It is a rare event that I go out looking for a particular species of insect and find it. Well, for once I succeeded. A week ago on one of those sunny-ish days I took a walk down the Van Duzen River and noted dozens of tiny flying insects. I chased a couple down and […]
Anthony Westkamper
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Rained Out and Lit Up
No Bugs Today Last week, for the first time in several hundred excursions along the Van Duzen River spanning over 20 years, I saw no bugs. Only the sad remnants of a few abandoned spider webs and a bit of residual leaf damage testified to their existence. Despite a lifetime of experience at picking out […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: All Aglow
The other day I received my new ultraviolet (black light) 51 LED flashlight from Amazon.com ($9.99). A significant upgrade from my old one. I discovered that some millipedes glow brilliantly under UV. Outside in the dark it’s like a different dimension in a sci-fi story — the trees are in the same places but everything […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: No Bugs Today
Last week, for the first time in several hundred excursions along the Van Duzen River spanning over 20 years, I saw no bugs. Only the sad remnants of a few abandoned spider webs and a bit of residual leaf damage testified to their existence. Despite a lifetime of experience at picking out tiny critters and […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Great Beginnings
A great way to start the New Year! Astronomically, meterologically and biologically, winter solstice marks the end/beginning of our annual cycle. My year is starting off most auspiciously. About 1 a.m. on December 21st I counted eight glow work rms in the little grove, a record for the year. The day started sunny and bright […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Don’t Lick the Newts
Sometimes when I’m out looking for insects to photograph, I see other things. Imagine a creature sporting a neurotoxin hundreds of times more deadly than cyanide in sufficient quantities to kill a full grown man. And it’s common in our area. The Rough Skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa) sports the same toxin that makes the pufferfish […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Rainy Day Critters
As the song says, “It’s raining again/ Oh no, it’s raining again.” So what does an entomological photographer do when it’s been raining for days and days? He gets wet. Today, taking stuff out to the compost, I noted the rosemary is blooming. At first I couldn’t see anything moving, then bit by little bit […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Epic Battles
Man vs. Fruit Fly Confined to my house for some weeks by illness, I missed my usual walks along the Van Duzen River. Fortunately for me, there is seldom a shortage of insects wherever I go. While I was more or less bedridden, an inordinate number of tiny flying bugs invaded my home. Although I had no […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Glow Worm vs. Snail
Tonight I counted four glow worms (Pterotus intergrippinis) under my redwood trees. I have counted as many as 27 in the leaf litter beneath my small 20-foot-by-50-foot grove (roughly 1/50th of an acre.) The first ones I ever saw were beneath redwoods at Grizzly Creek Campground. So far I’ve seen them in every grove I’ve […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: I Gotta Get Out More
Confined to my house for some weeks by illness, I missed my usual walks along the Van Duzen River. Fortunately for me there is seldom a shortage of insects wherever I go. While I was more or less bedridden an inordinate number of tiny flying bugs had invaded my home. Although I had no fruit rotting in […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Fly Fishing
A very long time ago I got into fly fishing. It is a highly technical method for fooling an animal with a brain smaller than a pea into thinking that bits of feathers and fluff are something good to eat. Those somethings are usually members of three orders of insects: mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. The first books […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug
Black Widows I spend a lot of my outdoor time looking for and at bugs. Especially ones that are dramatic looking or interesting to photograph, so when I noted a medium-sized spider on the front of the Carlotta post office last month (“Black Widows Found at Carlotta Post Office,” Sept. 30), I got closer, tilted […]