More Praying Mantises, 8-22-2012

Saw this Praying Mantis on our garbage bin on 8/21, its the first fully winged adult (female) I've seen this year.

Before I went fishing on 8/22, I checked one bush in the backyard to see if any mantises were around.  I immediately spotted this one, which had just caught a small butterfly (it was still wiggling) and was starting to eat it:

Here, he stopped long enough to look at me:

And then I spotted this brown one on the same bush about 3 feet away:

A bit further on, was this one hanging underneath a flower pod:

I walked around to the far side of the bush, and saw this pair of grasshoppers:

About 15 inches away, they were being watched by this one:

...which turned his head when he saw my foot move:

Yep....its cool how these guys are watch you and are AWARE of you!

Backyard Critters, August 2012

I had only (finally) just recently spotted a single Praying Mantis in our backyard.  First Praying Mantis sighting of the year for me.  I had hoped to see some earlier in the season, because most of our flowering plants were getting POUNDED by an overabundance of Japanese Beetles.  The Japanese Beetles have become such a pest, I decided NOT to photograph them.  Take THAT!  :)

So, on a recent weekend day, I saw butterfly on one of the Butterfly Bushes, grabbed my camera and went out to take some "critter photos".  As has happened so many times in the past couple of years, I was holding the camera at chest level looking for a subject to capture, when a Hummingbird showed up about arms length in front and above me.  He (she?) just hovered there checking me out.  What a picture that could have been!  But any small movement from me would send the tiny bird quickly on its way.  So...again, no picture of the Hummingbird.

I did eventually spot at least 5 or 6 Praying Mantises in the backyard, and collected these photos of them and other "critters".

A Monarch Butterfly:

A huge Bumble Bee, with a Praying Mantis "on the side":

A couple more Bumble Bee pics....I feel safe when they are like this:

But they seem a little more scary when you see them "head-on":

One thing that NEVER seems scary are the various butterflies:

Some of the Dragonflies are pretty big.  It'd be fun to get a picture of one eating something it had caught.

Jumpy Jumpy Grasshopper:

The critters with the most interesting personalities has to be the Praying Mantises, though.  Something about the way they WATCH you:

...or how they like to hang around upside down:

The one was the only brown one I saw:

The rest were green:

The coolest thing is watching them HUNT.  Check out this series:

Butterfly lands on a flower stalk NEAR the Praying Mantis.  Mantis watches with wishful thoughts...

Butterfly lands on the same flower as the Praying Mantis.  See the Mantis??  He makes to stalk up the far side of the flower stalk:

Butterfly changes course.   Mantis re-evaluates situation:

Mantis makes a move..."Slow down, ya winged bag o' nectar!"

 No photos of the gory bloodbath of a successful kill this time. The butterfly flew off again to another flower stem, leaving the Mantis to reconsider its tactics.  "Phooey!"

I did watch another Mantis go after a wasp that landed on a flower.  The Mantis made the grab, but didn't have a good enough hold, and the wasp flew away, wondering about what it was that had just tried to grab it. 

Praying Mantises & Hummingbirds 8-31-2011

Have I mentioned Hummingbirds are a tough challenge for me to take a picture of?  I don't have a fancy camera, and I usually see them in the evenings when the light isn't the best for picture-taking.  The zoom on my camera isn't particularly impressive.  Its still fun to try anyway.
Here's what I've gotten in the past week (mostly last night):

 The ones below were from last night.  This Hummingbird popped up from the other side of the fence, then stopped about 5' away and hovered...looking at me.  (This is the 2nd time this summer this has happened, and both times I was holding a camera, but not ready to take a shot!)  I suppose he wondered if I was a threat or not.  Apparently only a slight threat...he went down the fenceline a ways, started feeding on the flowers and worked his way back towards me.

 The reason I was out in the backyard with a camera in the first place was because I had seen this dark brown mantis with green legs, and I wanted to photograph it.

Bath time...

He's looking RIGHT AT ME!



  Below is the 2nd Mantis I saw.

Cool silhouette.

It was light brown with wings.

 Then I saw movement, looked over and saw a 3rd Praying Mantis.  The movement was that it just caught a bee/wasp, and was starting to feed on it.  It was green with wings.

All of this happened in probably 20 minutes...and in that time, I had been standing in just one spot!

Backyard Scenes, 8-14-2010

Hummingbirds have been going absolutely berserk in our backyard this weekend!  They love the Honeysuckle vines and (appropriately enough) the 3 colors of Hummingbird vines (red, orange, and yellow) covering much of the fence on all 3 sides of the backyard.  I'd like to get a picture of them, but I haven't been able to get close enough.  That's not completely true...I got within about 4' of one, I think he was as surpised as I was when he flew over the fence and landed right next to me.  We eyed each other.  I knew he'd be gone as soon as I moved to raise my camera!
So....no pictures of the hummingbirds yet.
Instead, I offer up these backyard shots:

Brown-colored Praying Mantis

Buckeye Butterfly

Japanese Beetle

This is a Viceroy Butterfly, which is a "mimic" of the Monarch Butterfly.  While the Monarch has a nasty toxic taste to birds, the Viceroy has no such bad taste.  Mimicry only works if there are fewer of the mimics than the species being mimicked.  So...these aren't commonly seen.  They LOVE the Butterfly Bush, though!  I counted 3 on it yesterday, and one Monarch.

Lightning strike!

Backyard Bug Pics

This past weekend I took one of my cameras into the back yard to see if I could spot some interesting bugs to photograph.  Not a lot going on, the butterflies really like our Butterfly Bushes, but they aren't blooming yet.

I spotted these around a milkweed plant that is in bloom.  (Click photos to see larger versions.)

I know...this one is a bottle fly. Not too exciting, right?  But the shiny green IS sort of interesting.  Looks like the lenses of ultra-cool mirrored sunglasses maybe.