The Van Duzen River provides me with endless things to see, photograph and ponder. In my excursions I have never once been disappointed. A while ago I watched a “hatch” of Mayflies (order Ephemeroptera) flying upstream against the gentle breeze following the river. There were hundreds in view and I could imagine how many there must […]
bugs
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HumBug: Tiny and Primitive
If you have sharp eyes or good glasses, pick up a potted plant and you might see a tiny gray thing, not much larger than the period at the end of this sentence, scurry away or even leap. This particular kind of critter has been hiding under rocks for a very long time. These are […]
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HumBug: Artful Dodgers
Today, faced with the humdrum task of taking old stuff out to the compost bin, I grabbed a camera on the off chance I might see something more interesting than rotten potato peels. Flying low and fast, dodging between grass stalks and tangled branches was a Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). With their dark wingspots, agile […]
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HumBug: The Sister and the Admiral
Out in my back yard I saw a butterfly flying low, straight and fast, too fast to identify perfectly. It landed half way up a redwood tree and proceeded to open and close its wings, displaying its striking markings, still too far away to identify perfectly. That’s because there are two species of similar size, […]
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HumBug: Solitary Wasps
Working in my garden, I noticed a small blue black wasp flicking its shiny wings as it dashed across the dirt, searching here and there. I can hazard a guess as to what it was looking for: a spider. Much has been written about the social wasps and their organization, diligence and sacrifice for the […]
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HumBug: The 40-year-old Mystery
When I was in the Navy I never minded midnight topside watch on the ship I was on in Long Beach. I’ve always loved glow-in-the-dark things, and I never tired of looking into the faintly luminous blue fire swirling in the warm bay waters. That was before the Internet and Wikipedia, so my options to […]
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HumBug: What’s Up, Tiger Beatle?
One of my favorite beetle species is out and about now. You might see them by the dozen hunting on sandy stretches of river bar. Cicindela oregano, commonly known as Western Tiger Beetle. About half an inch long and gray, they dart here and there and are among the fastest running creatures for their size. According to […]
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HumBug: Ticks
As the song says, “Spring is in the air.” It fills my mind with visions of birds migrating, flowers blooming and ticks! I was reminded of this today taking a photo of a local alligator lizard in my back yard. I am not a person who says, “There is room for every living thing in […]
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HumBug: Mimics
Yesterday, when I went out to my backyard to admire a flowering cherry tree I felt like the big ape on the top of the Empire State building. Like an old biplane, something buzzed around and around me at a dizzying pace. A glimpse of the insect world’s most popular warning colors of black and […]
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HumBug: Killer Wrigglers
Last night I mercilessly killed a couple hundred of the deadliest animals on the planet, maybe averted a plague and fed the hungry. I hardly worked up a sweat. Statistically, more human deaths (not to mention misery) are caused annually by mosquito borne diseases than those carried by any other critter. At last count they […]
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HumBug: Zombie Dung Flies
A couple of days ago while working in my front yard, I noticed insects flying around down near ankle height. Taking it as an excuse to stop working I paused and watched. Soon enough one landed. I was able to identify it as a ‘golden dung fly’ (Scathophaga stercoraria), a species with which I am familiar. […]