The other morning I was out walking with Tesla in the woods when we hit a patch of prairie. The thistles are in bloom, and a busy buzzing bee brought my eyes to the flower below, but by the time I got my camera phone out, she had flown off. And then I noticed this 2-inch long grasshopper taking his morning sip of nectar from the flower. I don’t know that I’ve witnessed that before.
I snapped a few shots and, at the risk of sounding like a much older person than I am, sometimes I’m still amazed that I can take pictures with a phone, let along such high quality ones. It’s puts our first 3 MP digital camera to absolute shame! But it’s also nice to have a personal frame of reference to how far our technology has come in just a decade or two. But back to that thistle. I’m not sure if it’s a native prairie variety or an invasive one. And I’m not sure what those other insects are, but here’s a cheat sheet if you want to take a guess.
If you’re headed out on a walk, you don’t have to stop to smell the flowers (who wants to risk getting those little bugs up their nose?), but do move in for a close look at them. Who knows what surprises you’ll find!
Also, in my experience, if a bee is busy pollinating, she has little regard for the humans around her. Take advantage of that to watch her work her magic. It’s really fascinating.
I snapped this shot earlier this summer. Again, kudos to my phone. It was sunny out and I couldn’t even see what was on the screen. I was simply clicking away hoping to get a good photo. It’s so exciting to be able to do that without a fear of wasting film or money to develop it. Okay, hobbling my way back to my rocker now.
And as long as I’m extolling the virtues of my fine phone along with some of my favorite pollinators, take a look at this favorite from 2014. It’s the larva of a black swallowtail butterfly I found east the carrot greens in my garden. I gave it a home on my kitchen counter and released it about two weeks later as a butterfly.
Hungry, hungry caterpillar, indeed. The real excitement comes at around 13:20 when it does a bit of housekeeping.