Another Look At The Insect Kingdom And Wildflowers With My Macro Lens.
I was always fascinated with insects. As a young child my backyard was my world. I would watch the ants on the ant hills and spiders on their webs for hours. In grade school I remember borrowing books about the insect kingdom and urging my parents to purchase the How and Why book about Ants and Bees. In fact, I think I still have it.
As I grew older my world expanded. And, always with my dad’s guidance and encouragement, I discovered mushrooms, wildflowers, birds , animals and much more. He loved Nature. Mutual of Ohama’s Wild Kingdom and Walt Disney were must watch TV on Sundays. . He developed in me a love of nature which I kept all of my life. However for many years I had pretty much forgot the wonders of the insect kingdom. So much other stuff to see. Until I purchased my macro lens a few years ago. And I am a child again in this world that surrounds us, mostly unnoticed.
I love hiking with my macro lens and took two hikes near my home here in the Green Ridge section of Hazle Township, Luzerne County this week. Near my house is a patch of wild mint. While dad was alive I would take a few mint leaves to him every morning and we would use it in our morning cup of tea.
Well those mint leaves are now flowering and they sure attracted a lot of insects. The variety was amazing. I am not an entomologist so don’t expect me to identify all of this colorful and exotic insects. There were many types of wasps, hornets bees, and yellow jackets , both large and
They buzzed from flower to flower.
They were joined by many different species of flies including the large black one with brown eyes.
And a few butterflies were also attracted to the mint flowers
and the wild pea flowers growing nearby. I have no idea what the first butterfly is but I think the second is a silver spotted skipper. There are a lot of moths and butterflies in our Commonwealth . Please feel free to identify any insect, animal or bird in my blog post or correct me if I misidentify a plant, animal, bird or insect.
I could spend an entire day observing the many insect at the mint flowers but I had to get some walking in so I headed to the coal strip mine reclamation area about a 1/2 mile from my house. The reclamation project created some new wetlands and here I found some different mid-summer flowers, and some insects they attracted such a the most detested golden rod flowers. Although the cause of allergy suffering in humans some insects loved these flowers. Hundreds of these insects were crawling on the golden rod flowers.
There were also some wasps and
a few viceroy butterflies attracted to the goldenrod.
These pretty butterflies are similar to the monarch butterflies.
The elderberry flowers are long gone. and now, most of the tiny red berries too. Birds love them.
There were a number of other mid-summer flowers in bloom along the trails in the reclamation area including the colorful tansy flowers,
St’ Johns wort. I was surprised at the variety of flowers growing in the summer heat.
There was also the medicinal plant yarrow growing along the path, My walks took me to the local railroad track, which is still active. I was fortunate to see a train on my Friday afternoon hike. I love trains.
On both of my hikes I would return the same way, seeing more of the same insects. On Thursday I was surprised to see this rabbit sprawled out on the trail ahead of me. At first I thought it was injured but it jumps up and sprinted away as I approached.
I also saw a few dragonflies on my walks.
There were no snakes, frogs or turtles on my hikes. Just the wildflowers and the many residents of the insect world. Observing, photographing and sharing these interesting inhabitants of our natural world was more than enough enjoyment for me. I love the Summer. So much to see, so much to do both night and day. ( Just a reminder the Persied meteor shower is still occurring after midnight although it is past its peak.)Here is a link to a gallery on my website with more photographs of the many residents of the insect kingdom I observed on my hike. Green Ridge macro hike August 13, 14 2020.
“Bugs never bug my head. They are amazing. It is the activities of humans which actually bug me all the time.” Munia Khan
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Thank you ever so much for sending the e-mails of your adventures. I don’t care what some people say – but I believe we live in a beautiful State. I am learning so much more about our State because of your e-mails. Thank you very much.
Monica Bazewicz
Your welcome Monica. Sorry for the late response my Word press account didn’t send the messages to me until now I love our State too !!!