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Image of the month – December 2024

Here is a White-throated Sparrow from back in the fall. White-throated Sparrows can be either tan morph or white morph, and this is a tan-morph individual. Color morph does not indicate the bird’s sex, but individuals almost always mate with a bird of the other color morph. So, a male tan morph will made with a female white morph, and a female tan morph will mate with a male white morph.

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Images of the month – November 2024

Even though it’s November, here are some images from the summer. In the first one, an amber snail sits on flowering grass. The silky looking filaments topped with pink or yellow are stamens.

Here, two meadow plant bugs (genus Leptopterna), wave their antennae at each other while perched on another flowering blade of grass. Meadow plant bugs feed on developing grass seed.

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Image of the month – October 2024

I always enjoy thinking about how a photograph can show not just a cool animal, but how it can also convey part of a story. Eastern Bluebirds stay in Maine year round. If you have a bluebird house and leave it up in the winter, you may see a stream of bluebirds leaving the house on chilly mornings after they’ve all packed inside to stay warm at night. Here’s a bluebird in my oak tree after an ice storm – puffed up and sitting in the sun for warmth.

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Image of the month – July 2024

Jagged ambush bugs, like this one, sit motionless until a fly, bee, butterfly, moth, or other bug gets close enough for the ambush bug to grab with its muscular front legs. In North America, multiple species of jagged ambush bug can be found from northern Mexico to southern Canada. This individual is lying in wait on some fleabane, a plant the same family as asters and daisies.