3:00 snapshot #765

Coming back through Dedham Center after visiting my Dad.

So this is the first of the rescued images from the Pentax camera now that I have the cable to upload the pictures. For some reason some of the pictures won't upload, probably some kind of problem with the card. I'm sad about that because there is one great picture of the puppy we're fostering that won't upload.

There are several pictures I took for the 100 species project on there, two that I think are recent enough and at least two that are pretty old (a butterfly on a daffodil of all things) and I haven't decided whether to present them out of order. They ARE species that you can find now, but the pics are dead giveaways.

I'll put it up to vote: can I use photos from April and May in my 100 species project?

100 Species #61: Cabbage white

With 100% of the votes, the answer is YES I can use my old photos in my project.
Here is a cabbage white butterfly Pieris rapae on a daffodil, back on April 12th.

Cabbage white butterflies were imported accidentally from Europe, probably on their host plants, the many crops in the mustard family. They have become among the most successful lepidopteran insects in North America, emerging early in the spring and producing multiple generations per year. Their fat green caterpillar lives well on garden plants like broccoli and kale, and can also survive on a multitude of wild mustards, many of which are common weeds of field and roadside.

Cabbage white was the 365 species #196, in July of that year.

3:00 snapshot #766

This is where I spend a good amount of my mornings at work (it's where I clean the footbaths--it's not really a toilet, but it works like one).

Alexis has been working a lot, even through the weekends, and this weekend has two overnights. It's sad for me, and also makes it hard to get stuff done. I'm in the kitchen monitoring a sleeping puppy, who will immediately wake up and be even more demanding if I try to get up and work on any of my projects. But it's a beautiful day and there's still some time. I should enjoy this opportunity to post my pictures and catch up on my podcasts.

100 Species #62: American dog tick.

This adult male American dog tick Dermacentor variablis came into the yard on one of our dogs. We have picked several off of both dogs this year.

American dog ticks overwinter in the soil and emerge in Massachusetts in April, looking for a mammal to feed on. Dog owners often express relief when they find a dog tick--at least it wasn't a deer tick! Dog ticks don't carry the organism that cause Lyme disease, though they do carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia. They are also much larger than deer ticks and therefore easier to find. Dog tick (also called wood ticks) can live on almost any medium-sized to large mammal, and must feed on three different hosts as they grow to adulthood.

This is our preferred tool to remove attached ticks: http://www.tickinfo.com/protickremedy.htm

The American dog tick appeared in this blog before as #365 Urban Species #146.