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Snowberry Clearwing
Not too long ago, I lucked into a good photo op with a semi-cooperative Hummingbird Clearwing moth, Hemaris thysbe, above. I wrote about the animal and that experience HERE. The hummingbird moth godz...
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Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels in cemetery
Your narrator's car, in a Madison County cemetery. My travels of last weekend put me within minutes of a fairly expansive graveyard, that's smack in the middle of one of Ohio's former prairie regions....
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Midwest Native Plant Conference: Brief Recap
Last weekend, July 26-28, marked the 5th annual Midwest Native Plant Conference, held at the Bergamo Center in Dayton, Ohio. Bergamo is positioned in the midst of 150 beautifully landscaped acres...
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Bizarre tube of goo spawns stunning moth!
Bizarre and alienlike, a last instar Cecropia Moth caterpillar, Hyalophora cecropia, is adorned with colorful spined spikes. I lucked into this animal last Saturday, at the Midwest Native Plant...
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Black Swallowtail on mountain mint
Looking rather like a festively adorned lepidopteran Darth Vader, a Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes, sucks nectar from the flowers of Virginia Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum. Mountain...
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Daughmer Savanna excursion
Daughmer Savanna, a place that I've written about before, such as HERE, and HERE. The conservation of this magnificent oak savanna was the greatest event in Ohio conservation in calendar year 2010. It...
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Got Turtle (pics)?
An Eastern Box Turtle peers curiously at your narrator from the protection of his armoring. Perhaps you, too, are a turtle aficionado and enjoy documenting the animals on pixels (or film). If so, you...
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Moths at the lights
A Harnessed Tiger Moth, Apantesis phalerata, flutters around one of my night lights. I'm sure that you've got moths visiting your lights, too. Be careful; they become addictive! I found myself going...
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Photos... Lots of photos!
Rosy Maple Moth, Dryocampa rubicundulaIf you read this blog with any consistency, it may seem like I'm out in the field all of the time. Were that only true. The fact is, my job keeps me in my office...
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Planting for Tigers
A Purple Joe-pye, Eutrochium purpureum, towers over lesser plants in southern Ohio's Shawnee State Forest. Even casual watchers of roadside wildflowers notice these behemoths, which can tower up to...
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Orchard Spider
A female Orchard Spider, Leucage venusta, works her webbing. These are exquisite creatures, and you've undoubtedly got them in your local patch. Orchard Spiders are very common, and can easily be...
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Small bugs, beautiful and otherwise
On last Saturday's epic field 20-hour field trip to southern Ohio, I turned my lens to little things, a lot. Macro photography is not easy, and I have been on a more or less constant quest to better...
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Frog, on lilypad
A raft of Fragrant Water-lilies, Nymphaea odorata, blanket a quiet pond on the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area in Indiana. Not only is this aquatic plant quite showy, it supports a lot of animal life.A...
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Gorgeous goldfinches gluttons for grain
Male American goldfinches in breeding plumage The Columbus DispatchAugust 18, 2013 NATUREJim McCormac Vegetarianism isn’t popular among songbirds. Few...
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Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Cicada-killers
The interesting façade of the Indianapolis Museum of Art beckons visitors to enter and explore. This institution is jam-packed with thousands of pieces of art of all kinds, and is a state treasure for...
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Pale Beauty
Yesterday, while exploring a woods in Miami County, Ohio, I came across an exquisite little moth. It's there, in this photo, but it blends rather well with its surroundings. Click the photo for an...
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An encounter with the Erect Dayflower, finally!
Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area near Medaryville, Indiana, a place famous for the thousands of Sandhill Cranes that congregate here in late fall and early winter. But J-P's 8,000+ acres also conserves an...
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Some gorgeous little bugs
Lots of bugs this weekend. Saturday night, I gave a program about "singing insects" - the Orthoptera - at Dawes Arboretum. We limited it to 25 people, and had a full house. After the presentation, we...
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Charismatic Katydids
I've been smitten with the Orthoptera for the better part of a decade. I liked these insects - crickets, katydids, coneheads and their kin - even before that, but didn't make a real effort to learn...
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Eastern Hercules Beetle!
A while back, John Howard emailed me with the news that he had discovered an excellent specimen of our largest beetle, and would I like to photograph it? Of course I would, and John was kind enough to...
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