Bumper crop of Black Swallowtail eggs! I have been checking the rue, dill and fennel for the past couple of weeks and there was never a sign of butterfly activity.
Never saw a single egg - but yesterday when I was outside checking on the plants I found a dozen or so eggs!!! I looked over those plants daily - have no idea when a BST snuck in and left presents!!! What gets me - is that today they all hatched!!!
Now I swear I'd not seen an egg before yesterday - I know I looked over those plants thoroughly the past few days!!! How did I miss so many eggs???!!!
Same goes for the passion vines - I'd not seen a single Gulf Frit egg but when I looked yesterday there were several third instar caterpillars. Again I swear I looked for eggs - I wanted to find a butterfly egg with some texture to try out my macro reverse adapter ring - but never did see an egg! There are even some first instar and second instar caterpillars today that I did not see yesterday.
I must be losing it!!! I need new glasses!!!
Oh well, only got to try out the reverse macro adapter ring on the BST egg - they are smooth so really can't tell how good it works just yet. How does this BST egg look to ya'll? Mind you, I was outside on the back porch and it was about 8pm - the sun was set and it was a bit dim on my back porch.
By the way, a reverse macro adapter ring is just that - it's an adapter ring that allows you to mount your existing lense backwards on your camera. It allows you to take photos up to more than 3x life size depending on the focal length of the lens you use. Am still trying it out - it works well enough on flat surfaces like photographing the details on a dollar bill or coin - but I've noticed anything three dimensional tends to leave the edges or ends out of focus. Practice! Practice!
I also ordered an extension tube - that has yet to arrive. Am using a Canon XSI - and I reversed the 55mm lens. I really haven't used that camera in the year I've had it - just got so used to using the Sony H9 - but now with these new gadgets - I'm taking it out of the box again!!!
Oh, and I paid less than $5 for the reverse macro adapter ring about $7 for the extension tube - which again, I am still waiting to receive.
~ Cat
