Mantidflies and summer heat

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Well this brutal heat has been good for one thing: bringing the
mantidflies to the moth lights. A couple nights I managed to capture
6 of them, looks like 2 different species. Last night there were over
a dozen of them, I have 7 of them in the bug observation boxes, it's
possible there are 3 species. I shall get them cooled down this
morning and get them photographed.

I would like to share photographs but at the moment my photo
processing is on hold. The old laptop has a problem with the fan,
I'll need to get that in to the repair shop. In the meantime we can
only use it for a limited time, and processing takes time. I have a
new laptop, George and I needed our own machines, and I need to
download the photoshop elements program that I like. I find it
infuriating that I can no longer download from the cd that I bought a
few years back, Adobe forces you to buy a new version online. With
this recent nasty virus that I've been suffering through and the heat,
I haven't had the motivation to do much that requires a clearer
thought process. The ol' brain cells are as hot and tired as the rest
of me. I do have the Digital Photo Processing program for downloading
the photos, but it is a cumbersome effort to reformat the photos to 72
dpi for the internet, rotate and crop. I'm used to photoshop
elements, quick and easy. So I have several folders of photos sitting
here and backed up on thumb drives. No doubt I'll be working on them
in winter trying to get caught up.

I was finally able to clean up our little beach a few days ago, make
it nice for swimming. I raked out the leaves from the shallows, and
as I pile each scoop on the edge of the beach I picked through to see
if there were any critters crawling around in there. I caught 4 small
crayfish, a couple of catfish minnows, and several dragonfly larvae.
Interestingly, only a couple of snails, which I put over in the
cattails at the side of the beach. Usually there are a bunch of dead
snail shells in the cleanup. Photos were taken and the critters
released into the cattails where they could hide from the schools of
sunfish minnows prowling about. The lake is quite warm and I enjoyed
a couple of nice swims, finally being able to after that nasty cold.
We took Cricket, our puppy, in for her first swim on Sunday. She's
not nearly as enthusiastic about being in the water as my German
shepherds were over the years, but with some gentle coaxing she took a
few laps. Unlike human children dogs seem to instinctively know how
to work their feet and stay afloat. The coyotes have been quite vocal
this week at night, I'm wondering if they enjoy swimming in all the
lakes around here. I have seen deer go swimming right across the
lake, we even had one that a leisurely swim right down the side of the
lake late in November. I'm guessing that the ones that cross the lake
unexpectedly may be getting away from pesky coyotes, but I've never
seen a coyote follow a deer into the water. I know I'll probably be
in there this afternoon, I feel this will be a day where I will lie
low and try to keep from melting.

Rose-Marie

[Frederick W. Schueler]

* nothing cooler than Mantidflies!

On 7/14/2026 9:12 AM, rmb...@istar.ca wrote:

> I was finally able to clean up our little beach a few days ago, make it
> nice for swimming.  I raked out the leaves from the shallows, and as I
> pile each scoop on the edge of the beach I picked through to see if
> there were any critters crawling around in there.  I caught 4 small
> crayfish, a couple of catfish minnows, and several dragonfly larvae.
> Interestingly, only a couple of snails, which I put over in the cattails
> at the side of the beach.  Usually there are a bunch of dead snail
> shells in the cleanup.  Photos were taken and the critters released into
> the cattails where they could hide from the schools of sunfish minnows
> prowling about.

* If you send me the photos of the Crayfish, I can try to provide names.
When we visited in the spring, I was also struck by the small number of
snail shells on your beach.

hope you can continue to recover through the heat,

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[I Macaulay]

FWIW, If you only need to reduce or crop or simple tasks.

There is a free Software called  Irfanview.  I process photos daily and I've been using this for years.

The splattered cat may be a turnoff  :-)

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
    Don't Forget to Save the Stamps

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[rmb...@istar.ca]

Ian, can you use the Irfanview offline?

Rose-Marie




Quoting 'I Macaulay' via NatureList <natur...@googlegroups.com>:

> FWIW, If you only need to reduce or crop or simple tasks.There is a

> free Software called  Irfanview.  I process photos daily and I've

> been using this for years.The splattered cat may be a turnoff  :-)
>

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Okay, cancel the Irfanview. It was confusing as to what to download,
a whole list of stuff came up.

I ended up downloading the Adobe photoshop elements, so hopefully I'll
be back in business with the photo processing.

Rose-Marie

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[I Macaulay]

yes,   It resides on your computer

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
    Don't Forget to Save the Stamps

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[I Macaulay]

Ok  If you ever want to try again, let me know and I will download the program and send it to you.

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
    Don't Forget to Save the Stamps

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/naturelist/20260715185558.10755if1ur85xuym%40webmail.ca.inter.net.

[rmb...@istar.ca]

Thank you. In the meantime, I have some backlog to catch up on. Some
of this stuff may have to wait til winter, unless we have a few rainy
days coming up.

Rose-Marie



Quoting 'I Macaulay' via NatureList <natur...@googlegroups.com>:

> Ok  If you ever want to try again, let me know and I will download
> the program and send it to you.
>
>
>
>
> Senility has been a smooth transition for me.
> Note New Hours
>
> Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

> Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/naturelist/544280403.1807038.1784171951989%40mail.yahoo.com.
>