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A week ago my wife and I checked our summer house to prepare it for the season; and -- look who was sitting at its porch; we were truly excited to encounter such a handsome (and big! 7-8cm in size) moth:

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Google helped to identify it. The name is 'Red Peacock Eye' (Aglia tau), its a nocturnal moth from the Aglia family. The distinctive spots on its wings shaped in the form of the Greek letter "tau" make it quite memorable. The description provided this interesting fact: adults do not feed themselves (they have a vestigial proboscis), but live off the reserves accumulated during the caterpillar stage.

Гугль помог мне определить ее имя: Павлиноглазка рыжая (Aglia tau) — ночной мотылек из семейства павлиноглазок. Пятна на крыльях в форме греческой буквы "тау" делают его запоминающимся. Интересный факт: взрослые особи не питаются самостоятельно (у них рудиментарный хоботок), а живут за счет запасов, накопленных на стадии гусеницы.

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Among the branches of a rose hip, I spotted two ladybug making love. (Make love! Not war!) They considered they'd found a secluded, shaded spot, hehe — but no, I found them anyway. In fact, nature has already come alive: I saw two butterflies, one dragonflies, several frogs, snails — but their numbers and, accordingly, their frequency of occurrence are still low.

B кустах шиповника я заметил двух божьих коровок делающих любовь. (Делайте любовь! не войну!) Они думали что нашли укромное, затененное место, хехе - но я все равно их нашел. На самом деле, природа уже ожила: я видел бабочек, стрекоз, лягушек, улиток - но количество и соответственно "встречаемость" пока невелико.

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A few more macros from the same day. May is for the May lillies...

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...and dandellions are available till November (believe me or not, but once I saw a blooming dandellion even in December, topping over a wet snow!)

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Two our apple trees were in full bloom too.

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The horsetails have already finished their blooming phase.

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Parts of the soil did not turn into green (yet). I was looking for fungi growing on spruce cones (a tempting subject for macro photography), but found a slightly bigger editions; I almost crushed the first one with my foot and only accidentally noticed the second one. They blend perfectly with the color of the fallen spruce needles.

Я искал микроскопические грибы на еловых шишках (манящий сюжет для макро-фотографии), но нашел два других гриба; почти раздавил ногой первый из них - и только случайно заметил второй. Они идеально сливаются с цветом опавшей хвои.

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By the way, notice the small white spot – that's a bite! The fungus already has been eaten... My guess it was a snail or a slug (I've already spotted all of them in the area). Apparently, after a test bite, it wasnt considered tasty (thats true: this specie is not poisonous, but not edible either).

Кстати! обратите внимание на небольшое белое пятно - это след от след от укуса 😉 гриб уже начали поедать... могу предположить что это улитки или слизняки (я уже видел и тех и других). Видимо, после "пробного укуса" гриб был сочтен не вкусным (это правда - он не ядовитый, но и не съедобный).

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The second one may look very different, but it's undoubtedly the same species. That's the thing that excites me most about fungi: how two editions of a same species can grow into completely different shapes.

Второй гриб выглядит совершенно иначе, но это без сомнения тот же самый вид! Именно это мне так нравится в грибах: два экземпляра того же вида могут вырастить совершенно разные формы.

And the last one, to round up the blog. I shoot the nature's doing the job on decomposing of iron rubbish. The pictures of decay are appealing and irresistible!

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location:
Vyritza, Russia
May 2025
natural light

camera/lens:
Canon 5dm3
Sigma 150mm
raw-conv

f/2.8
t 1/125
ISO 125
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[IMAGE: https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/qwerrie/0Y2ZeDUN-sep1201.png]

All images taken by me, copyright (c) @qwerrie

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