Lunch Walk 25 Aug 2014

The temperature was pushing 90 degrees today and the humidity was high. I was hoping to find more butterflies but there was not much activity by either insects or birds. There were the usual Common Darter Dragonflies - they seem to be as abundant an Cabbage White butterflies.

I did spot this giant grasshopper in a little clearing beside the trail. I wanted to stay with it and get more photos but the flies and bees buzzing around me were just too annoying. And the sun was beating down from a mostly clear sky.

Lunch Walk 15 Aug 2014

The weather was cool and windy today. And not a lot to photograph -- I hardly heard a peep from any birds. In a sunny little meadow near the river, I spotted a few damselflies and dragonflies. Here is an American Rubyspot Damselfly and a Common Darter Dragonfly:

On the return leg, I spotted a rather large Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. It was flapping among the flowers about 10 feet off the trail and I couldn't get any closer. This is a crop, and not exactly as sharp as I would have liked. He's also not in perfect shape as it looks like his "tails" are mostly gone.

Lunch Walk 6 Aug 2014

The weather was perfect for my walk today - partly cloudy with the temperature around 70 degrees. The clouds began to clear during the second half and I got a little direct sunlight.

Today's theme seems to be butterflies. There were quite a few fluttering about and feeding on the flowers. Monarchs in particular were plentiful.

Some of these little brown guys flitting about, not staying in one place very long. I had to be quick to get this photo.

This dragonfly was comfortable letting me get close to him.

There's a bit of graffiti along the trail, mostly on man-made structures, but this little White Birch defacement caught my eye today.

Lunch Walk 23 Jul 2014

It was a cool walk today - temperatures were in the low 70's. There was quite a bit of bird activity but I had the macro setup with me so capturing any bird images was difficult. A new spotting for me was an American Goldfinch. The bright yellow caught my eye but he stayed pretty well hidden in the brush.

With thistles blooming, the bees are coming out in full force.

Cabbage Whites are not hard to find.

Colorful wildflowers are blooming in the lowlands around the river.

And I made this photograph of some tree fungus.

Lunch Walk 3 Jul 2014

It had just stopped raining an hour or two before lunch today and it looked like the skies were clearing, so I chanced a walk. The temperature was in the low 60's - almost too cool for short sleeves - but walking kept me warm enough. The macro lens got another workout today, although I wish I had a long lens along for a couple of opportunities - the first of which was this little hopper:

Fortunately, he let me get fairly close. This image is cropped down about 50%. The rest of the photos are unedited jpegs straight out of the camera. Check my Flickr photostream for processed images.

Then I encountered this damselfly:

This moth was drying out on a tree:

The wild raspberries are ripening:

A couple flies and a beetle of some sort (which was quite a challenge to get a good image of):

Some Black-eyed Susans, one with a bug:

Experimenting with water on foliage:

Thistles are starting to bloom as well:

Finally, a couple of Turkey Vultures were soaring near the trail head. This is the other opportunity for which I wish I had a long lens.

Lunch Walk 2 Jul 2014

I decided to forgo the birds today and try a macro setup: a Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens with a Kenko Pro 1.4x mounted on my 6D body. It was quite windy, though, making close-up macro work difficult. No IS means bumping up the ISO to 640+ so I could get decent shutter speeds with the smaller f-stops.

Despite the wind, there was no lack of subjects: butterflies, flowers, insects, and a couple of plants for grins.

I could have spent all day on these Banded Hairstreak butterflies. I wish I had brought along a reflector because the shadows are quite harsh at mid-day!

A Tawny-edge Skipper in the vicinity:

Another flying insect:

A couple of damselflies:

Wild raspberries are starting to grow:

And this, apparently, is what the damselflies and other insects do to the foliage: