Below is a compilation of a few tiny creatures I’ve come across in the last week or so. All photos were taken using a macro lens on my iPhone. This is a carpet beetle in the genus Anthrenus, likely Anthrenus verbasci, in the flower of a China girl holly. Adults of this species eat pollen, so it’s a logical place to find this one. For those unfamiliar with the scale of holly flowers, this beetle is tiny – only a…
It seems that very little is documented about the courtship and mating behavior of northern raccoons (Procyon lotor) other than the fact that mating occurs in the spring. So, while I’m not 100% sure what is happening in the video below, it seems likely that these behaviors – posturing to each other, grooming, etc. – could be associated with courtship. Prior to April 14, I’d captured quite a few video clips of a solitary raccoon circling the perimeter of this…
In mid-March, I installed my game camera at the edge of a vernal pool. I followed a game trail down to the water and found a nice open area where I’d hoped wildlife, like deer, foxes, and raccoons, would come down to drink. I did get quite a few shots of deer and raccoons, and a lot of very fast (and very blurry!) red squirrels, but I was most surprised by how many clips I got of American crows using…
Last weekend I visited the Paskamansett Woods in Dartmouth. The trail takes you to and across the Paskamansett River. The low lying area adjacent to the river (i.e., the floodplain), was dotted with new bright green growth. None of our native plants typically leaf out this early, so I wandered in to take a closer look. It turned out that these were the new leaves from Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), also known as fig buttercup. Lesser Celandine is a low…
March is an unpredictable month. We’re just as likely to have a blizzard as we are to have a 60 degree sunny day. But even though there are still a few weeks left until the official start of spring, there are already many early signs of spring’s approach. Many of our year-round resident birds have started to sing in earnest, in preparation for defending a territory and finding a mate. The Carolina wren in my hard has been “tea-kettling” his…
My husband was chopping down a rotten pitch pine last week and found dozens of beetles under the bark. Knowing my interest for beetles, he brought one home for me to see (and photography with my macro lens!). We were able to identify it as a ribbed pine borer (Rhagium inquisitor), a member of the longhorn beetle family (Cerambycidae) that is widespread throughout North America and Eurasia. The ribbed pine borer is unusual within this family, however, as it has…
I’m a day late with posting the third and final installment in my “Month of Macro” series, but I figured it was better late than never. The last two posts focused on trees and wildflowers – two groups of organisms that probably don’t require a macro lens to be appreciated, but whose details can certainly be enhanced by using one. This post, however, will focus on two types of organisms that are relatively small and easily overlooked, and which get…
Continuing my macro explorations from my previous posts (if you missed them, check them out here and here) I switched my focus to wildflowers. Admittedly, January isn’t the most obvious time to go looking for flowers, but many of our local species have persistent seed heads that can be found through the winter. And some of these, as you’ll see, are quite intricate when observed up close. And in at least one case, some flowers already have their spring buds ready…
As mentioned in my previous post, I recently received a new macro lens attachment for my cell phone. It’s been really fun to wander around my yard and nearby trails with this new close-up perspective. Some things are obviously enhanced by a zoomed-in look, such as insects, moss, lichens and other “tiny” things. But I’ve also really enjoyed a new look at things you wouldn’t necessarily assume you need a macro lens to observe, like trees and shrubs. Below are…
In most years around this time, I review my previous year’s goals and set new ones for the upcoming calendar year (see: 2021, 2020, etc.). But, interestingly, I never established set goals for 2022. Perhaps on some level I knew this year would prove hard to stick to my typical plans; my pregnancy and the birth of my son have certainly thrown my typical routine a bit out of whack. However, I’m a very list-driven, action-oriented person, so this bugged…