Bees, Spiders, A Snake And Flowers: Another Walk With My Macro Lens.

On Sunday and Monday of this past week I decided to take my macro lens on a couple of afternoon  hikes near my home  and look for bees,  insects and whatever else I could find. Looking at the wonders  of Nature up close gives one another perspective and appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us. You don’t have to go to Africa or Asia to see this beauty. Even a common fly, while some may not agree that it is beautiful , is still amazing to see through a macro lens. 

Common flowers such as the pretty foxglove  look exotic  and beautiful when viewed up close.

As do these bleeding hearts flowers and 

the  seeds of a  common dandelion flower or as some prefer, weed. 

And there are so many moths and butterflies that are often overlooked until looked at closely. I believe this is a common looper moth feeding on some clover. 

This common fleabane flower,

attracted one of the many hundred species of wasps and bees that live in our State. 

All of these flowers and insects were found within a block of my home. I continued my hike into the coal reclamation area near my home.  Here I found the blackberry flowers were now starting to produce their young fruit. These berries will ripen in early to mid August. 

One of my favorite late Spring flowers , daisies, were now in bloom.

I love daisies  and I looked for, and found, a few of this tiny white spiders that  live on these flowers. 

This year I  found, for the first time this tiny spider on another daisy. I think both are a species of crab spiders. 

There were some wetlands near the reclamation area and here I saw a lot of dragonflies but was only able to get  a photograph of the damselfly. 

Even a small snail  shows its intricacy when looked at up close. 

As I made my way back home I observed and photographed  many of the flowers and weeds we often overlook such as the invasive hairy vetch flower, 

this, I believe prairie rocket or wallflower and 

even the common nightshade flowers. While walking home I ran into this black snake.  Unfortunately I did not have a zoom lens and, as I crept closer, to get some photos with my macro lens it took off into the brush. 

One thing I did not see a lot of were the common bumblebees. Every year I see less and less of this insects on my hike. I am sure it is from the widespread use of pesticide that is shrinking their  numbers. However as I neared my house I did find this bumblebee feeding on some comfrey flowers. 

Looking at this insect  with the macro lens you can see the mandibles and proboscis used by the bee to gather nectar from the flowers. 

Once again i was able to discover the beauty of nature on a different level , and  within a mile from my home. There is always something to discover in the natural world, all you need to do is walk and keep your eyes peeled. Here is a link to a gallery with some more photographs of the bees and flowers on my afternoon hike. Macro lens hike June 14, 15 2020. 

I was so intrigued by insects and things that crawled or flew – I could spend hours by myself in a vacant lot. Gary Larson

fskokoski@gmail.com

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