Northern Walking Stick

Through this past summer, as I have taken the occasional photo a butterfly, dragonfly, damselfly or something else, I have had to use various available resources on the Internet in order to identify what I was seeing. This often included me relentlessly perusing page after page of other people's bug photos in the hope of seeing something that was close to what I had photographed. This would sometimes get old, as my eyes teared up from the strain of oodles of bug photos. Or I would see some really neat looking bug that would distract me from my search.

One such neat looking bug that distracted me at least once was the Northern Walking Stick. I would see its photo, read about it, realize that they occur where I live, and then wonder why I never saw them. Maybe I just thought they were sticks on the ground and were ignorantly trampling them?

Then, this past September, when I returned home from my trip to Hog Island WMA, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a stick clinging to the side of my house. Not just any stick, but a Northern Walking Stick. Here are some photos of me and my new friend. It was an interesting challenge attempting to take pictures with a DSLR in one hand and this bug in my other hand, all while the bug tried to crawl up my arm! Guess which end is its head!