Animal Crossing has taught me that these are bag worms
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Looks like dark-eyed juncos. Here in upstate NY (and many parts of the country) it’s somewhat bittersweet seeing them. The migratory ones at least are the harbingers of winter. They migrate south from Canada as it gets too cold up there and when they come here it seems like it is the end of fall and is about to get really cold. They are really fun to watch as they are quite playful and cheery. They will raid my backyard looking for any seed that has been produced from any of the flowering plants.
They stay throughout the winter and will get active again right as Spring is setting in and theyre ready to migrate back north. I’m sure there is a year round population of them too, but theyre a lot less common. Theres no other bird I can tie to seasonal changes quite like juncos (I’m not including birds like warblers that only spend 2-4 weeks a year in a given region)
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Here on the California coast they’re year round. I can’t ever remember a time where I register their absence.
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I must’ve been an animal in my past life because when i lived in a cookie cutter neighborhood in Colorado Springs, I felt so out of place and lonely even with so many people a stone throw away.
Here, I don’t even like butterflies but i feel connected. I thought this was really pretty the other day with the contrast of all the colors going on.
And i wish i could handle the snakes and thank them for taking care of my mice issue in the past. Haven’t seen a mice for almost a year now, now that they’ve decided to make homes nearby. I love seeing their little tails slither off somewhere every few feet. I have a lot of them and I’ve started making little rock piles for them to live in around my property too. All the rocks i excavated last year are place in a row in front of my home as well with smaller boulders the size of soccer balls stacked in random places.
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Bagworms. I’m fighting them on some landscaping trees
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We have a little patch of milk weed for monarchs along side my flower plot.
Last year we found a tree frog sitting on a milkweed leaf. He was around most days. So regular, we took pictures of it on my grandkids forehead.
I was checking the milkweed and hes back. Looking happy.
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How did your porch make out? !
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Wow!!!
These are from last year, but I noticed an almost all yellow bumble bee that I saw on a flower and then go to its burrow. Turns out to be a Golden Bumble Bee and apparently they have dwindling populations. I hope to see them again this year.
This mini tarantula
was hanging out in my Maximillian sunflowers for what seemed like weeks.
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Amazingly, the skunk chased the cat off without needing to resort to their ultimate weapon. We were worried because we were having company the next night and planned to eat outside.
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Goldfinches eating the seeds of monarda and chicory. Too bad I have no sunflowers this year, they really love them
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thats funny how the skunks posturing like hes the king. lol! every year i have a family of them under my shed. now that i have a fenced area for the dogs, they are good neighbors, digging up the june bug grubs out of the orchard and the lawn.
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i have several families of these living on my property. up until 2 years ago, id never seen them around here. glad there here and i enjoy watching them case each other around my bushes.
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Flies on lovage flowers
Lucilia sericata - Common green bottle fly
Sarcophaga sp. - flesh fly
Myathropa florea - the batman hoverfly
Delia radicum - the cabbage fly
Possibly Sapromyza sp.
and wasps
Gasteruption sp. - carrot wasp
Polistes dominula - European paper wasp
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Wow. Are those taken with a legit camera and zoom or phone?
A “real” camera, macro lens, no zoom, hunting and waiting for a shot.
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What camera and lens do you use ? What settings , do you use a tripod?
I use a macro lens (Venus laowa manual lens) and I my shots suck compared to yours (post 2863)
Looking for ways to improve
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Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!
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I use a Canon DSLR with a Sigma 105mm macro lens. Insects aren’t my main (macro)photography interest - ascomycetous fungi are. I only shoot insects “in between”, when I don’t have any fungi to shoot 
, mostly around my yard.
For photographing fungi, I exclusively use manual focus with any lens (I also have another manual setup/contraption for macro - two old manual Russian lenses mounted reverse-coupled). I always use a tripod for fungi, and often a macro rail as well, but those are static subjects where I also do focus stacking… Insects are very difficult to shoot with manual focus, so I wouldn’t recommend it… unless you’re shooting them when they’re immobile (due to the cold or early morning or dead )… For insects, whenever possible I use a tripod - sometimes just as a support or as a monopod to steady my hand, and sometimes fully locked down… For example, the Batman fly and the carrot wasp were shot handheld, for the others, I used the tripod as a rest… Generally, if you’re shooting handheld, try to achieve the fastest shutter speed possible…
For moving insects, you need a fast enough shutter speed, especially if they’re flying, which means you have to ensure sufficient light - whether that’s strong natural light, using a flash, bumping up the ISO, or a combination of all three… I always try to focus on the eyes/mouth parts (unless I’m focus stacking to get everything sharp, or capturing a specific anatomical detail)… discard many
For these photos, the settings were approximately f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO 400. I always shoot in RAW… For static subjects, the settings are different…
A bee in flight
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