Monarch Egg Hatching – Video

Today’s post has been a few days in the making. Back in September when the Monarch migration was underway, I photographed a lot of Monarch caterpillars and butterflies in their busy, nonstop activities. I collected several Monarch eggs from the church butterfly garden and set up a “nursery/studio” in my dining room.

One of my main projects this fall was to video the hatching of a Monarch egg. This was done for several eggs and I have been busy the last couple of weeks editing and chopping up the video into smaller clips. From there, I spliced pieces together relevant sections to get a much shorter (less than 3 minutes long) video of one of the little guys hatching. Here is a link to the resulting video, which is posted on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/80hFfyMFKYY

Please watch the entire video … the beginning of the video is a bit slow, but watch for movement inside the egg. And after the caterpillar emerges, watch it eat it’s first meal … the protein eggshell. At the end of the video, I’ve included a photo of a newly-hatched caterpillar with a reference, so you can see how small the caterpillar is! Also, please note that all young caterpillars were released back into the butterfly garden, so that they could continue their life’s journey.

Here is an extreme closeup photograph of a Monarch caterpillar emerging from it’s egg:

Extreme closeup of a Monarch caterpillar emerging from an egg

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
  • Canon 180mm, f/3.5 macro lens, with extension tubes
  • Bogen 3021 tripod, with ballhead
Posted in: Butterfly Photography, Macro Photography, Video | Tags: ,
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Spring Fever … Already?

Today’s post features one of my favorite warblers, the Magnolia Warbler.

Captured at Magee Marsh in northern Ohio, this beautiful male was flitting about the trees as it fed and rested, before crossing Lake Erie for his summer home in Canada:

Magnolia Warbler

Magee Marsh is a wonderful place to see and photograph migrating warblers in the spring.

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 7D Mark 2 camera body
  • Canon 100mm-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens, shot at 400mm
  • Handheld, with IS “On”
  • ISO 500
  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter 1/800 sec.
Posted in: Bird Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , ,
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Late Season Brown-eyed Susans

Today’s post features a few, end-of-season Brown-eyed Susan wildflowers. While recently hiking some woodland trails at Fiery Fork Conservation Area (in the Missouri Ozarks), a few Brown-eyed Susan wildflowers were hanging on for dear life. As readily seen in this image, the tips of the flower petals were losing their color as they began to fade:

Brown-eyed Susan wildflower

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
  • Canon 28mm-135mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens, shot at 35mm
  • Handheld, with IS “On”
  • ISO 250
  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter 1/160 sec.
Posted in: Nature Photography, Wildflowers | Tags: ,
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Tall Bellflowers

Today’s post features a woodland wildflower that I found recently at Fiery Fork Conservation Area (in the Missouri Ozarks) … the Tall Bellflower. I don’t ever recall seeing these wildflowers this late in the season, but they give a nice touch to the fall colors:

Tall Bellflower wildflower

Tall Bellflower wildflower

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
  • Canon 28mm-135mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens
  • Handheld, with IS “On”
  • ISO 250
  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter 1/60 sec. and 1/1000 sec.
Posted in: Nature Photography, Wildflowers | Tags: , ,
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A Little Bright Spot in the Fall Landscape

Today’s post features a wildflower I found blooming last week while hiking and photographing fall colors in the woodlands at Fiery Fork Conservation Area (in the Missouri Ozarks) … the White Heath Aster:

White Heath Aster in fall colors

A few more fall color images will be featured in a subsequent post.

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
  • Canon 28mm-135mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens
  • Handheld, with IS “On”
  • ISO 250
  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter 1/500 sec.
Posted in: Nature Photography, Wildflowers | Tags: , , ,
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Christmas in October

Today’s post features some very colorful, Christmassy-like berries. Although I haven’t been able to identify them, they are most likely the fruit of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, or the Green Dragon wildflowers (both are located in rich, moist woodlands throughout Missouri):

Red Berries (Jack-in-the-Pulpit?)

Coming up … more Missouri Ozark woodland fall colors.

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 camera body
  • Canon 28mm-135mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens
  • Handheld, with IS “On”
  • ISO 250
  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter 1/250 sec.
Posted in: Landscape Photography, Nature Photography, Wildflowers | Tags: , ,
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