Finding Critters on a Cool Day

[Sylvan120]

The other morning it was 20 degrees F. I wasn't sure if any critters survived that cold. But the sun was shining so I decided to investigate. I looked for warmth which meant in the sun, on the ground or in my shed. Here is what I found.


I found a harvestman on an old piece of wood on the ground. He is missing some legs. The weather was cool so he didn't seem to be moving so I tried a series of focus bracketed shots which he tolerated. This shot is a stack of 19 images.



Nothing was moving above the ground so I flipped over some flat stones. I found a small nest of New World Fuzzy ants. These are tiny ants, maybe 3mm long. All shots are at 2X on my OM lens. The in-focus hit rate for these type of shots is very very low given that the ants are in non-stop motion and the focus plane is so narrow. On the plus side, they weren't going anywhere so I could take a lot of shots.


When I edited the pics, I discovered there was a tiny snail shell among the ants.















Next I investigated my shed to see if anyone survived the cold in there. I found this very slow moving paper wasp.


He wasn't moving much so I was able to get with 2X range to focus on its eye. About an hour later he was on his back, dead. Its the end of the life cycle for them.




The sun was shining and I found this Bruce Spanworm moth basking in the sun on the side of the house.

That's all for today.

 

[macrouser]

It is great that you know some good places to look. That lens is very good to be able to show the texture on the ants head.

 

[ASR45]

Amazing detail, that Olympus produce some lovely details.

 

[D Cox]

It is great that you know some good places to look. That lens is very good to be able to show the texture on the ants head.

Olympus have always been good for macro.

 

[jim mij]

That harvestman must be struggling with those missing legs

i like the ant pics, especially the last one, good idea looking under things as so little is above ground these days

Dead and dying wasps are usually easy to transport to a leaf, etc. nice eyes …

Bruce the moth is nice, what’s on the walls?

 

[Sylvan120]

It is great that you know some good places to look. That lens is very good to be able to show the texture on the ants head.

Thanks. This lens feels like portable field microscope in my hand. I enjoy seeing in my photos what I can’t see with my eyes. I don’t know how far into fall-winter I’ll still find critters but I’m going to find out.

 

[Sylvan120]

That harvestman must be struggling with those missing legs

i like the ant pics, especially the last one, good idea looking under things as so little is above ground these days

Dead and dying wasps are usually easy to transport to a leaf, etc. nice eyes …

Bruce the moth is nice, what’s on the walls?

As I mentioned, there were very few nice keeper photos out of the maybe about 300 shots I took of those ants. The problem is getting the ants in focus and facing the lens to get a nice photo. I was getting lots of butt shots. It’s basically luck since they are all in nonstop motion moving through the razor thin focal plane, so I shot a bunch and found a few keepers on the computer. I like that last one too.
I think there is some specks of lichen growing around the moth on my vinyl siding.