Three Vermont wildlife photography images by Ronen Tivony, all taken in Stowe, Vermont, were featured in The Guardian’s Week in Wildlife gallery on August 7, 2026, alongside photos from around the world including a tiger release and an Exmoor eagle. It marks the second time in two weeks that Ronen’s Vermont wildlife photography has appeared in the Guardian’s wildlife coverage.
A Goldenrod Crab Spider’s Ambush
The first image captures a goldenrod crab spider catching an eastern calligrapher fly. Goldenrod crab spiders don’t spin webs. Instead, they wait motionless on flowers, camouflaged to match the petals, and grab pollinators that come within reach of their long front legs. They can also walk sideways as well as forward and backward, which is where the “crab” in their name comes from. The eastern calligrapher is a small hoverfly common across the eastern United States, easy to mistake for a bee or wasp at a glance, though it has no sting.
An American Toad by the Pond
The second photograph shows an American toad near a pond in Stowe, another small, often-overlooked subject that Ronen returns to for his Vermont wildlife photography each summer. American toads are common across the eastern half of the United States and Canada, found anywhere they can find both cover and water for breeding. Their warty skin produces a mild toxin that deters most predators, though it poses no danger to people. Mostly nocturnal, they spend daylight hours hidden under logs, leaf litter, or stones.
Japanese Beetles, an Introduced Species
The third image shows a pair of Japanese beetles mating on a flower. Native to Japan, the species was accidentally introduced to the United States in 1916 through a New Jersey nursery, and it has since spread across most states east of the Mississippi River. Adults feed on the foliage, flowers, and fruit of hundreds of plant species, which has made them one of the more destructive invasive insects in North America. Scenes like these are typical of the close-up Vermont wildlife photography Ronen shoots each summer in Stowe.
