New Butterflies

We have a new butterfly field guide. It's Butterflies of North America by Jim P. Brock & Kenn Kaufman and is part of the Kaufman Focus Guides. With it I was able to identify two butterflies that we had not identified before. The first I found in the early morning.



This is the Common Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia). There were many of them flitting about the grass along the trails this morning but none would hold still for very long. It was a real struggle to get even this rather fuzzy photo.

On the other hand, the butterfly of the afternoon was one of one and it stayed fairly close to an Alfalfa plant. It was not until we brought the photos inside and made them larger on the computer that we were able to identify the butterfly as an Eastern Tailed-blue (Everes comyntas).



The "tails" are very small and we did not notice them when we were looking at the butterfly. Perhaps tomorrow, now that we know what to look for, we will see them.

Caterpillar

I found this caterpillar on a Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus) at the edge of the dog's yard. It's been on the same species of plant for two days. I like the patterns and colours on its body. Anyone have any ideas about what it will turn into?

To the Bat

To the Bat
I am sorry!
I apologize!

OK, its true,
for the last few evenings,
I have tried,
unsuccessfully,
to capture a digital photo
of a bat flitting through
the sunset air.



The digital camera does not
do well with moving objects
in almost dark conditions.



Early this morning
I had a better chance;
however, I am not my best
at 1:00 a.m. when awoken
from a fairly sound sleep
to the sound of fluttering wings.
(Why do bats always end up
in the bedroom of the house
in the middle of the night
when there are other rooms
in which to fly?)
I did manage to find my way
downstairs
to find the butterfly net in the hall.
But, in my still sleepy, groggy state,
I hit the bat with the wire frame
instead of capturing it in the net.
Poor bat!
It hit a chair and hung on
behind.
I collected it,
 in the net
from there
took it outside
on the porch,
released it and attempted
again
to get a photo.
Sorry, bat, for hitting you,
and
for taking such a poor photo.



But it's difficult at 1:00 in the morning
when one is tired
and
cannot see well through the view finder
to get a sharp photo.
Perhaps the fact that I was
stark naked under the porch light
also had something to do with
the poor photo?

Yes, the bat survived.
It did crawl
instead of flying,
off the porch
but
there was no sign of it
in this morning's light
and the cats and dog
were all safely locked
in the barn all night.

Spiders

Fleur-Ange and I both took spider photos yesterday. I think they are both the same species even though the markings are not quite the same. I believe they are Black and Yellow Argiopes (Argiope aurantia).





OK, a closer look at the beautiful patterns.

Grand River

We live about 10 km from the Grand River not far from Brantford, Ontario. The Grand River system drains the largest part of southern Ontario and flows for 298 kilometres (185 miles) on it way to Lake Erie. There is a brief history of human habitation along the Grand River here, but for today I just wanted to post this photo.



The photo is taken from a pedestrian bridge that goes across the Grand River about 8 km upstream from Brant's ford, the location of a river ford named for Chief Joseph Brant who was one of the natives of the Six Nations from the Finger Lakes area of what is now New York State. (I have been both amazed and surprised to find Joseph Brant's portrait hanging in museums in Stuttgart, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya. See the history note from above and/or the Chief Joseph Brant link to understand how natives from south of the present border came to be in the Grand River area.) The bridge is part of a 16 km (10 mile) loop biking/walking/running trail that extends on both sides of the river between two pedestrian bridges. As part of my physical "recreation," I run that loop almost every week during the warmer months. Fleur-Ange and I biked it today and brought along the camera for the photo. If you look closely, you can see two canoes in the river downstream.