Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. " (Dylan Thomas)

A well hidden frog has its eye on you. A Northern leopard frog. Une grenouille bien cachée vous regarde

A clear-winged moth on glass (it was originally vertical, I rotated the image to make it easier to look at). It is probably a lesser peach tree borer- ID'ed through bugguide.com.

A couple of common cabbage white butterflies - they were on my way to work one morning, so I photographed them with my cell phone.

A small dragonfly or meadow hawk in flight across a flower. I have been trying to photograph a dragonfly in flight for a long time, this is the first picture to be even marginally successful, although the insect is a little smudged. Une petite libellule en vol à travers des fleurs. J'ai essayé de photographier une libellule en vol depuis longtemps, il s'agit de la première image soit même partialement réussie, même si l'insecte est un peu flou.

This is a spider called Uloborus, or the feather legged spider (only the female has the feathery front legs). Uloborus are unique among spiders as they have no venom glands and cannot poison their prey, which they kill by wrapping in silk and crushing. These are 'cribellate' or hackled orb spiders- the silk of the web is pulled out over a special organ called a calamistrum which makes the silk “wooly”. Insects become stuck on the fine wooly fibres rather than on glue globs that are found on most webs.

This is a spider called Uloborus, or the feather legged spider (only the female has the feathery front legs). Uloborus are unique among spiders as they have no venom glands and cannot poison their prey, which they kill by wrapping in silk and crushing.

A tiny dwarf spider on grass

A pinkish red crab spider (Misumenops, also called Mecaphesa)

"The next time you kiss do it in French" In the window of a secondhand shop Montreal.

The Cinderella slipper, Montreal (by Matthieu Isabelle, 2013)

Bengal owl- from an owl rescue centre in Wiltshire, UK, that was being used as part of a fund raising drive. She is sitting on someone's very thickly gloved hand and was very well behaved. [According to Wikipedia this owl has several names: The Indian Eagle-Owl also called the Rock Eagle-Owl or Bengal Eagle-Owl (Bubo bengalensis)].

Sunset in Wudailianchi, a remarkable nature park a few hundred miles North of Harbin in China (in the northeastern region that used to be called Manchuria). The park is formed from a series of volcanic peaks and lakes. It is quite close to the Russian border.

The bright orange viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) resembles the larger Monarch butterfly. The caterpillars of the viceroy feed on plants in the willow family and accumulate salicylic acid (similar to aspirin). This makes them bitter and unpalatable to predators. Their similarity with the equally orange and black Monarch butterfly, which is also poisonous is an example of Müllerian mimicry which (from Wikipedia) “is a natural phenomenon in which two or more poisonous species, that may or may not be closely related and share one or more common predators, have come to mimic each other's warning signals”. Fortunately, I am not planning to eat butterflies so I can just enjoy their beauty.

A ambush bug- not very well disguised- in a daisy

A couple of butterflies doing what couples do. These are probably European Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) butterflies, which are not native to North America, but have been found quite recently here in Quebec. It looks like they have plans to stay.

a yellow and black mud dauber wasp.

A green darner dragonfly showing the "eye" mark on its forehead.