Stick situation
August 28, 2020 - I just about missed this marvelous creature, which we call a Walkingstick—one word, for the insect; two, for the hiking...
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A great schnozzola
August 27, 2020 - I'm more than old enough to remember Jimmy Durante, the famous entertainer who delighted in drawing attention to his eve...
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Odonate lord and master
August 26, 2020 - What little remains of the stream below the millpond dam is yet ruled by the Dragonhunters. In the ongoing drought, ther...
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Forest crafts-woman
August 25, 2020 - The Arrow-shaped Micrathena spider is an orb-weaver with which many August hikers are all too familiar. This little guy—...
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Teaser
August 24, 2020 - The drought keeps worsening, and to make matters more worse still, we keep getting close to significant rain but it's al...
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First underwing
August 23, 2020 - Normally, by this point in August, my notebook has been awash in sightings of those enigmatic moths known as Underwings.
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Great red spot
August 22, 2020 - Some discoveries only come after an arduous journey of many miles; others require less distance... but maybe no less eff...
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A hint of fall
August 21, 2020 - It's still hot and dry, but, soon enough, the heat wave will break, and we'll start thinking about putting on another la...
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Polished metal
August 20, 2020 - If ever there were a prettier bee, I'm not sure that I've seen it in this life. What we have here on a squash flower is...
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Strange twins
August 19, 2020 - Net-winged Beetles are the moth-lookalikes of the Coleoptera world, and around here, they often come in variations on th...
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Night lights
August 18, 2020 - My son Noah has always been a fine photographer—I guess I've had at least one good influence—so when he got a new 30mm l...
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The other feather-legged fly
August 17, 2020 - Several days ago, I wrote about a favorite insect—and a useful one, at that—known as the Feather-legged Fly. We have a s...
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Courtesy of Europe
August 16, 2020 - Originally a native of southern Europe and northern Africa, as well as the more reasonable parts of Asia all the way to...
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All grown up
August 15, 2020 - There have been enough adult Monarch butterflies flitting around, and, happily, plenty of the new milkweeds that the lep...
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Cauliflower of the woods
August 14, 2020 - For most of this week, a good deal of my walking time was spent walking my neighbor's wonderful dog, which is one of my...
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False fall
August 13, 2020 - The Birch leaves are fooling us again. They're beginning to show a smattering of yellow, which, in a normal year—assumin...
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Feather feet
August 12, 2020 - For a number of years, I've been hooked on flies— real flies, a.k.a., members of the insect order Diptera, not, as would...
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Mourning fly
August 11, 2020 - My journey today, a brilliant and warm one... yet again... took me to an old favorite, Blue Pond in Hopkinton. When the...
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A salty dragon
August 10, 2020 - Following my latest twice-yearly visit with my cardiologist—nothing untoward to report, praise the Lord—I rewarded good...
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King woodpecker
August 09, 2020 - It was a warm morning with yet more heat to arrive, so the natural world decided to get to work early. So did I, but as...
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Primate blossom
August 08, 2020 - The drought shows no sign of abating, and since I've always been concerned about water conservation—not a bad idea if yo...
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Micro Monarch
August 07, 2020 - August is the month to start searching the milkweeds for mini-monarchs, the luridly colored caterpillars of the equally...
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Carpenter's nemesis
August 06, 2020 - Large flies—this one's more than an inch long—give me pause, given that the biggest dipterans around here are typically...
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Spotted, well, spotted
August 05, 2020 - Today's journey took me down to the millpond, an old favorite destination, in the hope of communing with Cardinal flower...
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A touch of gold
August 04, 2020 - When I spotted this striking insect, which I suspected was a flower fly, I got instantly excited. If I'd been birding, I...
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Square deal
August 03, 2020 - This diminutive insect—a real cutie, I'd say—appeared on various leaves and flower petals over the course of the day, an...
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Hope for the tomatoes
August 02, 2020 - Of all the pests that plague tomatoes, I think most gardeners would nominate the Tomato Hornworm, the caterpillar that t...
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Enter the dragon... hunter
August 01, 2020 - In any family, parents don't want to play favorites... but sometimes, despite the best parental efforts, the phrase, "Mo...
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