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Green-backed heron

Phacops Rana anterior segment

Greenops Boothi tail segment

Took a few days off to trek around the wilds of Ithaca NY looking for birds and fossils.  Managed to find both.

Finally got around to going through the photos from the Mermaid Parade and created a photo page.  These were my favorites.

Caterpillars are one week old now

Monarch egg found on a food plant

Golden-eyed lacewing egg (hatched) found on a food plant

Monarch larva are about a week old now and growing rapidly.  About another week before they pupate.  We often find more eggs when gathering food plants – apparently the butterflies are looking for the same qualities in milkweed that we are.

I do spend a lot of time taking pictures of insects.

Monarch egg on milkweed

Larva about to emerge

The wild blackberry crop has largely failed this year due to drought conditions – but I had better luck finding butterfly eggs while I was out in the fields.  Each year, we like to raise a few monarch butterflies.  I never get tired of watching them go from egg to adult.  The eggs look remarkably like drops of sap on the leaves.  Although it appears that the egg case becomes transparent just before hatching, the truth is that it is transparent the whole time.  The caterpillar develops its pigmentation just prior  to hatching so as to maintain its camouflage.

We had three eggs hatch while away.