Ah, Nuts

This year I beat the squirrels to the hazelnuts and managed to secure the entire yield for myself.

And here it is, the entire hazelnut harvest from my trees (or I should say tree, because only one produced nuts):

 Yes indeed, a fine crop. 3 hazelnuts. I feel so proud that I managed to wrest them away from the squirrels. Ironically, I was so determined to get the hazelnuts before the squirrels did, and I ended up with the exact same number as I had last year after the squirrels got to them. The squirrels probably didn't think it was worth the effort to climb the tree for this, and it's not even that big a tree. Or maybe they just didn't notice them. Lucky me! Not that I was expecting more; it was obvious all summer that there were three nuts on the tree. I was happy there were any at all, because there was a frost while the flowers were in bloom in the spring, and I thought that would destroy the whole crop. So... yay.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Moth

When I went out to get the mail today I veered off course on my way back to the house just to see what this caterpillar was up to and got a big surprise–it had moved! And was, in fact, moving at that moment! I ran in the house, dropped the mail, and grabbed my camera...

 ... and this was it. It shifted over a bit on the leaf and curled up into the same position. And later when I went out to do my bug walk it was right back up in the corner where it has been for weeks. I do not understand the function of this caterpillar.

I checked up on the swallowtail egg, too, and it looks different from yesterday, like there's more color inside.

 I don't know what it is going to look like if and when it hatches, so it's hard to tell what I'm looking at here.

Other Bugs:

 Some days you just don't get a good shot at bugs. Tree cricket, female.

 Cabbage white butterfly.

 Looper caterpillar on purple cone flower

 Assassin bug on purple cone flower

 Katydid

 Looper

 Assassin bug with prey

 Some kind of Hemiptera

 Moth. I love the tiny, blue spot.

 Caterpillar peeking out of its leaf-roll tent

 I was not surprised to find this grasshopper again. I don't think it can go very far.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 The lazy caterpillar has a new, dangerous neighbor. Can you see it?

 I scared it around to the other side of the leaf.

This spider was surprisingly cool with me being so in-your-face.