View allAll Photos Tagged NATIVE
Some of the many native flowers out at the moment around Howard Springs. These are Gomphrena canescens.
I wanted to get a stack of this bee, but it was way too active, so I posted one of the few single shots it allowed. When I saw this bee from behind from a few feet away, I dismissed it as a European honey bee and ignored it. Then, something told me I should go back and take a second look. I'm glad I did, because this is one of the more interesting native bees I have seen! It doesn't look like a honey bee from close up like this, but to the naked eye, you'd be surprised at the similarity.
My neighbor nursing these babies that fell out of the nest till they can be released into the wild. So cute!
Riding my bike around the city on Memorial Day, I got to meet Flora. Her husband bought this Chevy Fleetmaster for her 21st birthday in 1948. Now 92, she gave it to her son, who still takes it out every few week to do errands and shopping for her. Only 86,000 original miles and still in the family. A real treasure!
Stockton, CA
The native bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, is an early flowering plant that naturally occurs in the UK. It is also known as common bluebells, English bluebells, British bluebells, wood bells, fairy flowers and wild hyacinth. Bluebells are native to western Europe with the UK being a species stronghold. ..Photo Curtesy of Anne Howard Webb ..
Exoneura sp. Native Reed Bee on a Native Gerbera Trichocline spathulata in the Jarrah Forrest
It is amazing to see the little bee walk on and among the anthers in the flowers and was joined by a bigger Reed Bee.
Green Orchid Bee (Euglossa dilemma) in flight photographed at the Naples Botanical Gardens in Naples, FL. It is not native to Florida, but introduced from Mexico. Orchids are big business in Southern Florida with growers in cities such as Miami, Homestead, Naples, Marco Island, and Ft. Myers to name a few.
The orchid bees are all members of the family Apidae, and the tribe Euglossini, represented by five genera. Most are about the size of a honey bee, but are brightly colored with an iridescent metallic sheen. Typically, each species of orchid bee has a complex mutualistic relationship with a corresponding orchid in their native range. Orchids will produce scents that attract males of a particular species of bee that is the right size and shape to pollinate them. This relationship is not always chemical; some species of orchid go so far as to produce flowers that physically mimic a female bee as an attractant. Orchids will then affix a pollinarium to the bee which is carried to another orchid of the same species. All orchid bees are native to the New World tropics, from Mexico throughout Central and tropical South America. Specimens of one species of this group, Euglossa dilemma, commonly known as the green orchid bee, were collected in Broward County, Florida in 2003 by entomologists working with the USDA fruit fly monitoring program. This arrival was likely from a nest imported from Mexico concealed within a wooden structure such as a pallet. Originally considered to be Euglossa viridissima; Eltz et al. (2011) found the orchid bees in Florida to be Euglossa dilemma, a newly described cryptic sibling species of Euglossa viridissima.
So it is very easy to get stuck in a pattern of taking images that are of the same nature, so I have decided to try and hit up something different with this close-up flower image...
I took this photo last year, but never really liked it... Played around with a few different crops, etc, and actually liked this end result...
A good old Aussie Banksia in bloom...
This photo of this native honeycreeper was taken on Hosmer's Grove trail in Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii.
If you plant it, they will come. 🌵 How to spark a wrenaissance by restoring habitat for the coastal cactus wren: sdzoo.com/wrenaissance
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) is a medium-sized hummingbird native to the west coast of North America. This bird was named after Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli.
Anna's Hummingbird is 3.9 to 4.3 inches (10 to 11 centimeters)long. It has a bronze-green back, a pale grey chest and belly, and green flanks. Its bill is long, straight and slender. The adult male has an iridescent crimson-red crown and throat, and a dark, slightly forked tail. Anna's is the only North American hummingbird species with a red crown. Females and juveniles have a green crown, a grey throat with some red markings, a grey chest and belly, and a dark, rounded tail with white tips on the outer feathers.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue. They also consume small insects caught in flight. A PBS documentary that first aired January 10, 2010, shows how Anna's Hummingbirds eat flying insects (at 16:45). They aim for the flying insect, then open their beaks very wide. That technique has a greater success rate than trying to aim the end of a long beak at the insect.
While collecting nectar, they also assist in plant pollination. This species sometimes consumes tree sap.
Anna's hummingbird. California.
This beautiful marque graces the Wapa theater in scenic Wapakoneta, Ohio. This tranquil small town in Central Western Ohio was the birthplace of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
And if you'll now look through the aquarium glass to your left, you'll see some water life native to the Austin area....Bellyous Fisherous. This playful swimmer eats just about anything, but thrives on fish...though there has not yet been a documented sighting of an actual catch.
Belly would apply for a position at the Aquarium...but strangely, Austin doesn't have one.
I love my garden, my little plot,
Where every seed I sowed and sought
Grows tall and proud, though it’s not much
But in its soil, I find my touch.”
“A Garden” by Edith Nesbit
Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis)
Florida has over 36 species of invasive, non-native anoles but only a single native species; the Green Anole. I don't see them often, so when I was working in my yard yesterday and noticed this guy of course I had to run inside for the camera. I mean, who wouldn't right? I know what all my Flickr friends are wondering. You're wondering, "Where are the wings??"