Wild Delaware

Sunrise quickly disappeared behind the clouds this morning and a mist fell over the Great Marsh near Lewes making a damp start to the day for the dragonflies.

Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly

Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly

Meet the Argiope aurantia commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider. These large spiders – the female can grow to three inches in diameter – are fairly common along the edge of wetlands and open fields in Delaware. Their large webs can be more than two feet across.

Delaware has some of the northernmost Bald Cypress trees in the nation and the best place to see these stately trees is Trussum Pond near Laurel. Bald Cypress trees can live for hundreds of years and the wood is valued for its water and rot resistance. There are many old Delaware homes as early as the colonial period covered with cypress shingles.

The most difficult part of wildlife photography is not the photography but knowing where wildlife will be and then getting close. And it always helps when you get a great tip.  Today a friend invited me today to watch the action at his hummingbird feeder. Sure enough, within just a few minutes a tiny male Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrived for a taste of nectar. At less than four inches long and with wings that beat 53 times per second, this little bird can both hover and fly backwards. The Ruby-throated is the only species of hummingbird that breeds in Delaware.

I have been working on my new book Wild Delaware for almost a year now and I have photographed an incredible menagerie of wildlife, insects and plants. But the relatively common Monarch Butterfly had eluded me until this morning. The “Monarch” gets its regal name because “it is one of the largest butterflies and rules a vast domain,” according to Samuel H. Scudder who first published the name in 1874.

Bumble Bees are our only native social bees (the common Honey Bee was first introduced to North America by Jamestown colonists in 1622) and the Bumble Bees were busy sipping nectar and collecting pollen from giant Marsh Mallow blossoms this morning.  

It is a busy time in the insect world and this morning I found a mob of Red Milkweed Beetles gathered on the tip of a Butterfly Milkweed plant.