We call these "digger" squirrels, but I think they're really called ground squirrels. Either way, they make huge messes in the ground and can undermine the roads. This one lives just outside our backyard and has never been a problem to my garden flowers-so far.
This is just one family of Black-tailed deer that come to our front yard.
Mom and baby. How can you not love these beauties?
Too precious Duc. just love the deer pics. And the ground squirrel is neat.
Hack,I've seen those moth too. There are so many different small one, That when I try to have some IDed, they showed me a link to a ton of them, that looked so much alike, it was hard for them to tell me exactly, which one I had..
Nice photos ,Burd and Nanny.
My gray squirrel was back today.
ducbucln - that pic of momma and the baby deer is priceless!
burn_2007 - nice shot of the tree rat. You can have all of mine if you want.
Hack
Nice shots gang! Duc the momma and fawn shot is wonderful...you should enter it in some contests.. its very good!
Up close and personal with a Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly
Hack
This Silver-spotted Skipper Butterfly was hiding behind leaf. I never did get a solid shot of the whole insect.
Hack
Haven't got many Hummers left, maybe two (this one ran another off). Here's a female Ruby-throat.
Hack
Oh Duc, that took the 'awww' factor up a notch!!
Burn...that one looks like trouble to me!
Nice Hack!
Around here, lots of people refer to chipmunks as ground squirrels.
Burn, that shot of your squirrel is adorable. Looks like he can't wait for you to walk away so he can grab some food.
Hack, great job with your butterflies. I see them all over here, but they don't land very often.
Nanny, your little chipmunk is so cute and sweet.
Here's a daily occurrence in our front yard. We put out a fresh bucket of water for the deer every day and if they don't feel like walking a few feet to the bucket, they'll empty the birdbath.
Guess she thought the water tasted good....
Hey, move over a little...
duc, your deer shots are great. How close do they let you get?
They look tame.
Hack
Wow, some great shots in this thread. Thanks for sharing!
Great shots Duc, it's fun to see them drink out of the bird feeder too.I agree with Burd, you should enter some of those in a contest.
Nanny, do you still have a lot of those chippies? That bird bath is just at the right level for him, cute.
Hack, I see you have the brown skipper. I've seen it once here, I see a lot of orange one though. I took this in May on a logging road.
Had this Black and White Admiral in my yard in August.
Nice shots Hack! you do very well with those macro shots!
Duc, nice shots of your thirsty deer! lol
Nice shots Burn!
A couple of Fox Snake shots.
that first one was about a foot and a half long. This one was about 5 ft. long.
The chippies are very busy now gathering seed for hibernation. We have had up to 4 at a time out here fighting over the fallen bird seed. They even stay out until almost dark some days.
Those deer shots are very cool duc!
Burn...that B&W Admiral is very cool too!
Nice snake shots Burd. I have not seen any snakes this year. But then again, I have not been traipsing thru the woods much either this summer.
I am finally seeing lots of Viceroy Butterflies around. They are usually very common here.
The squirrels are very busy burying nuts now. This one had just finished up!
Female Downy Woodpecker
Hack
This butterfly is known as a Sleepy Orange
It is a common butterfly of open, sunny and disturbed sites throughout the southeastern U.S. Although not implied by its name, adults are extremely active and have a quick, nervous flight. I discovered that trying to get a shot of one in flight is nearly impossible. It has two distinct seasonal forms. Summer-form individuals have rich butter-yellow hind wings underneath ( that's what mine is), whereas individuals produced during colder months are tan to brick-red and more heavily patterned. The upper wing surfaces of both forms are bright orange with black borders. Females tend to be larger than males and are considerably less vibrant. Males often gather in large numbers at mud puddles.
Hack
This message was edited Sep 24, 2010 7:13 PM
I read that the black edges on the upper surface of their wings are visible only when the butterfly is in flight - how well I know this!. As it fluttered around I could clearly see the black edges, but I must have taken 100 shots trying to get a pic of the butterfly in flight (so I could see the top surface of the open wings). This is the ONLY one I got. I couldn't move the 40D fast enough to keep up with it!
Hack
It is hard....I try to get the whites and sulphurs with wings open and just about impossible!
Hack, there is a very popular Entomology professor from Purdue University, Dr. Tom Turpin that is going to have a speaking enagement in my area soon. I bet you would love it. I wish I was able to go myself. He has written a couple of books too.
This big moth was on the screen yesterday...best I could get for the ID is it is an underwing moth of which there are several different ones with this coloring.
Lepidoptera: Noctuidae; Catocola sp.
Sure would nanny. In getting my Biology Master's Degree, I took a higher level Entomology course and absolutely loved it. That big ole' moth is a beaut.
I had the macro lens on and caught this Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius) sucking up some nectar.
The three dots on the wing, in a slightly curved pattern, is what told me it was a Clouded Skipper. If I could see under the hind wing I could tell if it was male or female. Females have a few more dots, males don't.
Hack
This message was edited Sep 25, 2010 3:44 PM
I was particularly intrigued watching it maneuver its proboscis into the flower. In this snap it is coiled up.
Hack
It starts it up high and lowers it into the center of the flower.
Hack
Down, down down, it went. Yumm, Yumm.
Hack
And while I was snapping the skipper, this Long-legged Fly presented itself to me. I like its metallic green body and orange eyes.
This little critter was little, maybe a whole 1/8 inch long. My research tells me the long-legged flies, Dolichopodidae, make up a large family of true flies with more than 7,000 described species (kinds) in about 230 genera distributed worldwide. The genus Dolichopus is the most speciose, with some 600 species. They are generally small flies with large, prominent eyes and a metallic cast to their appearance, though considerable variation is observed. Most have long legs, though some do not.
Hack
well no wonder you can use those big words so easy!! lol
Great pics too!
Hack, do you realize, there are millions of insects out there??? lol , as if you didn't know! You'll have a lifetime of recherche to do. But an interesting field to be into.
Your Skipper looks almost like mine above. Good thing you brought out the detail in yours, I can see they are not the same. I like the 3 shots of the proboscis curled up, and then digging into the flower.
Nanny, good shot of the Moth, I think, I saw that one here.
Here's a skunk from last year. One come, once in a while, there's evidence in the lawn.
I don't remember if I've post this one before. This was a mother fox trying to lure me away, from her young pups.
This one was taken last fall.
Thanks nanny and burn. Insects didn't really much get my attention, until I began to see their vivid colors with macro photography. Sometimes when I sit outside I have both my 40D's with me, one with the 400 mm prime on it for birds and the other with the 100 mm Macro for insects.
Oh, yeah burn it would be possible to get a Lifer insect everyday - there are so many.
Nice shot of the skunk nanny.
Nope, burn, I don't recall ever seeing your fox pic before. Nice. The raccoon is super too. How did you get above it like that, were you on a porch?
Hack
Thanks but the skunk belongs to burn!! lol
We have only had one skunk around this summer and at it was at a neighbors...thank goodness!
Beautiful fox burn! We were out last weekend and saw a small one that had been hit and killed on the road. It was so sad to see such a beautiful animal lying there.
That is a really good shot of the raccoon! I saw one the other morning heading back to the den...in the drainage pipe.
Ooops, burn, sorry I gave your skunk to nanny.
Hack
That's quite ok Hack, she can have it. lol. As for the raccoon, I was standing at my bathroom window, and the raccoon was just below it, under my feeders.
Thanks Nanny, sorry about your fox, yes it is sad, that his life was cut so short.
Turkey Vultures over at the Depauw University Nature Center.
Not critters, but some very pretty orchids I saw at an Orchid Farm this morning!
