"None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze."
― Frédéric Gros
Despite striking out on Sandy Stream Tiger Beetle this season across three prior visits along the Wisconsin River, I headed back to the sandbars and shoreline yet again on Saturday. I suppose I'm just a glutton for punishment, but it was a gorgeous day to be out hiking, exploring Nature, and looking for critters to photograph.
And once again, Sandy Streams found: Zero-point-zero.
There were several Bronzed Tiger Beetles at the Sauk sandbars ...
With Sandy Stream off the docket, the next one I'll look for is Virginia Metallic Tiger Beetle (Tetracha virginica), which is a nocturnal species that can be found at Spring Green Preserve. One doesn't find them midday, but early mornings as they search for logs, leaves, or other things to hide under. Nocturnal beetles crawling under logs during the day are engaging in diurnal harborage—seeking a protected microhabitat to rest and survive until nightfall. Other species I'm not likely to encounter this year are Cow Path and Long-lipped, but there are still opportunities to get Twelve-spotted. Thus, of Wisconsin's 16, the best I'll probably do is 13 tiger beetle species for the year.
Arena's sandbars were already crawling with Muggles, so my search there was limited to a single quick lap. Hairy-necked Tiger Beetles continue to increase in number for their summer emergence, but photographing them means getting down in the wet sand—a dirty effort I wasn't up for. Instead, I headed over to Spring Green Preserve. I hadn't been there since late June, making it the perfect spot to log more steps and see what insects were active.
Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) was ubiquitous throughout the prairie.
Liatris were budding ...
I don't know how I spotted this ...
It's a female Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia), blending in perfectly with her prey-post. Unlike chameleons or octopuses, which shift colors instantly using chromatophores, the Goldenrod Crab Spider relies on a slower metabolic process. Moving to a yellow flower triggers her hypodermal cells to synthesize a liquid, ommochrome-based yellow pigment that covers the reflective white layer beneath her cuticle—a transformation taking 10 to 25 days. Reverting to white on paler blossoms happens much faster, taking just 5 to 6 days as she reabsorbs and excretes the yellow pigment as waste.
The only tiger beetle species present were Punctured ...
There was an abundance of robber flies, though ...
This one is a member of the genus Proctacanthella and may be P. cacopiliga, but I'm not 100%.
This larger gruesome robber is the Common Marauder (Proctacanthus milbertii).
With rain in Sunday's forecast—still much needed around here—Saturday was my window to get out. My time in the field didn't yield much in the way of photos, but a day spent outdoors is always time well spent. The real value wasn't in the shots I took, but in the simple reset that comes with hours on the trail, recharging both body and mind.
All images © 2026 Mike McDowell