Cool Creepies

In general, I love creepy crawlies as long as they're outside, and aren't roaches, mosquitoes, or termites. Or on my face.

This beauty spun her web on the back garage a few weeks ago. There were two egg sacs nearby, protected by her massive web. She herself was pretty big, nearly the size of my hand from the tips of her back legs to the tips of her front legs.  She's a garden spider, probably argiope aurantia.  Interestingly, a male of the same species built a web over our front door and hung out for a week.  He'd angled the web in such a way as to not be disturbed by the opening and closing of the storm door, nor by humans coming and going.  I didn't photograph him, but it was cool to watch him wrap up his prey (moths), feed, then carefully unwrap them and let the carcasses drop to the porch, apparently recycling his silk.  When he moved on, he dismantled his web completely and left no trace except for the pile of moth carcasses.

This critter has left the building, so to speak.  A carolina mantis (stagmomantis carolina) molted and left her former exterior on the window screen. (I say 'her' because there's an egg deposit about three feet away.)  I exaggerated the lens flare a little bit in photoshop.

 

"P to the R to the N to the 'cess' "

I'm fudging a bit. Actually took this photo a few days ago, but since Stacy sent pics of her critters, I thought I'd continue the theme and post a pic of another one of mine. This is ChiChi Ratriguez, named after John Lequizamo's character in To Wong Foo (who uttered the line used as the title of this post). She's about 12 years old, was once all black but has now gone very gray. The bright sun on her white muzzle made an annoying hotspot, but I love the expression in her eyes. Sort of confused ("Why do you keep calling my name and then pointing that thing at me?"), yet adoring and trusting. And she'd just roll her eyes if you ever called her a princess.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Inadvertently custom

Take a deep breath and make a wish

I love dandelions. Which is silly, really. But in this state, they're so beautiful! How can such delicate and fleeting beauty make such a mess of my yard?

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto












And this is a 'just because' photo. Meet Jasper, one of our two cockatiels. As you can see by his crest standing up, he's not terribly fond of the camera. I tried to get him to do the feminine pose, but he insisted on doing the basic 3/4 pose. Such a diva. :)

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

O Tiny Toad on my Doorstep

Sounds like the title of a Keats poem :)

Got home from Gold's this morning and as I approached my front door, I caught a bit of movement near my feet. We've got hundreds of geckos and a dozen or so lizards that live on/around our house so that's not unusual, but when I looked down and spied the fairly-well-camouflaged critter, it wasn't a gecko or a lizard. My first instinct was to move it into the cover of the monkey grass so it didn't get eaten by a sharp-eyed jay, but after a few failed attempts at rescue, I dashed inside to get my camera.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

Pretty sure this is a young female Woodhouse's Toad, though it might be a male that doesn't have the dark throatpouch yet? Cute as a button, regardless. A tad more than an inch long from nose to rear. She sat still for a good five minutes and let me zoom in quite close--I didn't want to risk taking the time to change lenses, so even at 90mm, the lense was within six inches of her. Good thing the neighbors are kind of used to seeing me crawling around on my belly with a camera in front of my face. I really like the angle of this photo, even though the DOF blurs out the texture of her skin.

Here's another pic I took before I got down on my belly (same settings as above). Not as much DOF on this one, so you can see the texture of her skin. Very cool, IMO.

She eventually lost patience and hopped into the tall grass under the bushes.

Buggin'

This guy was on the door of my very dirty white truck this afternoon as I left to pick up a kiddo from school. This is as close as my lens would let me focus (was running late, so couldn't switch lenses), but I totally love his shadow :) Click on the pic to see it bigger--the blogger resize makes it look awful.

Was tempted to crop a little bit, but didn't. Converted from the RAW, because the processed JPG looked too blue.

SOTC
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

Woodhouse's Lovers

This is a pair of Woodhouse's toads. I love the sun on the water in this photo. Almost looks romantic. LOL. There are lots of toads hanging out in the pool now, and they're fun to watch, because you'll have a pair like this, and then another male will lunge sideways at the 'resident' male, and try to pry him off the female. The first guy doesn't let go, so the female is caught in the tussle, squeaking and grumbling her annoyance.

We've had to rescue several. They can get out of the water onto the top step, but the smaller ones can't jump high enough to actually get out of the pool.

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 28-90mm (analog)
Focal length: 90mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None

Three Frogs

The pump and filter system quit on my parents' pool, and it's going to cost mucho dinero to get it fixed. So all winter, the pool has been languishing and collecting leaves. Much to the delight of several frogs and toads. I haven't yet been able to identify their species, so if you know what they are, please let me know!

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 75-300mm (analog)
Focal length: 300mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None

American White Pelican

This is an American White Pelican photographed a few weeks ago in Jackson County, Oklahoma. The fin on the beak is only there during breeding season. I managed to catch a few in flight, too. They have beautiful black-tipped wings.

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 75-300mm (analog)
Focal length: 300mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None