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

How photography is like meditation

 Photography makes me SLOW DOWN...

focus on one thing,

and then I see things I wouldn't have otherwise (same dahlia),

like a VERY tiny spider,

building a very tiny orb web,

 floating in a sea of dahlia hues.

Found this new ootheca (mantid egg case, on the support for the cardinal climber)

which I hope is from this summer's green mantid rockstar. 

Here she is giving mouth-to-mouth to a honeybee.

Which is what I tell myself so I can gaze at it.

Also, in the photo you can't see the bee's leg twitch.

I had to walk away.

However, notice she's also doing the splits. Woah.

A blue-lipped goddess whom, like Pele (the volcano goddess),

you don't mess with.

Old ootheca on old manzanita branch in garden.

 Those things are AMAZINGLY hard. Like fossil-hard.

 So hopeful: dahlia bud soaking up the sun.

Teensy white crab spider on morning glory, behind scarlet runner bean.

pink-ola dahlia

Honeybee & her adorable shadow on pink zinnia.

Tiny harvest, plus Moby chick.

Another small yet beautiful harvest.

And back to mediation,

was taking photo of this,

Noticed tiny white dust speck on the lower right,

which is this amazingly tiny animal.

And makes me love biology and photography

all over again.

=)

xooxoxbb

Why I can't deadhead this particular dahlia bloom

 Big ol' pale yellow dahlia flower pretty far past its prime...

This crab spider looks REALLY ready to be a mama spider.

Her abdomen is HUGE.

So, the flower stays.

=)

xobb

Summer's bounty--flowers & bugs, living fast & hard

Summer.

Time for county fairs and beautiful nights...

and for plants to leap skyward,

providing room and board for the myriad bugs that live among them.

Turquoise-eyed flies (probably related to horseflies)

none of which I noticed when I took the photo. Flies 4, bb 0. =)

In a quest to improve my attitude about summer

(it gets bloody hot here & I'm the first to drop)

I'm shining a light on summer-associated goodies that I adore.

Tiny plume moth. I've NEVER seen one before last week. SO exciting.

 ID thanks to Chris Grinter (@skepticalmoth). That body is less than a centimeter long.

A small ant (lower left) to provide scale for this wee, tiny moth.

Spotted assassin bug (Rhynocoris ventralis) on gaillardia.

First time I think I've seen this particular, dashing predator.

Nicely color coordinated with the gaillardia, eh?

Tarnished plant bug (Lygus hesperus).

A tiny little charmer.

A day later, the same species played peek-a-boo with me

Here you get a better idea of how tiny it is. =)

Crab spider dining upon an earwig, underneath a chrysanthemum bloom.

So many mysterious (and frequently tiny) creatures

to find and try to name.

An assassin bug (that I cannot ID, so far) dining on an unlucky bee or fly of some sort.

An ever-changing populace of

invertebrates in the garden. 

Ants, seemingly obsessed with carrot flowers.

For the plants

the plant pollinators,

the plant eaters,

and plant-associated-bug predators,

summer is no joke.

Lovely, little lynx spider female living on a mint plant.

She's so spiky.

Live life now,

for tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Which reminds me of two views I gained from the Ferris wheel:

the quick,

and the dead. 

It's always good to have a reminder.

Nature will do that for you.

xoxobb

Colour me crabby

Favorite "color" shot from this year:

crab spider on a zinnia

Assignment for day 17 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is "colours,"

the spelling of which belies a Canadian or UK origin.

However, I'm feeling kinda wooky,

so wandering around w/camera may not happen today.

Y'all may have to settle for this.

xoxobb

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.