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This Greenbottle fly was sitting on a raspberry leaf. It was sluggish due to the cool morning air and sat for a portrait. The proboscis with the hairy suction cup is visible. These flies don't have mouth parts for chewing so they vomit up digestive juices to dissolve their food and then suck it...

Daddy-long legs , as we called them when I was young, are in the Harvestmen family and are not spiders but are arachnids. They have 8 legs but only one pair of eyes, do not produce silk and do not have venom glands and their body is not segmented as in spiders. This one was sitting on top of a...

This Black-shouldered Drone Fly (Eristalis dimidiata) was busy pollinating the Brown-eyed Susan flowers in my back yard. It seemed quite content to let me get close without flying away which is not always the case with flies.

We had a delightful rain this afternoon as I was out birding. I got just about as wet as the berries on these bushes. Chokecherry Red-osier Dogwood.

After picking my raspberries yesterday I noticed a little green bug in the pail. I put it on a ripe raspberry and it was quite content to wander around and pause for some portraits. You can see the rather long proboscis with the spear point for gathering juices from plants. BugGuide says it is a...

As I headed back to my car from a birding outing I saw this butterfly resting on a flower. I had my telephoto lens and was able to shoot from a few feet away at the FF equivalent of 1000 mm. I think it would likely have flown away if I was to get close with my macro lens. I didn't pay attention...

Over the years there have been many occasions when I have found something on post processing that was not obvious when taking the image. The tick attached to this Least Chipmunk just by the shoulder is an example. The tick has started to engorge but has a way to go before it drops off and lays a...

Often when I get a bumblebee image the proboscis is hidden in the flower or tucked under the head. Here you get a good look at it poised to suck nectar from a flower.

The flower on the Bergamot plant seems unusual in design. I hope to catch some pollinators on it soon.

A local pond has at least one pair of nesting Red-necked Grebes. This adult found a small fish and then fed it to the young one. The fish transfer. Any parent can relate to teenagers yelling for more food.

July 2 was the first day I saw the Long-eared Owl family in my friend's yard just blocks away from my home. When I returned, six days later, with another group of birders we could tell the young had grown and were now actively exercising their wings. Here are some images from that visit...

For years I have heard Sora's and spent many hours waiting for one to show itself. They seem to spend all their time in among the reeds and not out in the open. Yesterday I was at a local pond and heard one. I watched the area for some time and it never came out so I moved on and was looking at...

There is a family of Long-eared Owls a few blocks from my house. Some friends own the yard where they spend some time. There are four young and the two adults. Today I was watching one of the adults and three or four Robins were dive bombing it to try and send it away. Here are some images of...

Still on my mission to help stop swatting flies. I find it harder to swat when I see all the intricacies on magnification on this common Green bottle fly.

A big cream coloured blob sitting on top of my Galardia flower made be turn around and have a closer look. It turned out to be a Crab Spider (I think a Goldenrod Crab Spider) sitting in wait for a pollinator. This is a female and from the side view she looks due to give birth. These are ambush...

Another creature from my recent afternoon at the Northeast Swale, a nature preserve in Saskatoon. A small spot in the fold of a leaf just a few inches off the ground caught my eye. Further investigation revealed this orbweaver spider just waiting for me to get a portrait. It is an Arabesque...

A recent trip to a local nature preserve rewarded me with lots of flowers and birds. This area is under constant threat of development so a dedicated group of volunteers works tirelessly to avoid more development. A worthy cause for sure. Prairie roses were close to the ground so i was on my...

When I moved into my house a few years ago I planted some native prairie flowers. It has taken a few seasons for them to flourish. The Galardia have started blooming and the flowers are visited by lots of creatures. While trying to get some decent pictures of the flowers I noticed a tiny...

I have posted here before about the Peregrine Falcons nesting on a tall building in Saskatoon. Last year they were unsuccessful in having young. The theory was the male was too young and not ale to breed. M59, the female has been coming back for a few years. This year she found a male of...

The flowers have started bursting in my garden. I think this is a Harebell.