Jumbo Jumping Spider just for Halloween

An uncharacteristically large and colorful jumping spider, that I will attempt to I.D... (Phidippus audax, Bold Jumping Spider, atypical?)...  But for now, just admire her colorful and seasonally-appropriate backside (abdomen) ~ The same applies to the native paper wasp below, which I think is a female Northern Paper Wasp, who seemingly would like to be inside the greenhouse for winter.

An Excellent Day for Insects

I believe this is a Sawfly (Macremphytus) larva, of the Dogwood variety, evidently trying to molt.  Looks like his siblings already molted and left.

And this is an awesome wasp-mimic in the Syrphid fly family, probably Spilomyia longicornis.

Eastern Comma butterfly, yes?

Berry True

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”  Frank Lloyd Wright

That quote, which I should confess I just saw in an email from ODNR, seems particularly appropriate to me recently.  I was experiencing some stubborn doldrums, and no amount of spicy food, espresso, nor even a hernia exam could lift my spirits… Then I got home and noticed berries on a young Red Chokeberry bush. (Aronia arbutifolia, below) We just planted the twigling chokeberry, from Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, this past Spring. And it produced a cluster of fruit already! Seeing this, I instantly felt better than I’d felt all day.

I had a similar upturn last week just witnessing a tiny dark creature dash across the garden - A short-tailed shrew who I’d pined for all summer! That same afternoon I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch in the yard who I’d also missed. We used to have a White-breasted visit regularly but I hadn’t seen it for over a year. (I think maybe he had been confused and left in the spring of 2008 along with a pair of irregular wintering Red-breasted Nuthatches ; ~ )

Clematis virginiana - Virgin’s Bower seed plumes, which give it the occasional name ‘Old Man’s Beard‘:

Hermit Thrush and Winter Wren, Together Again

The following substandard photos are for species documentation only - Sorry, but I took these pics through window glass and screen. It was shady, cloudy, and the subjects were bouncing and darting all about!

The Thrush was making an odd shivering motion, I assume just to foil my attempts to focus… (I wonder if he was actually making a low call that I couldn’t hear.)

I’m fairly certain this is a Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus. Coming down from summering in Canada or northern Michigan, etc. Some winter in southern half of Ohio or as far as Florida and Mexico.


The diminutive bird below moves like a mouse under leaves and over logs: a Winter Wren - Not a common sight - Troglodytes troglodytes is the scientific name. (Groovy, I can remember that one.) The first time I saw a Winter Wren it was under our pergola and reminded me of a moth in flight ~ Its stubby little wings had to beat so fast to carry its comparatively stout body ~ Then it materialized almost perpendicular on a post, and I fell in love!
I usually see this one in the yard once or twice a year as it passes through. These winter in Midwest, Southeast and Atlantic States… But since Winter Wrens summer in Canada, they call them…?

In Preparation for a Fresh Start

On a brilliant native shrub ~ Wahoo, Euonymus atropurpureus ~ a fruit capsule offers forth a seed.

...Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca …already fluffing and sending off its own hopefuls.

....And I’m still taking photos of Augochlora pura sweat bees.


I need an upheaval. A fresh start ~

I wonder what the sweat bees are like on the northwest coast … ( ^ ;

Glacier Ridge Metro Park Wetlands

So this BlogSpot is supposed to be about my backyard wildlife... Not today!  Besides, Glacier Ridge wetland area is essentially surrounded by houses, and an unfortunate stone’s throw from Route 33. 

I’m posting these photos from a year ago…for several reasons. This migrating Marbled Godwit was a rare sight for central Ohio, so I've read.  I was lucky enough to be stumbling down the boardwalk that day, and had my camera for once!  So glad.  (This was August 26, 2008) 

Now this past September I visited Glacier Ridge a few times, and even after what seemed like a good deal of rain, the wetlands area was only just damp.  I was surprised to realize that we're still behind for rainfall this year... 
Finally, just last Saturday, October 3, there was a little standing water. (But I didn’t see any birds.) I did find a sad and adorable tiny Masked(?) Shrew, dead on the multi-use trail. I picked him up and moved him to tall grass. (Otherwise within a half-hour he would have been pureed in the wheel of a rollerblade.)

Saturday I also saw what appeared to be predaceous diving beetles in a very shallow puddle also on the asphalt multi-use trail!  I thought that was pretty interesting.  ~ No camera that day, of course. ~

(click photos to view large images)

Please click on photo to view.  You must see the large image of this one!  A Green Heron ripping from the mud what appears to be an already dead frog.  The frog reminds me of a sandbag/ragdoll I had as a child...

The Queen of Nothing

This is a Bald-faced Hornet queen, Dolichovespula maculata, I believe.  (That sounds like an Italian coffee drink, doesn't it?)  It's actually a type of paper wasp and not a true hornet.  Her kind are the builders of those familiar large oval lantern-like nests, constructed from chewed wood and plant fiber.    

A fertilized female, or queen, is the only member of the hive to overwinter.  The one pictured here on our deck may have been looking for soil or leaf litter in which to spend the winter.

A Marble-ous, Araneus Day!

I was excited about this one.  A spider more difficult to I.D. than I expected.  It’s a different genus than our other large Orb Weaver, which is genus Neoscona, posted here Sept. 7.   I searched around internet, went to List of Ohio Spiders - by OSU - to confirm occurrence, then back to BugGuide.net  ~ This appears to be Araneus marmoreus - a Marbled Orbweaver ~

This species is incredibly variable in coloring, from typical orange, to bright yellow, pale to white, even white with black. I think mine is the most beautiful ~ the abdomen is like a Ukrainian painted egg! Or a hermit crab with a custard swirled shell!  My photo doesn't do it justice…

Her web was like a sheer sail in the wind, and she moved about, hurriedly repairing the strands. And there I was, backed against a pine tree with needles dropping down my shirt, as I tried to compose a photo.

I’d say I’m tickled, but I’m really itchy. It was like suicide by encephalitis out there today!  Mosquito shift change overlap.  Maybe I was one last buffet before the mosquitoes were blown away by the cool wind.  I'm still counting the bumps ~

I’ll stop now… We have at least two of these large Marbled Orbweavers. The other snuck back up under an overhang while I was getting my camera. We also have at least four Neoscona (crucifera?) barn spiders surrounding the house, in addition to a dozen funnel web spiders, and company.

Anyone have an arachnophobe you would like to torture?

False Potato Beetle

The following subject is seasonally inappropriate, but I came across my mystery moon-grub photo and finally looked it up at BugGuide.net. And - pleasant surprise - it led me to properly I.D. a beetle I also photographed this summer:

This is the larva of a False Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa juncta, in the Leaf Beetle family. It reminds me of the moon, above, which I photographed the same evening that I found this little blob under the arbor.

These feed on horse-nettle, Solanum carolinense, other solanaceous (?) plants, such as species of ground cherry or husk tomato, Physalis spp., and common nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. (Mine must have been going for nightshade.)

Below is the adult, which looks very similar to the misnamed Colorado Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, but the False has some brown striping on the wings that the Colorado does not. (Sorry about the less than sharp photo, but he was scurrying up and down the ninebark shrub as if I had a jar of ether for him.)

A bit of advice for other beginning naturalists: check at least two, maybe three different guides or resources before you determine identification of most creatures, especially invertebrates.
Be alert, of course, and don't let anyone tell you a turkey vulture is a red-tailed hawk.  ; - ]

Song for this day: The Jam “Bitterest Pill”

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

There will be no more pathetic poems nor 'Odes' at this site - hopefully - except some dragonflies. (order Odonata)…
~ Unless I go quite far northwest, and then perhaps “Ode on an Aleutian Tern,” (using pen name John Tweets?)
Thank you, I’m here all year.
This is a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus (I’m wishing I’d taken Latin instead of French in school. I do know “gros-” indicates the large or heavy bill of the bird.)

The female grosbeak looks kind of like a very large sparrow.

This species only passes through our area during migration, summering in northern Ohio, surrounding states (to summarize) and into Canada. My photos are from May, but I brought them up because I’m sure I heard a rose-breasted grosbeak in the yard this morning. They have a subtle yet distinctive (He does make me think of red wine) sharp, squeaky call “like sneakers on a gym floor” as Sibley describes it. Works for me! That’s exactly how I located the male in our tree this past spring.
This morning though - come to think of it - might have been the neighbors’ swing set that was squeaking.

Bombyli the Day Away

This insect is in family Bombyliidae, a Bee Fly. It doesn’t resemble a bee to me - kind of cuddly looking, though I suppose not to other insects the larvae of this would feed upon.  And it zips around like a furry fighter jet.

Specifically, this is Sparnopolius confusus - the only species in this genus that occurs in the Eastern United States, according to BugGuide.net.

How about the bee fly as a new design for a boot brush! instead of a hedgehog?  I would put it next to a “Welcome” mat that says Run Away!

I’m itchy from looking at bugs, and reading about bugs… I’m going to post birds next, whether they want to cooperate or not! (a thrush that evidently hit neighbor’s van)

Sad, Sad Summer

This year was not so good. My next door neighbor died. Our usually reliable hummingbird disappeared very early.  The European paper wasps expanded their nest too close to my observatory hammock, and evidently also pushed the native paper wasps out of a favorite spot, (the grill), so they then huddled up against the greenhouse.

European Paper Wasps, Polistes dominula

I’m not even going to discuss the mosquitoes!  Poison ivy popped up all over the place. (There is an upside to that - It's native and spread by berry-eating birds.)
I lost my muse (or something) and took a fraction the number of photos I usually take.

And various insects used the swimming pool way more than we did!

Tiger Moth Didn't Harness the Night, but Katydid

Two mornings ago I discovered an odd pair of insects in front of the garage.  (And we don't leave porch lights on.)  Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that the unusually cooperative moth hadn't survived the chilly night.  (Most of these insects have to give up the post pretty soon anyway.) 

The deceased appears to be a Harnessed Tiger Moth, Apantesis phalerata, though that species i.d. is flappable.  And according to National Audubon Society Guide to Insects, regarding tiger moths: "Male moths are attracted to artificial lights..., but females generally remain close to breeding areas and food plants." (Take from that what you will.)

The katydid seemed plenty alert and wary upon my approach.  I believe this is a Greater Anglewing, Microcentrum rhombifolium (I confess to moving my lips as I spelled out that one.)

When listening to night-singing insects in the yard, I find some comfort in my ability to concentrate for a few seconds, and isolate four - sometimes five - different insect songs participating in the "mix." (I gave up trying to find spelling of brouhaha in the dictionary - Oh, there it is...)

I Am Not a Bum

But this is a bumble, a fuzzy one too.  Eastern... Oh alright, I'm looking up the genus because I remembered these have sweet scientific names . . .
Bombus impatiens, Common Eastern Bumble Bee is probably what  this  is.
Good enough? Thank you ~ Have a nice day ~