A sweat bee is immersed in goldenrod blossoms in this photo I took earlier today along Piney Woods Church Road.
Oct 262014
Oct 252014
As I made my way along the new wooden horse fence bordering Piney Woods Church Road this afternoon, who did I see by an old friend from months earlier, the Rough Stink Bug (Brochymena quadripustulata). I didn’t recognize him (her?) at first; the edges of his abdomen had largely lost their brilliant red fringing from earlier in the season, but I could still discern those telltale red bumps on his back (the pustulata part of his name). He lingered long enough for an extended photo session, the fruit of which was the portrait below.
Oct 252014
A grapevine tendril made a lovely spiral along Piney Woods Church Road, which I paused to photograph early this afternoon.
Oct 242014
I encountered this mellow grasshopper while strolling along the new wooden horse fence on Piney Woods Church Road earlier today. He (who certainly might be a she instead) may be another Differential Grasshopper like the one I photographed a couple of weeks back, but I am not certain. He was not at all camera-shy, as you may note.
Oct 242014
As autumn proceeds, insect life gets more scarce along Piney Woods Church Road. Lately, I have been craving an encounter with some sort of creature making its rounds along the road. This afternoon, I encountered two: a wasp and a grasshopper (the latter the topic of another post).
I found this bright yellow wasp buzzing along near the ground, moving into and out of the leaf litter. It rested for a moment on a a leaf, but took off quickly when I pointed the camera its way. I waited again for it to make landfall, only for the same thing to happen again. On maybe the fourth try, she perched on a Hoary Mountainmint leaf and stayed put, occupied with grooming her antennae. I took quite a few photographs, most of which ended up a bit blurry. This one did not. According to the BugGuide experts, she is most likely the Ichneumon wasp, Neotheronia septentrionalis.
Oct 232014
A Harvestman (Daddy Longlegs) waits patiently in the autumn sunshine on a Hoary Mountainmint leaf along Piney Woods Church Road.
Oct 222014
A small late-season bee is hard at work pollinating the goldenrod along Piney Woods Church Road in this image from earlier today.
Oct 222014
On a sunny, blue-sky Wednesday afternoon, I returned to one of my favorite subjects along Piney Woods Church Road — strands of horsehair in a barbed wire fence. Here, they catch the light (and breeze) to become flowing, cosmic forms.
Oct 212014
An oak leaf is illuminated by the morning sun, somewhere along Piney Woods Church Road.
Oct 202014
Asters of an unidentified species (there are simply too many possibilities out there) continue to bloom along the roadside down Piney Woods Church Road.
