On the flora side; watch out for this one; it's likes sandy spots.  Leaves of three, leave 'er be.

I particularly have become interested in photographing the small things such as insects.  This pine bark beetle was very cooperative in posing for me a couple of years ago.

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links), Darkwater Lake, July 2012.
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dd

db wrote on Dec 20^th, 2012 at 9:51pm:

Looks like it could be a variant of a cicada, not knowing more about the insect, size, time of year, etc.

dd

starwatcher wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 1:56am:


I disagree.  Their purpose is to be annoyingly loud while in the process of making little cicada's. 

dd

starwatcher wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 2:17am:


Just don't take a walk in the woods down this way in the spring time ... deafening!

Nice bug photos, Lynda and db!

What kind of equipment do you use for these close-ups? Long lens? short lens? tripod? extension tubes? big dollar close-up lens?

Clearly the ante has been upped for the quality of next year's PODs, so I have to know what the competition is doing

I shoot with a Canon DSLR (up until a couple of years ago an old D60, now a 7D), and I have a macro lens but I don't take it on canoe trips.  It just adds too much weight.  My butterflies and insects are almost always shot hand-held with a telephoto lens from some distance away. 

The pine bark beetle was shot in 2010 with the 7D, with an L-series 70-200 IS lens, and probably shot at almost 200 mm.  I made quite a few shots and this was the best one.  (The joy of digital.)  The background was my shirt which just happened to have been thrown on a log near the fire grate.  If you could see the original of this one, (not compressed) it is very, very sharp.  I can enlarge it to 16 x 20 easily.

This spider was taken in 2007 with my old D60 and a Canon 75-300 lens, back on the biffy.  Again hand-held from some distance (although I didn't kill it, and I did use the throne with him in residence for a couple days.)

When I am shooting very, very tiny flowers and have lots of time (with the tripod close to the ground), I have a Canon 500 diopter that I can put on the end of my telephoto lens for extreme closups, but haven't used that much since getting the L-series IS lens.

Have never tried to shoot butterflies and damselflies from a tripod--they just move too much.  I stalk them with the telephoto lens and try to be patient.

How do you feel about fungus?

This one is from this year's canoe trip, in the woods in back of a campsite on Cherokee Lake.

Tripod shot with a 70-200 lens.  On my belly in the dirt.

db wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 6:46am:

Reference: Here's the Peterson insect guide for leafhoppers, Family Cicdellidae, same as Cidadas, but only 20 times smaller.

starwatcher

Spartan2 wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 1:56pm:


I have enough fungus photos to keep this going for quite some time. 
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I used a Pentax point and shoot for the bug portraits. It's the only thing it does well and it will focus down to 1/2 inch away from the lens and that's the only reason I still take it. The beetle was full frame from maybe an inch away from his face. Sometimes we get lucky.

Leafhopper, close enough for me. Here's a waterbug wake from my last trip that I like.
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Desperate to add something to this dialogue...

Freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii, shot fall 2012, LLC

prouboy

Puckster wrote on Dec 21^st, 2012 at 9:33pm:

That's pretty impressive prouboy!  I've seen freshwater coral in the BWCA, but I've never heard of or seen freshwater jellyfish!

starwatcher

Ever catch one of these?  I have only caught this one Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), in Pickerel Narrows in June of 2009.

Didn't even know what it was when I caught it.  Thought it was a short-nosed redhorse, using a fish ID key my buddy had along.  (So much for it  helping ID fish!)

Got back home and got it correctly id'd.

prouboy

I understand, it's a pretty ugly fish.  But the fillet was beautiful white meat.  The meat is good!  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

prouboy

Yeah, good point Kf...   Those fish in that first link definitely don't look like the fish I caught!  But the text in that link was interesting. 

Anyway, try THIS link!  It's pictures of the fish are similar.  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Honestly, I was unsure what the heck it was.  I showed the picture to a MN DNR fisheries guy...he was pretty adamant it was a Whitefish.

prouboy

I believe your correct. I caught a similar fish on a cabin trip into the White Otter area.
We had use of a gas grill at the outpost cabin and one of the guys was into smoking fish.
We smoked it but brined if first because they don't have a high oil content and can dry out.

Very interesting Starwatcher.  The MN DNR staff person I talked was familiar with them, said their sitings were not all that common, but didn't seem to excited by them.  Probably because their impacts (as your citation noted) are not well known and their bite doesn't harm humans. 

He said they go for years unnoticed, in some alternate form attached to the underside of vegetation.  Then, when conditions are right, they "bloom."


prouboy

Here's a young buck taking a break from munching his way through the willows on the back 40 this afternoon. They need lots of twigs in their diet to keep their digestive system in good shape. He had two younger buddies with him, no does.

Almost all the deer we see out here are mule deer (like this one) - only rarely do we see white tail.
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Hey Joe -- 

Early one dark February morning many years ago, as I drove north to go ice-fishing in Minnesota, the truck ahead of me clipped a deer and it kept on going.  I stopped and walked up to the deer lying in the road with a broken neck.  I called a warden, got a permit to take the deer, hauled it off the road and dressed it, and took it home. 

Friends laughed and said the deer would taste awful on account of all the twigs in its diet this late in the winter.  How wrong they were!  It was the best road kill I've ever had!  Very good venison!


I know this is off topic, but your picture and caption recalled this event.

prouboy

Puckster wrote on Jan 21^st, 2013 at 3:07am:

They eat twigs all year round, so I'm not surprised your venison tasted good.

You're welcome to come up and show your love of the local fauna anytime. But this area is bow-hunting only: I know that excludes guns, and I'm pretty sure it excludes 4x4's too.

Ran across this or something like it while cleaning my desktop. YMMV...

Interesting read.... I think it's the same.

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