my best swan friends chicago botanic garden
My best swan friends at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

my favorite swan chicago botanic garden
A noble bill.

double swan friends pair chicago botanic garden
Double swan pair!

 

Manduca sexta tobacco hornworm fifth instar 5g five grams 5 on a stick

Why? I don’t know, we found it on some nightshade (Atropa belladonna) at work (cause these fellows only eat Solanaceae plants, e.g. tobacco, tomatoes, tomacco). This lil guy is over 5 g now, so he’s a fifth instar and will pupate in a few days, and become a disgusting moth thing and spew meconium all over like this video (hopefully).

 

upstream skokie river corridor stream chicago botanic garden
An upstream shot of part of the Skokie River Corridor.

practicing seining net fish river stream
Practicing seining for fish.

spider in net
Bycatch from our aquatic macroinvertebrate sample. You don’t belong!

crawfish in mason jar

potamogeton

goldenrod solidago bee

purple loosestrife lythrum salicaria in river stream
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) growing along the stream, craning toward the open sunlight. You don’t belong either!

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