With Eschscholzia rhombipetala
Many dance flies present prey as nuptial gifts as a part of their mating rituals, but as Powell and Hogue write in California Insects, "The strangest habits are exhibited by a few species in which males secrete material from the digestive tract which is formed into a frothy, white ball or "balloon". This balloon either entraps a small prey or is substituted for prey in the courtship gift-giving sequence" (p. 161). This balloon clearly has prey within, perhaps some kind of hemipteran.
Ron and I were pretty flabbergasted as we watched these two engage in mid-air copulation, their aerial control so perfect that I was able to get this picture even though each fly couldn't have been more than 7 mm long.
Jack Owicki has this great BG photo that spawned an even greater discussion: http://bugguide.net/node/view/267952/bgimage.
I suspect this is Empis and not another genus in Empidinae due to the balloon-forming behavior and the long proboscis, but I'd love correction! Habitat was very close to a running creek, vegetation was riparian, some willow, but mostly oaks and maples.
A species endemic to and often common in high elevation. meadows in the mountains of Guatemala.
Calochortus monophyllus X albus
Sensu MotRC
Fluorescent in 365 nm ultraviolet light.
Owens Valley threadplant, Nemacladus matsonii, California, Mono County, White Mountains, Benton Valley - Owens Valley watershed, elevation 1678 m (5505 ft).
Collection # Morefield 5917
All flowers at this location brown.
Calochortus tolmiei, Calochortus amabalis and Calochortus tolmiei x amabalis
eating foothill yellow-legged frog
Bigflower Agoseris, Agoseris grandiflora. Figueroa Mountain.
Could be a different Hoita, but it looks a lot like strobilina, and is located just on the back side of its home territory
Woodpecker feather?
Spring Creek
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
Unusual white flowered Pansy Monkeyflower
We were walking around Rodeo Lagoon and my fiancé saw orange/orange behind a couple trees. He(?) proceeded to stay back and caught a mole which he played around with. He did approach cars briefly, and fortunately everyone stopped and then he ran off behind the buildings and we did not see him again. At this time, I did not know about hazing and am so glad I have learned!
Shot with 400mm tele lens and cropped.
This is an interesting story with a happy ending. My friend David Ferry and I were driving along Hwy 87 at 60 mph near Crystal Beach, Texas, when I glimpsed what I thought was a Least Bittern standing on the very edge of the road with cars whizzing past. I made a U turn and went back where we indeed found a Least Bittern, resting back on its tarsus joints within inches of passing traffic. I picked up the bird and we stood on the side of the road to examine it. My best guess is that (1) it took a glancing blow off a car windshield, perhaps, or (2) It was totally exhausted from migrating across the Gulf of Mexico. It did not seem to be badly injured and its wings did not seem to be broken. Rather than just leave it here on the road to be crushed and killed I decided we would take it to a nearby marsh area off the roadway where it could die in peace and dignity. So we drove off with Dave holding the bird in his lap and heading to a marsh well off the road where I know Least Bitterns were present. We put the bird down on the edge of the marsh and it just stood there looking at us. I was about to just drive away and let nature take its course, but decided to take a few more shots of the bird. I got down low to the bird's level and it went into the characteristic bittern pose by stretching its neck high and trying to look like a swaying bit of marsh grass. It kept a watchful eye on me from both sides of its raised bill and image 1 shows this action. The bird then started slowly walking away from us. I bent down to take another shot and the bittern took flight and flew out into the marsh and out of sight. I choose to believe it recovered and is doing well.
near Crystal Beach,
Galveston Co., Texas
26 April 2018
Fairly well known population of plants formerly recognized as F. affinis var. tristulis
Has a weird blueish patch on it's back
Covered in springtails, on oak leaf near large oyster mushroom.
prey to wandering garter snake
Eating what I think was a Rock Pigeon.
Observation for California Ground Squirrel: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65355774
I have more photos of this fight to exhaustion if a project is interested. Both the dominant bird and the defeated bird eventually separated and both appeared to have survived with only momentary periods of exhaustion for both where they would feed at the same feeder for a moment then resume their dispute. This was in a residential backyard with plenty of food sources, both natural and hummingbird feeders.
Note -- appended to Paul's observation on 6/13/2020:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/49643112
Alien tentacled leach monster in freshwater pond, clearly anchored to rock, very capable in it's stretching abilities. 2-3 inches when fully stretched back down to marble size discreet rock blob
More tan/less orange specimens at right : sharing a log in close proximity to S. Hirsutum