No blog yesterday because, to my great surprise and delight, it rained all day. Lovey, glorious rain! It's not enough to get us our of our drought, but it's a start. Today, though, was sunny, warmer, and, I thought, a perfect day to find bugs. The bugs didn't really agree. I had a really hard time finding any on my bug walk. I know I sound like a broken record (a reference about half the world population is probably now too young to understand). But I miss my bugs!
But first, something a little bit strange:
I was walking around outside again tonight, and the front porch light was on, and I saw something that looked a bit odd. I have a grapevine wreath hanging on the wall of the porch, and for year robins have been building nests on top of it, usually building right on top of the old nest. Right now there is part of a nest on the floor of the porch, that the robins knocked off earlier this year when they were considering building there again, but there's still quite a bit of the nest on the wreath. And I saw what looked a bit like a dried leaf underneath it. But it would be an odd place for a dried leaf to have just showed up, so I looked closer and saw that it was...
Backyard Bird of the Day:
Every once in a while, when we have gone out for the evening, we will come home and as we walk up the front porch steps a bird will come flying out of the wreath on the wall. On rare occasions I have spotted the bird before it flies. And when I say the bird, I don't mean that it's the same bird every time. This happens a couple of times a year, but it has been happening for years. Usually the bird will be squished in between the wreath and the wall, on the inside of the wreath, and very rarely do I know it's there before it flies. To get a photo is rarer... actually, I am not sure if I ever have been successful... maybe once. But tonight, the bird was tucked up under the nest, on the outside of the wreath, with its tail and part of its body showing...
I took the first picture above, and then went inside to get my camera. I carefully opened the front door... then the screen door, then cautiously walked out onto the porch... took a shot from farther away (picture just above)... crept closer... and the bird peeped out.
I managed to get a couple of pictures before it flew away.
So what was it doing in there? I don't know. I only see this happen at night, so maybe it just sleeps there. It could be sleeping there every night for all I know. I am not even sure if it's always the same species I am seeing. It is also possible that the wreath is harboring insects, and the birds are in there trying to eat them.
Another cool bird I actually got a photo of today:
By some miracle I saw this when I had my zoom lens on my camera instead of my macro lens. Following bird law, it landed in a spot where I would be unable to see the features that would help me identify it.
Hawk. Probably red tail or sharp-shinned, based on what I have seen in my backyard before. My guess would be red tail if I had to choose.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Other Bugs:
I haven't seen a lot of katydids lately, but I still hear them day and night.
Twice recently I have seen these wasps escape predators. Last week I saw one evade capture by a robber fly. Today I saw one in a scuffle with an assassin bug, from which the wasp emerged and flew away. It was not this particular one, though; I did not get a photo of that dramatic encounter.
I observed the caterpillar that made this structure over the course of a few weeks, as the case got bigger and bigger. Then finally, one day it stopped building, and after a few days I was sure it was pupating inside. That was over a month ago. I walk by it every day and give it a glance. After all this time I assumed it was going to overwinter as a pupa, but today I noticed a change. The chrysalis is poking out the bottom of the case.
Examining it I saw that it was split open, which I think means that they moth eclosed. It looks like it probably worked its way down through that tube (chrysalides, amazingly, are able to move), and then emerged from the chrysalis. I think if it had been attacked by a predator it would have a hole instead of a split.
Winged ant:
Beetle
Crane flies:
When I spotted this, well, I thought it was a cricket. Then I got close enough to actually see that it was a pair of crane flies... or is it? Based on the wings I can see, I think there are actually three crane flies. When I tried to get closer than this they flew off together as a unit. I think the larger, closer one is a female, and the other two are males. It is hard to see if there is a physical attachment there.
On an aster plant:
Potters wasp
Paper wasp
Fly
Arachnid Appreciation:
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