January 28, 2010 Discover Life At Kates Cabin On Rainbow Creek, A Bird Sanctuary In Waller County, Texas, USA, Earth

WELCOME TO KATES CABIN ON RAINBOW CREEK! Please come in and join the (free) Nature Class I am doing for Kate and all the People of the World. I have opened the bird sanctuary as our personal observatory. We are trying to learn more about other living things that share the planet with Humans.


This is Kay Lonnie. She leads us up to the rooftop deck and gives the signal for class to begin.
Are you ready, Kay?



BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOO!
Good Girl.


Thanks Kay Lonnie, now go take your place.
For those of you just joining us, I offer a daily photostudy of the Nature of Rainbow Creek. By using the photos to tell the story, I give different examples to give you new ideas in photo documenting the world around where you are. I am not a professional photographer (yet).
I am a really good Grandmother and Birdfeeder! I have worked very hard to learn these digital tools well enough to bring you all the life on Rainbow Creek. I never dreamed that I would find the entry ramp to the world wide web much less be surfing the globe on the net! Yet, here I am and my name is brendasue watson live from the woods in Texas!


In the photostudy today we will be watching this hoverfly. (I do not know exactly which one he is). I have taken these photos from files a year ago. My new camera was only a month old and I was still learning to use it. I will point out that these are not really good photos. The auto focus could not pick out what to focus on as everything was so small (I think). Anyway, now that I have a wonderful new Photography Instructor, Doug Box, I will know how to shoot these flys next time. So I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. (The flys did not land in a studio for their debut, they chose a purple flower and bad sunlight). If you are wondering why I am even bothering to post these pics, I will clarify. Sometimes in nature photos, the content of the photos takes on more value than the quality of the photos. Usually this would be when a behavior is displayed by the subject. What I am presenting today is documentation of a mating dance of these hoverflys with a strange twist. I will relate the story as we go forward.



These 2 hoverflys are joined at the tail and engaged in a mating dance (probably rarely seen).



In the course of these photos you will see they move all over the flower.



I tried to get many different views for observation and identification.



These Hoverflys are very small. In fact I probably would not have seen them if I had not literally stumbled onto them.


When I walked in the gate to Kates Cabin, I tripped in a new dog hole and went crashing to the ground! No harm came to the new camera (thank goodness), but I could not get up as my knee was really hurting. So, from ground level I looked into the flowerbed and saw these amazing flys.


As I was down on the ground anyway, and had the camera, I decided I might as well star shooting this dance.


I couldn't really tell in the little screen that it would not focus right.



Or more likely, that I did not know how to use the camera then!



From what I was seeing on the flower I was sure I was getting the National Geographic photos!



And they are great behavior shots!



Just below par quality photos (in my eyes).



So as we continue to follow this couple around the flower, I can tell you a strange event is coming up shortly.



I do not know for sure but I am guessing that the female is on the bottom and the male is on the top.


They are steadily crawling around this same flower, but pausing every now and then.



Most of the time he has one of his front legs on the cord between her neck and stomach.



You can see his leg in the above photo.



They stop here on top of the flower for awhile.



They have been engaged this whole time.



All of the sudden a third fly appears on top of the other male.


Above the first male disengages his tail portion while remaining in the same position of holding her neck cord. The new top male engages the female but his legs are on the other male.



Here you can see the original male is disengaged.



Then the new top one disengages and flys off. The original male is still holding on in the same way but has not re engaged.



Now they have resumed and she is crawling around again!



This dance lasted about 20 minutes.



If someone else has witnessed this behavior, please let me know.



And I most likely would not have seen all this if I had not crashed to the ground!



It wore me out just trying to film this couple.



They did not seem to notice me or the camera.



They just seemed to be having a nice dance on a flower.



And I just seemed to be having sore knees!


King Buzz

Thanks for stopping by. Until we meet again, I am brendasue of Rainbow Creek signing off........

Goodnite King and Goodnite Kate. Goodnight Everyone, Everywhere!


drop me a line sometime. katescabin@gmail.com or Snailmail at Brendasue Watson, P O Box 743, Hempstead, Texas 77445 over and out!