Ring-billed Gull
July 31, 2015 - These gulls are usually seen in the nearby shopping center parking lot, but today they were foraging for food in the wat...
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Halloween Pennant Dragonfly
July 30, 2015 - The Halloween Pennant is a common North American dragonfly. I often see Halloween pennants hanging onto a dried stem of...
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Widow Skimmer Dragonfly
July 29, 2015 - This is the first time this season one of these guys slowed down enough for a photo. The male widow skimmer leaves after...
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More Oxygen Please
July 28, 2015 - These carp are using aquatic surface respiration to get oxygen for their systems. During summer water oxygen levels can...
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Came Up Empty
July 27, 2015 - Went out this morning with the intent of getting a good photo of a tern diving into the water and emerging with a fish....
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Surprise
July 26, 2015 - Walked down a short path by a flood control spillway, and both this heron and I were surprised. The heron is standing on...
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Tern
July 25, 2015 - I think of common terns as waterbirds you see at the shores of large lakes or oceans, but they live spread out over half...
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Backlit butterfly
July 24, 2015 - Black swallowtail butterfly feeding on a yellow thistle flower. This butterfly did not have a food preference, and stopp...
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Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly
July 23, 2015 - The eastern amberwing dragonfly is small, less than an inch long. It's wings makes it look bigger. Adults eat flying ins...
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Monarch Butterfly
July 22, 2015 - A monarch butterfly was feeding on the nectar of swamp milkweed. blossoms. There are 30 milkweed species in the central...
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Wood tick
July 21, 2015 - Who says a blip has to be pretty? This is a tick looking for dinner, and dinner was going to be me! Dinner was never ser...
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Morning Dew
July 20, 2015 - Dew was heavy on the flowers and grasses this morning.
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Prairie Sunset
July 19, 2015 - My vision fo r a sunset photo at this location did not work the way I thought it would. Regrouped by aiming camera south...
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Red Milkweed Beetle
July 18, 2015 - Face to face with a red milkweed beetle on a milkweed leaf. The antenna sockets of this beetle divide the compound eye i...
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Black Swallowtail Butterfly
July 17, 2015 - This black swallowtail, a bumblebee, and a monarch butterfly were fighting over milkweed flowers. The swallowtail spent...
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Bumblebee with Flash
July 16, 2015 - This was a mostly gray overcast day, and I was desperate (!) for color and contrast in an outdoor photo. Thought this co...
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Black-Eyed Susan2
July 15, 2015 - Black-eyed susan is native to eastern and central North America. It now grows in 48 states and 10 Canadian provinces. I...
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Blue Flax
July 14, 2015 - Blue flax or prairie flax is native to the North American plains. Blooms are open in the morning, and that's when you ha...
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Green Darner Dragonfly
July 13, 2015 - The common green darner is one of the largest and most common dragonflies in North America. This male (blue abdomen=male...
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Goldfinch
July 12, 2015 - Took many nice dragonfly photos with nice blue sky backgrounds, but this goldfinch in full sun exposure at 3 pm is the b...
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Yellow Coneflower
July 11, 2015 - Yellow coneflower is also known as prairie coneflower. This one is growing in an undeveloped field on the south end of o...
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Cabbage Butterfly
July 10, 2015 - A cabbage butterfly is shown feeding on thistle flower nectar. This might be the most plentiful butterfly on the planet,...
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Honeybee
July 09, 2015 - This is only the second honeybee I've seen all year, with the first observed on June 8. I am out blipping every day and...
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Just a plant? No!
July 08, 2015 - I could say "here is a plant", but this is not just a plant! It's a reminiscence of my boyhood as well as a "living foss...
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Milkweed
July 07, 2015 - Common milkweed is important because many insects survive on it, and several only eat milkweed. Similar to yesterday's b...
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Butterfly Weed
July 06, 2015 - Butterfly weed is also called butterfly milkweed and pleurisy root. It was considered a heal all plant by early settlers...
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Mexican Hat
July 05, 2015 - The Mexican hat or prairie coneflower features a long cylindrical flower head of disk florets, surrounded by yellow or y...
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Queen Anne's Lace - Wild Carrot
July 04, 2015 - A member of the carrot family, roots and leaves of Queen Anne's Lace are edible in the first year of the plant when not...
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Common Chicory
July 03, 2015 - Common chicory is also known as blue daisy or blue dandelion. Roots can be baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitut...
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Prairie Fleabane
July 02, 2015 - Prairie fleabane daisy plants are used to repel fleas and ticks. Blooms span 0.5 inch, and there are many blooms on a si...
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Black-Eyed Susan
July 01, 2015 - Spent an hour taking photos of wildflowers in the prairie area north of Churchill subdivision in Oswego, Illinois. This...
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