Category Archives: Nature Photos

Wasn’t there more food in that bowl?

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This is a bowl of cat food.  It’s the bowl I leave on the patio for the various felines that visit (most notably, at least in the last several weeks, Vazra).  I stepped outside at dusk to retrieve the feline food and water bowls.  They would be replaced with all manner of nourishment for the nocturnal wildlife.  When I stepped outside, the first thing I realized was that the bowl had significantly less food than it contained when last I saw it less than an hour before.  Click on the picture to understand where the food went.

Think “creepy little ‘hands'”…

Bowl of cat food on the patio (145_4531)

I hope you took special note of the hands.  I still say they’re a bit creepy in a human kind of way.  And yes, I left the bowl where it was and found it empty an hour or so later when I again checked it.

There’s lots of summer flyin’ goin’ on

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Cicadas sing from the trees in a growing declaration that summer is upon us.  Who doesn’t think of summertime when these insects start their annual rise and fall.  Their emergence from underground dwellings also heralds the arrival of summer predators that keep these tree killers in check.  I’ve grown increasingly fascinated with one such predator: the cicada-killer wasp.  Part of that intrigue is borne of convenience as a significant colony of these enormous flyers lives just outside my home.  This provides me with extensive opportunity to watch and interact with them.  Because the males have no stinger and generally just hang around all day, I see them more often than the females who are busy hunting, digging underground burrows, and preparing next year’s wasp population.

Several times per day, at least one of the females will perform a cursory inspection of the patio.  The males simply use it as their road-rage empowering aviation highway; they zoom through at tremendous speeds giving chase to other males, and at times large groups of them sweep through in a fit of territorial guardianship.  I have even seen them give chase to other kinds of wasps and flying insects, not to mention cottonwood tufts and other plant material inadvertently swept into their airspace, but these chases are generally abrupt and short once they realize they’re not chasing one of their kind.  It’s extremely captivating, and my growing interest has become educational as I try to learn more about these benign yet very intimidating giants.

The females, the larger of the two genders, reach at least 2 inches (5 centimeters) in length and are as big around as my pinkie.  They dwarf yellow jackets, hornets, red wasps, and dirt daubers (and all the rest of those dangerous little creatures) by orders of magnitude.  You can see a photo on this page that shows them along with a fly and another wasp (there is also a hornet hidden behind one of the cicada-killers).  The photo is just below the four species photos at the top.  While you’re there, take a look at the four species photos and find the bottom-right entry for Sphecius speciosus, which is the same species as my neighborhood friends.  They are one of the largest wasps.

Despite my efforts to do so, I have yet to get photos of them on my hand or other body part (if they land somewhere unexpected).  That would provide some scale, but the males are too jittery with so many other males around, and the females have too much to do to stay around long enough.  I’ll keep trying…

In the meantime, I’ve put together a small collection of some of the photos I’ve grabbed thus far.  Because they’re wasps and fly and dart about with abandon, picture quality in some cases is not as good as I would like simply because the first picture didn’t work out and the wasp flew away before I could snap another.  Still, I think you’ll see why I find these creatures so fascinating and, to be certain, just very cool.

Cicada-killer wasp perched on a leaf (145_4511)
Cicada-killer wasp perched on a rock (145_4535)
Rear view of a cicada-killer wasp perched on a leaf (144_4477)
Top view of a cicada-killer wasp perched on a rock (145_4539)
Close-up of a cicada-killer wasp sitting on a leaf (145_4507)

Opossum butt

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After I accidentally kicked over the bowl of cat food out on the patio, I decided I would just leave it there for the raccoons.  Of course, I would augment it with a few other items.  I sliced an apple, grabbed some almonds, and then headed back out to the patio.  I placed some almonds with the cat food and placed some more outside the fence.  It was then I realized I didn’t have the apple with me, so I went back inside.  When I stepped back outside the door with the fruit in hand, the crunch-crunch-crunch in the darkness immediately drew my attention to the pile of cat food.  There stood an opossum staring back at me.

He immediately headed back to the fence, but I have seen recently that he is having increasing difficulty getting through it.  He’s still growing, and I think we can all agree that he’s eating well.  Suffice it to say he didn’t get through the fence.  While he tried to push through, I aimed the camera and snapped a photo.  It was pitch black outside and trying to snap photos was near impossible since I couldn’t see anything through the lens or viewfinder.  Essentially, I had to aim and shoot and hope it focused on the right thing.

As you can see from the picture below, it did.  This is opossum butt, raw and savage and in your face.  I also want to point out that his front end is already through the fence at this point, so you can see the challenge he faces with the rest of his body (another JLo booty if I’ve ever seen one).

Rear view of an opossum trying to escape through the fence (144_4470)

I had to fight the urge to laugh when he reversed back onto the patio.  He couldn’t fit through the fence — again.  Because I was being absolutely silent and absolutely still, he turned and looked around the patio for a brief moment (I knew he couldn’t see me clearly in the dark, especially if I didn’t move).  Another urge to laugh had to be suppressed when he went right back to the food and began eating.

Rear view of an opossum trying to escape through the fence (144_4472)

Yes, that’s his tongue sticking out.  I guess that was his opinion of the flash going off several times in his face.  And check out the creepy little “hands” he has both front and back.  Very odd thing, those feet, although I’m hoping to get a better picture so you can see how weird they are.

Anyway, I stood there quietly and stopped taking pictures so he could eat in peace.  I backed slowly to the door and tried yet failed miserably to get back inside as quietly as possible.  Despite the amount of noise I made fumbling with the door, stumbling through it, and struggling to get it closed (including several failed attempts), all that did was make him pause for several seconds before returning to his meal.  That’s where I left him.  I put out the apple later.

Halt and have some of my peanuts

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It was time for an early morning walk.  The sun was not yet peeking over the horizon, but there was ample light already filling the sky.  As I passed by a neighboring apartment complex, I heard something rushing toward me — or, more accurately, toward the creek.  It was a rather large raccoon who was in quite a hurry to get back home before the sun came up.  He galloped toward me and my first reaction was simply to get out of the way, but then another idea hit me: get some pictures.  But how?  He was moving quickly enough that he’d pass me in a few seconds and would disappear into the brush surrounding the creek.

Ah, but I had a secret weapon!  I generally carry some kind of snack with me when I go for walks.  On this particular morning I had a bag of roasted peanuts.  Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned…  Raccoons like peanuts.

So I quickly pulled out the bag and tossed a handful of them in his path.  That got his attention.  His headlong rush toward his daytime hiding place came to a screeching halt as he stopped to enjoy a bit more to eat before bedtime.  All I had to do then was pull out the camera and take some shots.  Once he finished eating what I’d given him, he continued on his way and I continued on mine.

Raccoon having some peanuts (125_2563)
Raccoon checking out the peanuts (125_2596)
Raccoon picking up a peanut (125_2590)
Raccoon checking me out before he goes back to the peanuts (126_2627)