He Hath Returned...

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), male, taken February 25, 2025, in Georgia, US

Bald!!!!! The spring molt has taken him... Every spring all of the cardinals become bald, and it is both pathetic and wonderful. This guy has started a bit early, so he's the odd man out of the bunch until they all follow!

Handsome Meadow Katydid (Orchelimum pulchellum), female, taken September 28, 2024, in Georgia, US

Handsome, indeed! I have dozens of pictures of these guys, not just because they exist in excess here, but also because they're just too beautiful for me to pass up photographing! This species is differentiable from all others in the genus at almost every life stage by its bright blue eyes, which nobody else shares. It's quite striking to see a katydid with a rainbow of colors, even after having seen them a hundred times!

A reminder: if you were taught that mosquitoes in general are useless to the environment and could be eliminated “without consequence”, then you were taught incorrectly. People still regularly comment this silly notion on my posts with absolute confidence. Our goal is reducing risk to humans, NOT eliminating the dangerous animal altogether.

You don’t have to like irritating, gross, or dangerous animals (most people do not), but if you are ever arguing for the extinction of an entire animal species try to remember the natural world is unfathomably complex in ways none of us can predict.

Downy Woodpeckers (Dryobates pubescens), juvenile males, taken May 27, 2024, in Georgia, US

Preparing for this spring and staving off the baby bird withdrawals by posting all of my spring 2024 stuff... Downy fledgelings are the cutest! The babies always look lost, slightly to extremely ruffled, and love looking cutely into the camera because they don't know what the fuck that thing pointing at them is!!

Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), juvenile, being fed by a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), taken May 9, 2025, in Georgia, US

A fat cowbird chick being fed by its song sparrow foster parent! It seems as though our only song sparrow pair were chosen by the cowbirds as fosters this spring. Luckily, song sparrows are known to attempt to nest up to four times in a season, so they have plenty of chances left to raise their own brood! Once this baby cowbird becomes independent, it will meet with other baby cowbirds and begin its life as a young adult! For now, though, it's content to take handouts from mom and dad!

I feel as though the concept is much more common knowledge now, but to those who come across this and don't know: cowbirds are nest parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds so they don't have to raise their babies themselves. They do this because building a nest and caring for young is extremely costly for females and may result in a lower chick yield than creating more eggs (up to 40) and laying them in an array of host nests does. The cowbird chick often hatches before the host nest's chicks, grows faster, becomes larger, and is louder, leading to the host chicks being neglected and often dying before fledging. While this is sad, bird parents have evolved to account for the possibility of being parasitized and will often nest multiple times in a season to ensure they have at least one healthy brood of their own chicks! Many bird species are also extremely good at recognizing cowbird eggs and can either eject them from the nest or destroy them before they hatch. Nest parasites are one of many natural population control agents that ensure native bird populations remain stable, so they are not a bad thing if the parasite is native, which cowbirds are in the US!

Blue Corporal (Ladona deplanata), female, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US

Behold: my first dragonfly of the year! This lady landed right in front of me on the creek bank, and who am I to say no to a dragonfly, especially one I didn't recognize? I would love to see more of these—the shade of brown on her is absolutely gorgeous! I presume that since mosquitoes aren't out much yet, she's eating other midges and the small caddisflies that are currently abundant here. Now that I know there are dragonflies out and about, I'll have to start checking all their favorite perching spots again!

Oh!!! Freaking love these!! The jellybean is excellent, oh my god...

I ended up getting the raynox after we discussed it a little more on the post you made about it! The only time I've ever seen a cuckoo wasp was in New Hampshire, so I don't know if I'll get to try it out on one soon, but I honestly hope not because I have barely figured out how to get a medium-sized bee in focus regularly... I'll probably make a post with some pictures and my thoughts so far soon—I got some really nice ones of a nomad bee and some spiders today :)

I have no idea how you managed to get such nice focus on small things like springtails. I'm guessing it's partially use of flash (I just use the raw flash—no add-on for that yet so I'm avoiding using it with the raynox), but tips are definitely welcome if you're willing to provide any!

i am photographing hymenopterans that are smaller and more indistinguishable than you could possibly imagine

Globular Springtails (Order Symphypleona), taken March 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

In order of appearance: Ptenothrix curvilineata (1), undescribed Dicyrtoma sp. (2), Ptenothrix marmorata (3), undescribed/unknown Ptenothrix sp. (4)

I've been in a globular springtail phase for a couple months now, and the past few days I've been doubling down in my efforts to find as many as possible. I spent a couple hours yesterday digging through dead wood and found and photographed 40 individuals! I love the diversity of patterning in this group—they're absolutely tiny, but so so gorgeous.

P. marmorata is definitely the most common customer in my part of the woods, but I found lots of the 4th individual as well. That guy is a bit of a strange situation, since it might actually be a regional color morph variant of P. marmorata! It doesn't look much like it, but animals are weird and this stuff happens sometimes. Hopefully we find out what it is soon!

Crab Spiders (Genus Mecaphesa), taken April 12, 2025, in Georgia, US

Some crab spiders hiding underneath flowers! This is a known undescribed species, currently labeled "black tibia spot" (for obvious reasons) as far as I know. I see them pretty often hanging out, especially on fleabane flowers like this. Crab spiders are ambush predators, and most in the genus Mecaphesa lie in wait on similarly-colored flowers until a prey item (flies, beetles, and perhaps small bees) lands on it. The spider quickly overtakes its prey and hides underneath the petals of the flower to enjoy. A rather boring life for us, but these guys don't seem to mind!

Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata), female, taken April 24, 2025, in Georgia, US

The damselflies are finally coloring up! The variable dancers are all still teneral, but the fragile and citrine forktails are turning their brilliant colors! Females of this species come in two colors: orange and olive. I've yet to see an olive female, but these guys are fairly uncommon, so I'm not surprised. Regardless, it's nice to see these tiny pops of color flying around!