Wildlife photography of all kinds in no particular chronological order... call me North!All photos posted are taken by me, and everything that appears here is documented on iNaturalist as well.
242 posts
Latest Posts by northerlyy - Page 4
Two-lined Leatherwing (Atalantycha bilineata), taken April 2, 2025, in Georgia, US
Look at the size difference between them! By far not the largest I've ever seen, but the male is still only about 1/3 of the female's size! A size difference about this large is pretty typical for soldier beetles, though many other kinds of beetles have little to no size difference at all. For all of the individuals of this species I've been seeing around (hundreds), this is the first time I've seen a mating pair!
Red-shouldered Bug (Jadera haematoloma), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US
Just a little guy posing for a picture! He seemed to be following the camera as I tried to get different angles. This insect has two adult morphs: long-winged (macropterous) and short-winged (brachypterous). The short-winged morph has, as you could infer, shorter wings that leave part of the abdomen exposed. I've seen both forms in a solitary setting, though this species apparently tends to have higher rates of short-winged adults when they live in groups. Less need for wings when you don't have to go anywhere to find a mate!
Garden Ghost Spider (Hibana gracilis), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US
A sleepy spider resting on a blade of grass. This lady didn't move at all while I was photographing her, and paid no mind to me crunching away in the leaves around her. While dozens of wolf spiders fled for their lives beneath me, she was living her best life, having a rejuvenating nap. I wish all spiders were this unbothered—they're so hard to photograph when they run away!
the ant people are the only ones on inaturalist that consistently use the "favorites" button. unfortunately the rest of us don't know their secrets so there will be like, dozens of faves on a picture of an ant and i am like why is the ant so special. teach us to see the beauty of the ant.
Psyllid (Genus Craspedolepta), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US
Psyllid time!!! I was very excited to see one of these guys while inspecting some flowers for exciting stuff. These definitely count as exciting! I've only seen a few psyllids ever, but they're so, so cool. Much like aphids, they are very picky about what they eat from, and many are single-host specialists, so it's important to know what the psyllid you find is eating from (if it's feeding) or sitting on to have the best chance at a species ID! I tend to document all of the flowers I see insects visiting to annotate them on iNat, but I don't have this one yet (somehow), so I'll have to get back outside and check lol. For now, genus is as far as I can go with this!
Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US
Toads have begun to emerge from their slumber! Many are likely making their way to my koi pond, where they'll deposit thousands of eggs and screw up the water balance... I love them regardless, because getting to see them frolicking around the pond is fun lol. Lifting the filter cover and seeing toads swirling around is not fun, but they're usually okay!
Stink Lacewing (Genus Chrysopa), taken April 2, 2025, in Georgia, US
A fresh new adult lacewing has graced this Earth! I almost walked right past him since he was at foot level on my boardwalk, hanging off an outlet box. As you can see, his wings are still drying and aren't fully expanded. Soon, they'll round out, harden, and he'll fly away in search of a mate!
Vetch Looper Moth (Caenurgia chloropha), taken April 2, 2025, in Georgia, US
It's new moth season! I'm seeing lots of inchworms dropping from the trees as well as lots of seasonal moths! It's nice to see something more than renia moths for once lol. This guy was a little skittish, but ultimately let me get some pictures. Most moths are much worse subjects!
Parasitic Wasp (Family Platygastridae), taken April 2, 2025, in Georgia, US
A tiny wasp! This girlie is...very small. I happened to see her land whilst waiting for a nomad bee to resurface from underneath the leaflitter (he never did). She sat still for a long time, so I took the opportunity to try to get some pictures! These are pretty good for her size, especially considering how shaky my hands are lol. I found a different wasp later and the leaf she was on was moving so much that I just had to shoot complete blind and pray I got something in focus. It was terrible. Compared to that, this wasp was an angel!
Pine Flower Weevil (Cimberis pilosa), taken April 1, 2025, in Georgia, US
Liftoff!! While I was photographing birds, this guy landed on my hand and spent a few minutes with me. I actually took him into my house to grab my macro lens and got it on just in time to catch him leaving! You can see that he's covered in pine pollen, as his name would imply. He's likely off to the next pine tree!
Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina), male, taken April 1, 2025
Quite the uncommon visitor showed his face at the feeders yesterday! I've only seen hooded warblers once before: a small group traveling south last fall. Males of this species can be distinguished from females by the black band around their face, which resembles a hood! Females can look much like other warblers such as Pine Warblers (Setophaga pinus). They can be distinguished from male pine warblers by their olive backs and easily distinguished from the brown females by color!
Common Pill Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare), taken March 21, 2025, in Georgia, US
She lost her pants!!! You can clearly see the difference between old and new exoskeleton on this individual, which is very cool! The new exoskeleton is still soft, evident by the iridescent sheen and rounded appearance of the segments. As the exoskeleton hardens, it will become darker and rougher, eventually looking identical to the old one, just a tad larger!
Today's bug of the day is the common silverfish! I hope you like it I've never drawn a silverfish before so I hope I didn't get any of the major details wrong :]
Ornate Millipede (Genus Cambala), taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
Ornate, indeed! Look at the shine on those segments! I'm always excited to find these guys, but that often requires me to flip large chunks of wood or logs which aren't the most numerous in my area, at least when it comes to ones that are flippable. With that in mind, these are a treat! Quite large for a millipede and very pretty—the perfect combination!
I've got you. A very small (chalcidoid) wasp checking out a bunch of aphids...
Busy today, so no nice bugs. However, perhaps you could take a moment to imagine…a very small wasp. Wow. Nice.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata), male, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
This guy looks a little rough, but I believe he's just in molt! His spring colors are coming in, and you can see a bit of his golden crown becoming visible. I think he needs a good bath to wash out all those old feathers. It's just about nesting season, so hopefully he finishes his molt soon!
Bristle Millipede (Genus Polyxenus), taken March 21, 2025, in Georgia, US
A tiny, spiky millipede! Despite this guy's small size, this is actually the largest bristle millipede I've seen. Usually I find juveniles, which just look like fluffy balls due to them having less segments. On this guy, however, you can see the individual rows of bristles lining each segment!
Whitman's Jumping Spider (Phidippus whitmani), female, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
A jumping spider lifer for me! I initially caught a glimpse of her while trying to photograph a bee and thought she was a mutillid. That was until she peeked back out of the leaves to watch what I was doing! She was an excellent model, turning in all directions and moving slowly and calmly so I could get the best photos I could. It's almost like she knew what was happening!
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), male, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
Because of the massive amounts of pollen in the air, birds are now much harder to photograph... I'm way too sniffly and loud to allow them to relax, so nobody really shows when I'm outside (except robins, of course). This guy was willing to take the risk, though! Downies tend to be really bold, though, so that isn't really a surprise!
Blue Corporal (Ladona deplanata), female, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
Behold: my first dragonfly of the year! This lady landed right in front of me on the creek bank, and who am I to say no to a dragonfly, especially one I didn't recognize? I would love to see more of these—the shade of brown on her is absolutely gorgeous! I presume that since mosquitoes aren't out much yet, she's eating other midges and the small caddisflies that are currently abundant here. Now that I know there are dragonflies out and about, I'll have to start checking all their favorite perching spots again!
Nomad Bee (Genus Nomada), taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US
I have never seen a bee sit so still in my life. I spent like 3 minutes trying to get a good photo of this guy (practicing with the raynox dcr-250) and he quite literally didn't even twitch the entire time. A couple minutes after I switched my focus from him to a jumping spider beneath him, he started buzzing and flying around again, but the period of stillness was just uncharacteristic of a nomad bee! Usually they don't even land long enough for me to look at them!
THANK YOU!!! I am a total noob at cameras, so this is all really really helpful!! I haven't adjusted most of my settings (other than the obvious, like sound and timezone and other basic stuff) other than switching my focus to manual when using the raynox like you suggested—definitely a good tip, I can guess what the camera does when it's on auto lol.
I am certainly feeling the learning curve right now, but I find the increased challenge really rewarding. It also forces me to slow down and spend more time on each individual I photograph, which makes the whole process feel more personal. You said the 70-300mm was wonky when you tried it, but I'm actually enjoying it a lot lol. It allows me to tailor the magnification for each subject I photograph depending on size and produces a higher quality image than my 18-55. After a certain point (~100 or 135mm I think?) flash is inviable with it, though, because the lens starts interfering and causing a shadow, so I have to stick to sunny areas with it if I want to go up to 200mm. I'll have to play around with flash more on both lenses since I think most of the clarity issues I'm having with the 18-55 can be fixed with it, and flash usually makes everything better anyways.
Again I really appreciate these tips!! I'll have to try them out when I go out tomorrow, especially playing with the flash and aperture settings, and see how that changes things!
i am photographing hymenopterans that are smaller and more indistinguishable than you could possibly imagine
Oh!!! Freaking love these!! The jellybean is excellent, oh my god...
I ended up getting the raynox after we discussed it a little more on the post you made about it! The only time I've ever seen a cuckoo wasp was in New Hampshire, so I don't know if I'll get to try it out on one soon, but I honestly hope not because I have barely figured out how to get a medium-sized bee in focus regularly... I'll probably make a post with some pictures and my thoughts so far soon—I got some really nice ones of a nomad bee and some spiders today :)
I have no idea how you managed to get such nice focus on small things like springtails. I'm guessing it's partially use of flash (I just use the raw flash—no add-on for that yet so I'm avoiding using it with the raynox), but tips are definitely welcome if you're willing to provide any!
i am photographing hymenopterans that are smaller and more indistinguishable than you could possibly imagine
I've gotten some decent quality pics of cuckoo wasps with my clip-on macro lens, but I've never had the opportunity to try with my actual camera, so I have no idea if I'd have the same issue as you guys lol. I both love tiny bugs because they're usually surprisingly beautiful but also hate them because they're so small you need an $800 lens to get good pictures of them...
Here is the cuckoo I've gotten w/ my clip-on lens. They're honestly way darker green up close—it must be how the sun hits them!
i am photographing hymenopterans that are smaller and more indistinguishable than you could possibly imagine
Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura), taken March 27, 2025, in Georgia, US
Look at this wonderful vulture couple who were dining in on some scrumptious, long-dead raccoon! I'd been seeing vultures flying in and out of the area for the past few days, but never connected it to a carcass because rarely anything large dies here. I have no idea why the raccoon died—it was on the bank of the creek, a few feet from the water. I happened to glance over before attempting to parkour across the creek and spotted one of the vultures eating. I quickly turned right back around and (purposefully) walked to my house to switch my lenses and was able to catch them both together. They're my first vulture photos!
Two-lined Leatherwing (Atalantycha bilineata), taken March 27, 2025, in Georgia, US
A beetle explosion is currently in progress! Today is the first day of the year I've seen this species, and yet they're out in the hundreds already. They're most dense in the same spot as last year, so they must like something about it! Every one of them would turn to look at me when I got close for pictures—so friendly!
Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge venusta), juvenile, taken March 18, 2025, in Georgia, US
Behold, a spider belly! In even the smallest orchard orbweaver, the orange smiley on their abdomen is visible. This is diagnostic for the species, along with 3 stripes that run down their cephalothorax, one down the center and 2 on the margins, but that isn't visible here. Those markings allow you to differentiate the species from Joro Spiders, which look extremely similar as juveniles. A smiliar species, the Mabel Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge argyrobapta), is often confused with this one but can be distinguished (if not by range) by its blue hues and larger, more yellow smiley. This is only the case for some individuals, though, as females of the species are nearly identical and males can only be distinguished by the shape of their palps. Both are beautiful regardless!
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), male, taken October 29, 2024, in Georgia, US
Another bird getting a little sip of water! I just love watching them visit the bird bath lol. This guy was a very delicate drinker, unlike some others I know (looks at the starlings) and later shared with a juvenile finch who came to take a bath!