Friday, July 12, 2013

That Sinking Feeling






In years past, one of the more exciting places for a naturalist to visit at Oakland Camp was the restroom under the veranda.  Being fairly open to the elements, it provided a nice escape from the hot afternoon sun both for people wanting a cold shower and flying insects that found the beach at Spanish Creek too hot.  I'd found huge Silk Moths, Polyphemus Moths, Craneflies, and many kinds of smaller moths and got lots of good photographs.  So far this summer, the rest room has been disappointing as far as insect photography is concerned.  That is until this morning.  A young camper came up to me and said "there's a really interesting large bug in one of the restroom sinks," so I had to investigate.
It turns out the first three sinks I checked  each had an interesting bug.  From the top, there was a Yellowjacket, an exotic-looking moth, and a Ten-lined June Beetle.  I figured the latter was the one the young man was referring to.  I played around with it for a few minutes and got lots of different poses, then released it to the woods outside.  Then, when I got home for lunch, it turns out my wife had found a dead or dying Dragonfly on the front lawn.  She brought it in to our bathroom sink as a safe resting place with a bit of humidity, and it was still in good shape.  The bottom two photos are of that dragonfly.  I no longer have that sinking feeling. 
On my morning hikes up Tollgate Creek and Berry Creek I found other bugs of interest, including a Goldenrod Crab Spider dining on a yellow jacket.  That spider has rested on the same flower head of a Brewer's Angelica for about a week.  I went specifically to that plant to look for the spider and it rewarded me again.  Those photos will appear later this afternoon.

No comments:

Post a Comment