below.

"So, Bob. How'd the date go last night?"

(no response)

"Bob?"

Presumed female looks as innocent as possible...

batting her perty eyelashes.

Dating in the spider world is risky business.

Other Visitors

Teddybears of the insect world, a bee fly appeared recently.

Super hard species to get good photos of--they're very speedy and restless. 

For much better photos:

The subfamily Bombyliinae has lots of the fuzzy types.

Check out this shot--WOW. SO CUTE!

We flung out some birdseed & got lovely visitors, including this spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus).

The redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia) is blooming--it's an extremely subtle event.

At least to us. Lots of tiny bugs are floating around it, so for them it's shouting.

Those teensy green blooms are barely discernible to my eyes.

Squinting hard I can pick out the white stigma to know which are open.

Miner's lettuce (Claytonia spp.) is also blooming happily.

 Another fan of the birdseed: a brave western gray squirrel.

 And last, early for Easter, a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) plays peek-a-boo.

Happy spring!

xoxobb

TINY mothies: apparently I've been DYING to see them & I DID!!!

I've REALLY wanted to see 

a really small moth ever since I learned about them

from Chris Grinter (@skepticalmoth).

Last night I DID spy tiny moths & got some photos.

Dark thing in lower left corner is a small ant, for scale...

Nectaring on a gaillardia...

Same moth, with flash... sparkly!

Only took a few shots w/automatic flash--seemed to upset the poor creature.

Paparazzi--SO gauche.

Here's a different (slightly larger) individual w/in (my) reach of the 1st.

That body plan confounds me.

Chris thinks these are probably plume moths, from the family Pterophoridae. 

He is ALL about these tiny little animals,

plus lots of other fabulous inverts, has a great blog,

and takes SUCH great photos, you may want to slap him.

Here's just one example of the

amazing images he shares of microleps

(what the pros call the TINY lepidopterans).

Meanwhile, back on the ranch...

The wings!!

Flying tiny apparently poses different challenges,

hence microleps are known for narrower, feathery wings

versus the big, dusty plates of their larger brethren.

Like feathery oars...

If I remember correctly, when you're REALLY small,

the air is relatively more viscous (thicker),

so different structures work better to move your tiny bod.

When they fly, you just see a wee blur,

drifting past, like plankton.

And you think, "What the heck was that?!?"

Legs, legs, legs.

So spiky.

I'm guessing all those spikes help them hang on,
and not get blown away by the tiniest breeze?
Although the other one's legs aren't nearly so spiky.

Can you tell I'm fascinated?

*sigh*

So, didn't get to sleep until LATE (for me) 'cause I was SO pumped about this. =)

I've been SO richly rewarded for the pollinator-attracting seed mix I planted years ago.

I HIGHLY recommend it. Best part of summer, IMHO.

Well, that and perfectly ripe peaches.

=)

xoxoxoxo bb

biobabbler was invited to a blog carnival!!

    
Seriously, was SO excited to even be invited, I said "Yes, of course. FABulous! What's involved?" (in so many words) Note the order.

DIVE in grinning ear to ear (ker-SPLASH!), then ask "oh, who's pool is this? What am I supposed to be doing?"

So, a blog carnival, according to Wikipedia, is "a type of blog event...is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks to other blog articles on the particular topic."

This is from my gorgeous, elegant white moth + spider question post, wherein a (different) moth friend said if there is red on the forelegs then it's the vestal tiger moth (Spilosoma vestalis), but unfortunately I didn't take the right picture for that--the genus for sure is Spilosoma. If you want to see the PERFECT shot of that species, check out The Moth and Me (below). STUNNING!

THIS particular blog carnival is entitled The Moth and Me, and this issue is hosted by skepticalmoth who collected and stiched together different moth-related posts or blogs together in one big, colorful moth-quilt.

One word of encouragement re: going and checking it out: the very first picture KILLS ME. OMG, there are some AMAZING moths pictured in these different posts from different parts of the world. SO cool.

Oh, bonus for biobabbler. When I asked what I needed to do? He said nothing. I was done. He'd just link to a post I already made, and that's it.

So, basically, skeptical moth answered my swimming pool question (above) with: "You just did it. Just wanted you to jump in!"

Nice.

Ooh, a freaky coincidence re: skepticalmoth. I had JUST found and started following his blog, and read his post on fairy moths (SO seriously trippy and beautiful) and, what, three days later saw THIS?!?

I freaked. So I asked him and he said yes, Virginia, that is a fairy moth. Have you EVER seen antennae like that on a moth in your LIFE?!? Honestly, I swear I'd never seen one before his post and 2 or 3 days later got a picture!

Anyhow. =) I encourage you to check out the amazing mothiness that can be beheld at The Moth and Me.


biobabbler

greeting me on the window screen this a.m. was...

  

this:

ooh! So I grabbed my camera and hopped outside:

Then the sun hit:

Here you can see his/her eye.

And here's a peek at an antenna (looks like a comb, imp. to distinguish sex, not that I can tell...):

Am hoping to learn from one of my smarty-moth friends what this may be. Apparently it is in the Lasiocampidae family (clue tossed to me by smarty moth friend), and Phyllodesma looks like an awfully good candidate for the right genus.

Searched Calphotos for the genus and Phyllodesma americana*, lappet moth, looks JUST right, to my inexpert eye. Once again I owe a debt of gratitude to rely my entomologically gifted friends. Thanks!!

biobabbler

* Just got this confirmed by a moth expert friend, so we're good!

PS Cruised my property this a.m. and got shots of what's blooming and a fun bonus on 2 of the flowers I shot (next post or 2). Oh, and finally went toward where the raven pair were cawing incessantly in time to see a tawny bobcat trot down our neighbors' driveway in the springtime sun. Needless to say, chickens went back in the coop for a while... Take home lesson: LISTEN TO WILDLIFE! Esp. if you have poultry to protect.

new mystery moth...

    

I WAS going to allow some time before I posted this, but now I must KNOW (having seen what skepticalmoth just posted), so here it is:

Better angle, blurrier shot:

Not the best photos in the world, but it was avoiding me and it was pretty small (maybe less than 2cm long?). Pretty cool little creature, though, so I'm glad I pursued the random small brown thing flitting by.

Looks like a pretty shaggy beast, but stylishly attired.

Thoughts? Theories? Wild guesses?

biobabbler

Peddling petals... wildflower outing trailer

 

Not a lot of time today (must crank on big project), so not even looking up the spp. names yet, but here's a few to whet your appetite for subsequent posts. Adventuring further into spring.

Last shot is a small-moth-on-flower question I've not yet answered: Who is it? (...asked the parrot of the plumber.)

Indian paintbrush, Castilleja spp. (at this point I'm sticking to genera).

It is particularly electric this year. Just pulsating pigment. Breathtakingly brash.

 Possibly my favorite pic (esp. w/o watermark....)

Small, mysterious mothiness (on woodland star, or some such)....

Update per skepticalmoth (see comments):

" ...looks like a Gelechiidae or Blastobasidae or something similar."

This preview brought to you by: ActuallyHaveaProjectThat'sDueSoonandLoadsofWorkbutCANNOTLeaveBlogAloneandPhoto-less.

the biobabbler

Freaking OUT!

Bizarre moth coincidence!

I read, for the first time this last week (what, 2 days ago?) about "fairy moths" at http://skepticalmoth.wordpress.com. He's got some nice pics and I stare at the crazy long antennae.

Today I see (as in take pictures of) THIS!

Pattern is the SAME as some (species) that he showed. The long antennae are much harder to see on the 2nd shot (which I'm guessing is female?) but she's in much better condition (re: ragged wings or no) than the male. She had much more sheen to the dark parts of her wings. And much more obviously red head, male was much hairier, and maybe all that black hair makes it harder to see the red, or he just has less. You can see hints of some red.

ANYhow, what are the freakin' odds? CANNOT believe my luck. Cripes.

Emailed Mr. Skeptical Moth for his verdict, and I'll keep you posted.

Learn an animal 1 day, sure I've never seen them before, find it WITH CAMERA and they're super mellow on the flowers, TWO DAYS LATER?

Woah.

This is why I say, on occasion, I am so lucky sometimes, it's laughable.

Yay!  =)

the biobabbler