I found Red-fruited Pixie Cup lichens (Cladonia pleurota) two days ago and posted this photo on iNaturalist.
iNaturalist postet it as observation of the day on three pages.
Here is the result in likes and % of their followers of these pages:
Instagram 961, 0.88% of the followers liked it,
Facebook 249, 0.32% of the followers liked it,
niX 193, 0.29%.
I don't use any of these three platforms.
Now, with only 20 likes my Mastodon followers could win. 😉
Today's #ThrowbackThursday#TBT is a little portrait I took a few years back with an old lens and an old technique. For nerds: This was done with my DSLR and a 1970's vintage lens mounted backwards with an adapter. It works, but it's terribly inconvenient. The aperture has to be wide open, your mag ratio is fixed, and you have to focus by minutely adjusting distance to subject. I think it took me 40,000 tries to get this, and I still consider it a lucky shot. #MacroPhotography#Nature#Bees
An interesting little mantid-fly I spotted on a walk.
A mantid fly isn't a mantis, but it is an example of convergent evolution. They are lacewings that developed raptor claws like a mantis and some have even adopted the bodyshape and coloration of a wasp (wasp-mimic). Wild little insect.
I have fun taking macro photos of #bumblebees especially on purple coneflowers which they seem to enjoy & frequently visit. They're so large & cooperative that it's not too hard to make them "appear" the size of a school bus. My ID app suggests that this is a brown-belted bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis) which is a North American native.
(07/11/23)
I was photographing this flower at first from a lower vantage point and a different side when I noticed a long slim hair-like item moving. When I changed my vantage point, I saw that it was the antennae of this tiny little insect looking back at me!