It’s hard to believe I haven’t seen this yellow jacket wasp nest sooner. I’ve been parking my truck next to it all summer. I’ve been no further away than 5 feet getting in and out of the truck. I’m surprised (and more than lucky) I haven’t disturbed the nest banging around the truck.

Yellow jacket wasps are born with an attitude problem. Individuals are aggressive and easily aggravated and anyone who offends one is usually rewarded with a sting. But that’s nothing compared to having 100s of them peeved at you for disturbing their nest. I know. I once disturbed an underground yellow jacket nest and was stung at least 50 times before I even knew I was in trouble. Before I managed to get away I had well over 100 stings.

Living dangerously: Taking a macro photo of a yellow jacket nest entrance.

Do not disturb

No one ever accused me of being overly intelligent.

This punked out fly distracted me from the mushrooms I was going to post today. This is the second time I’ve photographed and posted pics of one but this time I just had to make a positive ID. Once again BugGuide.net has come to my rescue. ‘Punk A$$ Fly’ isn’t a proper name no matter how accurate the description is. I would like to introduce you to:

Archytas apicifer

From Wallpaper-1920×1080

At over a half inch these are fairly large flies. Contrary to the punk/goth look the adults are more interested in flowers which they feed upon. It’s their young that are the stuff nightmares are made of. The larvae are parasitoids that develop on moths. So relax and get a good nights sleep, they won’t be sucking out your life juices except in dreams.

It’s a toss up between which post has the better images of the white faced fly. You can see the other photos on: Bad Hair Day.

I also strongly advise scrolling to the bottom and staring into the eyes of the Hypno-Frog until ready to do my bidding.

No? Then just take one more look at Spike and we’ll move along and see what Stewy is up to.

If Stewy could talk

What’s that stupid dog nosing around for now?

Not again. It’s one thing to go barking up the wrong tree but getting stuck up there is another.

Out of the Woods
Stewy is playing ‘catch up’ after Pookey and I left him behind.

Goldenrod is one of my favorite wildflowers. Late summer brings fields of yellow filled with predators. Among the flowers hides small sizes with big surprises and it doesn’t take long to find one. Finding a successful hunter just takes a little more time.

It must have come as a big surprise when the spider introduced itself to the bee.

Turkey Surprise
Stalking turkeys is tough. There are far too many eyes in a flock to sneak up on them. The flock knew I was around. We had spotted each other at a long distance and they immediately started to move off.

Movement catches the eye. I would never have known the frog was there if it hadn’t moved.
Too late to hide from my camera now.

Nothing unexpected about finding mature puffballs on a log.

What happens when you poke a dried puffball filled with spores? I got lucky and got a semi-focused photo of the spores ejected. They disperse rapidly and trying to keep the camera steady in one hand while poking with the other is tough. It took a number of tries and by the time I was done there must have been millions of spores floating around.

I know there’s something else but can’t seem to put my finger on it.

Oh yea, this will be the second time I posted my spore finger.