Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: egg

One day in September of 2012, I found a baby orb weaver spider on my front porch. Over the next year, I watched this baby get her first meal, survive a freezing winter, grow to adulthood, find a mate, make an egg sac, and finally, I saw her crawl slowly away under a bush to die. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with this beautiful Cat-Faced Orb-Weaver, and I cried my eyes out when she died. Maybe just a spider to most, she was my little friend, and I missed her terribly in the months that followed. In fact, revisiting her pictures now pulls hard on my heart strings. I feel like I should be embarrassed that I feel sad as I look at all the pictures I took. How can a person become attached to a spider? I did though, and I feel pretty darn lucky that I got to know a spider well enough to cry over its death. This is a picture of Roscoe's children, hatching out of the egg sac she made and protected until she was too weak to do so. Seeing all of these kids brings a tear to my eye. I wished that some of them would have stayed around, but they all left after a few days. What a great experience it was to know my friend Roscoe. :) If you'd like to see Rocoe's story in pictures and tales, please visit her album here My Friend Roscoe

7 pictures above in notes (1 enlarged version for each collage picture and three other pictures) This kind of find is so exciting to me! I've never seen anything like it before, and though I spent a long time searching online, I couldn't find any pictures of this type (species info below!). In any event, I was delighted to have found this interesting fungus. With globes, each stands only 2-3 mm in height, very small. A HUGE THANK YOU AND HUG to Chrissy for identifying this fungus for me!!!! It's called Cannonball Fungus, or "Sphaerobolus stellatus" and you aren't even going to believe this...like its name says, it HURLS a "cannonball" of spores (see inset image) away from itself to spread its spores!!! Check out this animated gif here to see! Cannonball Fungus in Action! ) Can you say TOTALLY COOL AND AMAZING?!!!!! WOW!!! Here's more information about this cool fungus, and once again, THANK YOU CHRISSY!!! :D Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for July 2005: Sphaerobolus stellatus, the Cannonball Fungus

When I was taking pictures of the tiny caterpillars the other day, I noticed incredibly small eggs that were attached to hair-like strands on twigs. Just for fun, I tried to get one in focus. Mind you, these eggs are about 1/32" or .5 mm in size. VERY SMALL. Gotta love this macro lens...I got several crystal-clear shots! But then I didn't know what I should do with the images, I didn't think it would be interesting enough by itself. However, the next day I came back to see the caterpillars and as I was taking pictures, I found more of these eggs. I am blessed with incredibly good eyesight at close range, so I could actually see them quite well. As I stared, I realized that one of them ... no... TWO of them were hatching at that moment!! No WAY!! I tried to get focus with my camera but these little guys were just too small and not bright enough. So I switched to manual focus and I GOT A PICTURE!!!! I could tell that it was fuzzy looking but it wasn't until I looked at the pictures on my computer that I saw how much this little guy looks like a LAND SHRIMP!!! :D How cute is that!! :D A big THANK YOU to Dean Morley and Art (Leapfrog) for pointing me in the right direction for identification. I uploaded this to BugGuide and within an hour or two was rewarded with the positive identification: Green Lacewings (Chrysopidae)! HOORAY!!! :)

I was looking for Monarch Butterfly eggs on Milkweed leaves and though I'm certain these aren't Monarchs (They don't have the wonderful textured shape of a Monarch egg) , they are really cool! In fact, I found hundreds on several stems nearby and snipped off a piece of the stem! It's now sitting in a container so I can find out what hatches!!! I'm going to make a guess that it's a beetle because there were a few in the area but I really have no idea!

This little egg doesn't quite fit in the carton like the others! By the way, if you would like to see more of Steve's work, take a peek at his photostream! Steve's Visions This image was taken by my husband, Steve Brien, on April 7, 2012.

Today I took the dogs on a walk around the property. It was almost dark and I was tired but the dogs wanted to go out, so I pulled on a sweater and off we went. Part of our path takes us past our seasonal pond, and as we went by, I noticed something white on the ground. "OH! Could it be a puffball?!!" I went over to take a closer look and to my surprise, there lay a tiny egg. With a sad heart, I gently picked it up and found it to be unblemished but cold, without a nest in sight. This dear little baby would never have a chance for life, but I thought to myself, "Maybe I could give this little lost life some meaning and share it with the world for Easter." I put it in my pocket and took it home for a picture session! When I was done, I showed it to my husband, who was also very saddened to see this egg, and wished we could have saved it somehow. I told him I took pictures, and he decided to go take some of his own! And so, for my 3 Easter day pictures, I am sharing this one from me, and two that Steve took for the following two. We hope you enjoy our special memorial for this little fallen egg. These images were taken on April 7, 2012.

2 more pictures above! :) Here is our little fallen egg in a group hug with four chicken eggs! (I found this tiny egg on our road one morning and brought it up to the house to take pictures of it. We love birds and this made us sad, but we took pictures to give it meaning and immortality! :) We think it was from a mourning dove, as there are many who live here, but we can't say for certain.) This image was taken by my husband, Steve Brien, on April 7, 2012.