Summer has flown right on by. I didn’t photograph nearly as much bugs as I wanted to…too dang busy with work, the house, the pups…ugh! Next thing you know it will be snowing

Below is a robber fly with a crazy beard Haven’t had time to ID it yet…

And finally some stylin’ cedar waxwings

The snow is finally gone and hopefully wont return for another couple months. I can’t tell you how much I have needed some sun and green…

Photos from my backyard:

Black-Capped Chicadee

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Pileated Woodpecker

Despite still having snow on the ground, I think spring has finally arrived here because I saw my first mourning cloak butterfly of the season. FINALLY! It has been a long, hard winter for me.

Another clue that spring is here is that I saw these Northern Pintails, which is a marsh duck that is a spring/fall migrant to my area and only a rare summer bird in my neck of the woods.

They are a beautiful bird, aren’t they??

Kind of looks like the following pictures should have been taken somewhere else…but they are from central NY all the same.

Ring-neck Pheasant rooster:

Josh and I went birding for the first time this spring, if thats what you can call the season we are in. There is a place here in NY, called Derby Hill, that is one of the best spots in the state to see the return hawk migration every spring. The hawks started flying back about a week ago.

Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating for hawk flight. But the Snow Geese were flying in flocks by the hundreds. The only other things we saw on the hill were Canada Geese and Crows.

There were also some ducks on Lake Ontario, I think white-winged scoters, but I am not sure…anyone have any thoughts as to what they are. Sorry for the crappy pic:

So since we didn’t have any luck on the Lake at Derby Hill, we went to a local sanctuary that is supposed to have migratory owls roosting in the pines. Didn’t have any luck there either (maybe its too early), but we did see some resident white breasted nuthatches, brown creepers, and a pair of pileated woodpeckers.

Not everything has made it through our rough winter this year though…

And last week while working I came across a wild ring-necked pheasant rooster…too bad I didn’t have the dogs with me.

Bad news is that my lens has been acting up and I think I need to send it in for a tune up, which stinks because I don’t want to let it go for however long it will take to repair it. Total bummer   Wish I had the money to buy a telephoto lens. Stupid Nikon and their ridiculous prices.

The above picture is of Ibalia, which are endoparasitoids of siricids. They use their ovipositor to drill through the bark of tree and “sting” or lay eggs directly into a developing siricid larva (below).

I have been dissecting siricid larvae to survey for parasitoids and as soon as you open up the larva, if it is parasitized, a little tiny ibalia larva pops out.

And close-ups of a sessid (clear wing) moth…

And some not so buggy pictures…

Turkey anyone?

And an Upstate traffic jam…

Maya hasn’t gotten out lately to do her thing…hunt. So I decided to take her out to a local county forest to do some bird hunting. She flushed 2 grouse in an hour and a half. Not bad since she is still a puppy. The first one she just kind of ran into without stopping and pointing. There was a little more finesse with the second bird as she at least paused for a point.

We also shot this buck.

Ok maybe not with a bow or gun, but with a camera. This was someone else’s shot and I just happened to find the buck struggling.

I always see these band of brothers (turkey vultures) standing post on this tower on my way home from work everyday. Anyone know why they sit there will their wings spread out?

I also think that McDonald’s might want to reconsider their advertising campaign, the vultures add a nice touch to the iconic double arches.