Old Cedar Bugs

If you have been a constant visitor to Ecobirder you may have noticed that the number of posts featuring insects has decreased dramatically from a couple of months ago. That is because winter has arrived and early this year and days with high temps in the 30s are a bit of a problem for the insect community. So the only insects that I see these days are the occasional spider that Michelle, my wife, hollers about or once in a while a centipede that my kitten Misty is stalking with her mad bug pawning skillz. Don't worry though I am saving some bug picks to post through out the winter to continue to bring you as much variety as possible. One of the last time that I went out and photographed several insects was at the Old cedar Bridge area at the beginning of October (10-2).
All during the late summer and fall my bug photography was hampered by grasshoppers. Most of the places that I visited where filled with grasshoppers at that time of the year. As I would walk through the fields, or even down dirt paths, quietly stalking a butterfly or dragonfly grasshoppers would go flying from the grass in front of me. Like an early alert system they would startle my prey which would, very often, take off right before I got my shot.

Once in a while I would get lucky though and my subject would not notice the hoard of grasshoppers fleeing before my gigantic size twelve hiking boots. Like this cabbage white butterfly who was too intent on sucking the nectar out of this flower to notice my approach.
This eastern tailed blue did not even flinch when it came face to face with my 9" Canon zoom lens.

Woolly bear caterpillars are a sure sign of fall. During the falls months, like October, they quit their eating and look for a sheltered place to hibernate for the winter. When the temps warm up again and spring arrives the woolly bear will wake up and spin a cocoon. A couple of weeks later they will emerge as an isabella tiger moth.