I missed capturing the latest cereus cactus flower’s nocturnal opening Tuesday night, but yesterday morning I set up my cam before the bloom  at 6:40 a.m. and timelapsed the following two sunrise hours of it slowly — almost imperceptibly — closing up shop. There are certainly lulls in the activity, but it’s fascinating (to me, …
UPDATED (9.17): Thanks to the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion webpage, I’ve learned this is not an orb weaver, but rather a jewel garden spider. The difference? Orb’s tend to sit smack in the middle of their webs, whereas jewel’s like to hide out in the foliage around them — and that’s exactly what this …
It’s that time of year and the neighbor’s fence-sitting cereus cactus is wonderfully at it again. I noticed the blooms-to-be about a week ago, but wasn’t expecting them to open up so quickly. And when they do, the early-morning bees drop any interest in sunflowers and literally go swimming in them. So of course I …
Here’s two hours in the afternoon of one of my Great Sunflower Project sunflowers, timelapsed down to eight minutes. In addition to all the bees that visit it as it bops around in the breeze, at one point (about 1:35 in) this bloom gets the attention of a spotless ladybug, and later (about 6:52 in) …
In the course of my timelapse of a sunflower yesterday I was enthralled by one of the tiny visitors the camera captured during its extended stay:
Just can’t help myself from sharing when I find a nice still from the timelapses I do of the sunflowers in my backyard patch (click it for the bigger picture): As to why I timelapse? It’s all part of making my voluntary observations for the Great Sunflower Project more efficient. Rather than physically park myself …
There I was sun-dappled and slaving away outside on the laptop, the tracks of a CD of Spanish guitar music filling the space with sound from the two wireless outdoor faux-rock speakers I’m so glad I bought last week. Two cats were napping opposite me in patio chairs and a drowsy Ranger dog snoozed at …