As of about a week ago, I gained the ability to take thermal images [1]. This is has a lot of uses, but for our purposes it is excellent for detecting warm-blooded creatures in the dark. Oh, you know. Like the White-Lined Sphinx Moth that I posted a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that these moths were still coming around to the petunias in the evenings as of September 14, 2018. Here’s a video. The moth is the little bright orange spot that starts out a little below and to the left of center, then zooms around to the upper right before going back down to the left (I had to pan the camera around a lot to track it, and it was pretty fast, so I lost it a couple of times):
I’ve been kind of expecting these to turn up sooner or later. We were up at the Eagle Harbor Sands on July 28, 2018 when a friend showed me this brilliant green beetle that had landed on his arm.
While I hadn’t seen one before in the flesh, I don’t think that there is much doubt that this is an Emerald Ash Borer, Agrilus planipennis.
The evening of August 13, 2018 was very warm and nice, so we were all out in the back yard just after sunset to enjoy it. While strolling past the petunia patch, I saw this gray shape hovering around the blossoms. It was about the size of a hummingbird, and was acting a lot like one, but that’s not what it was. It was this moth:
After spending a couple of days around Sudbury, we were on our way again[1], and on June 23, 2018 we pulled into the Riverbend Park campground, on the Mississippi River, just outside of Packenham. No, not that Mississippi River. The other one[2]. Anyway, the river flows past the campground at a nice leisurely pace, with lots of reeds growing on the bank. In the evening and early morning, there was a constant chorus of green frogs with their distinctive “Plonk!” call that sounds a lot like plucking the lowest string on a banjo. And, every now and then, there was a much louder “BRRRUUUMMM!” call, which was made by these guys:
After spending some time in downtown Sudbury on June 21, 2018, we went back to the campground[1] for the night. It was on a lake, so after we pitched our tents we went down to the beach to see what we could see. And the place was loaded with these mostly powder-white dragonflies, who would sometimes perch long enough for pictures.
Continuing our trip across Ontario, we had just pulled in to Carol’s Campsite (just outside of Sudbury[1]) on June 21, 2018 when this dragonfly landed on my shirt. He was in pretty rough shape, as something had taken off most of his forewing. He could still fly, but it was obviously a lot of effort for him and he spent a lot of time resting on my shirt and fingertips before he felt up to flying off.
I barely spotted this little black-and-yellow dragonfly sitting on the ground at Camp Nesbit on June 10, 2018. There it is, right in the middle of the picture. See it?
OK, that was just my contingency photo in case it spooked and flew off. It did let me move in closer, though, and I got some better pictures.
On the morning of June 9, 2018 at Camp Nesbit, Sam spotted this big moth on a windowscreen of one of the cabins.
From the size and shape, we immediately suspected that it was one of the Sphinx Moths.
While this specimen is from Camp Nesbit, you are likely to find this plant in wooded areas all across the UP. It is Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens.
Here’s a little black-and-yellow spider that I haven’t seen in our own yard, but that I found in two locations about 400 miles apart. The first was from our trip to Camp Nesbit on June 9. She was eating some unidentifiable gnat-like thing, and her web was practically invisible.
