Birds and bugs and crawling things;)
It’s a quieter time of year until the parent birds start to bring the youngsters to the feeders…everyone is busy nesting, feeding or eating bugs! I rarely see the female Oriole or Ruby-throated Hummingbird, just the boys. Quiet that is, until the grackles and their horde of young show up…ha! Or the horny Mourning Doves are busy chasing the ladies around!
The male Scarlett Tanager has been about a fair bit as well. The Red Bellied Woodpeckers are regulars. I saw the female with a beakful of grubs, taking them to the young ones, then coming back for a feed herself! I see the Downys and Hairys as well but as I said, everyone is busy nesting and feeding.
On the lakeside the Eastern Kingbird and Phoebe have been busy searching for bugs!
Walking down the road the Song Sparrows can be heard singing away, aptly named they are! I even encountered a juvenile! Those big eyes! Like an animé character! We have a juvenile Robin hanging around as well! They grow so quickly!
As I sat watching the hummingbird feeder, trying to get a good shot, A Northern Flicker jumped up on the rocks in front of me and proceeded to dig about for grubs! We don’t see them that often, so it was a treat. It jumped everywhere! Like it had springs on its feet! The Yellow Bellied Sapsucker is still around as well, pecking out Morse code on a dead maple branch:)
Always something to photograph:) I do enjoy trying to get that male Ruby-throated Hummingbird with his bright iridescent feather gorget! Patience and lighting are key for that. Lot’s of missed shots, but also lots of amusing ones:)
The lady has been shy, busy sitting I can imagine. I saw her for a brief moment this morning! Yeah!
Our yard birds and beyond:) How bout a few bugs! Ha! It was hot, I sat for a while and just watched one plant, blooming. The deer have eaten most of the lower leaves but left the buds intact, thankfully! The variety of visitors was quite surprising!
We have quite a few of these moths, Hobomarks and Skippers but the wasp was new to me!
All you have to do is sit and wait:) As I waited for the hummingbird a Common Eastern Bumblebee was trying to stuff himself into a small for him/her petunia;)
OK, spiders now, arachnophobes look away! How cute is this guy?! A dimorphic jumping spider:) Like all jumping spiders, M. inclemens has excellent vision. The main eyes, in the front-and-center position, are large, and are more acute than those of a cat and about 10 times as acute as a dragonfly’s. Would make a good astronomer;)
OK, bigger spider. I was washing the screens and windows and he wanted to know what the heck was going on;) Dark Fishing Spider, about 5″ across:)
Ok how about a few more flying bugs! Green and many other colours as well! See what happens when you sit and watch, or just look at plants! There is so much amazing life there!
I saw these markings on a maple leaf, and I was quite intrigued as to what they were.
These galls, which look a bit like eyeballs caught my eye. Turns out they are made by a tiny Ocellate gall midge. Gall midges are tiny, fragile flies (family Cecidomyiidae) whose larvae feed inside plant tissues. This species induces blister-like galls on the leaves of maples. Who knew?!
As for the crawling things, well, just a beautiful Painted Turtle heading across the road to nest, or just to get to the other side. I missed our big snapping turtle, but found where she had dug up a huge spot in a new garden, nice soft soil, she visited last night! That makes me happy. First year I’ve missed her in 6! Maybe she’ll be back!
…and snakes;) Ha! A beautiful Gray Rat Snake was meandering around the house yesterday morning, didn’t give a hoot about the cats, just looking for lunch! I shooed him out of the alcove as there was nothing to eat there! He went along his way, following the foundation! Good Hunting Sir!
…and just when I thought we were not going to see any digging Snapping Turtles, look who was in the garden! Digging up a storm, laying eggs, and leaving, all in 30 minutes or less! What a great dirt hat! I could hardly see her eyes!
This is not our old girl, she is a fair bit larger! So glad I could provide a nice soft dirt garden for her:) Now to cover the eggs so the raccoons don’t dig them up and eat them! I am wondering if there are two egg deposits here, as I had to rake this area flat yesterday morning as well! The more the merrier!
I’ll leave you here, my mushroom walk was a bust, just one in our yard and I came home with several new tick friends. We have a severe thunderstorm warning for later today and tomorrow so more rain might equal more mushrooms! Stay tuned, plus three new dragonflies on the road as well! Woohoo! I’ll leave with this gorgeous Widow Skimmer! Saludos amigos, be kind, except to ticks, then be murderous;)
