Knock It Off!

I've got a massive spider living in my window, and what has scared the bejeebers out of me today? A fawn, a baby rabbit, and a bird. I wish the animals in the backyard would just cut it out with the frantically bursting out of hiding and running/flying away when I get near, and startling me. Seriously, I am human. My eyesight is middling (as animals go), my hearing is middling (as animals go), my sense of smell is pathetic, even for a human, forget the rest of the animal kingdom. If you just sit there in hiding chances are I am not ever going to see you. You don't have to explode out of the bushes to run away! Sheesh! And even if you feel you must move, I am human, I am slow, my reflexes are lame and I couldn't catch you if I ran my fastest, so really, just relax!

The fawn was the worst. Practically gave me a heart attack. Granted, it was probably pretty scared, too, but I still think the whole thing was just an overreaction on its part. I never would have known it was there if it hadn't made such a ruckus. And I didn't even get a picture, not even a blurry one as it ran away and disappeared, because it all happened too fast for me to react.

But this is where it was hiding.

 Maybe if I had looked in that direction I would have seen it? We'll never know... But in case you don't know this about deer, when fawns are young the mother deer will leave it sitting quietly somewhere (like in this bush, or in tall grass) while she goes off somewhere to eat. This is supposedly to protect the fawn from predators, who might be more likely to notice it if it was near the mother? Or so I have heard (who knows what animals are thinking). Anyway, the fawn will be alone, hiding, but if you get close... it's off like a shot. Presumably in the direction of Mom. I hope it knows where she is. I have come across them in my yard several times before, and there is a spot now in the tall grass that is matted down, where I think a fawn has been hiding lately. I did not expect it to be in this spot.

The bird was the most unexpected. We came home after dark, and I went out on the porch with my camera to investigate the various bugs on the porch (nothing noteworthy, as it turns out), and apparently there had been a bird nestled in the grapevine wreath. I didn't see it, per say, just heard the wings and saw a blur. I assume it was a bird. I suppose it could have been a very small dragon.

The bunny was mild, by comparison. I even got a picture.

Ha ha! Just kidding. I got a better picture.

 No? How about this then?

The bunnies have grown in the last couple of days...

My backyard seems, at first, to be a calm, serene place, but you never know what's lurking in the bushes waiting to leap out and yell, "BOO!"

Okay, that last bit might be a bit overstating things.

Actually, in some ways my backyard is extremely predictable. Before I even went outside today I knew what bug I wanted to feature as Backyard Bug of the Day, and I walked right out and found it where I expected to find it. Not on a specific plant or leaf, but in a general area of the yard. I had seen it there a couple of times lately, and even taken pictures of it, but I kept choosing other bugs on other days, so today I was determined this bug would be BBotD, and it was where I thought it would be. In fact, later on I went by that spot again and there were two of them. It wasn't the best spot to get a picture (and I didn't get any of the two together), but I got some decent shots. Then I found one somewhere else in the yard and got better shots. But the point is, sometimes bugs are predictable - sometimes even to knowing what plant or what leaf to look on to find them.

So... Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is another true bug. I posted a picture recently of its proboscis. Today it finally gets its day as BBotD. I almost decided not to look around for more bugs after taking this picture today, because I didn't want it to get bumped again. But here it is!

 This is the other one I found later. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, and maybe I am imagining things anyway, but it seemed to me at the time that the first one was more yellow and this one is more green. Gender? Different species? All in my imagination? I have no idea.

I actually didn't get anymore good bug pictures today. But remember that red bee I saw recently? I saw it again today:

Hey, I did say I didn't get any more good bug pictures today.

So, since that was the only bug, how about a bunch of plants? (This is supposed to be a bug blog!)

 Sweet william

 Milkweed buds progressing

 Back Porch Plant growing

 I think this is a mutant. The other flowers on multiflora rose have 5 petals.

 Foxglove

 Tame strawberry (as opposed to wild strawberry) - getting riper

And where is Backyard Bud of the Day, you ask? Right here.

 Honeysuckle. I shouldn't make this bud of the day, because it's invasive, but I don't have anything else.

Daily Dandelion

 This is actually the same dandelion from yesterday, but more... whatever. It's not blooming, but... you know what I mean.

Oh, wait, I do have another bug:

Baby praying mantis

Another thing I find all over my yard is holes. Sometimes they are small, shallow holes that are obviously places where a squirrel has dug up a nut buried last year, or where some other animal has searched for food. There are other, bigger holes that I know the use for - like the door to the woodchuck's home. But sometimes I have no idea who made them, who lives in them...

I do not delve.

A note on what an obsession with bugs and photographing them will do to you. But first, a picture:

This is the wall of a fast food restaurant, as seen from the drive thru line. As you can barely see, there is a fairly large insect on the window. I know I am obsessed with bugs because I was sorely tempted to get out of the car and go look at what this was, and take a picture, even though I only had the point-and-shoot camera that I keep in my purse (yes, I take a camera with me everywhere I go, and not a cellphone camera), and not the SLR with the macro lens. I know I am not completely lost to bug obsession because I didn't get out of the car to go look at the bug. But only because we were in a hurry, and there were a lot of other cars around. And a surveillance camera. But I will always wonder what that bug was. Even though it could not be Backyard Bug of the Day, because it was not in my backyard.

Before I show you today's spider, I'll give you an update on the monster that was in the window. Even though I opened the window it stuck around all day. I closed it when we went out for the evening, in case it rained, but when I got home, well after dark, I opened it again, and shortly after the spider appears to have departed. It could be hiding above the frame where I can't see it, but I think it has moved on. Probably due to not having any food in there for the last 2 days.

Now... Arachnid Appreciation! I almost didn't think I was going to find a spider today (even though I walked through quite a few threads that were strung across the backyard paths). But I finally found one. It's pretty low on the creep-out meter, but that's just my point of view, and after all, I think spiders are cool.
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 I may have posted this kind of spider before. I love the colors - on top it is green, white and yellow, and below green black and yellow - and neon orange, although these pictures maybe don't show it spectacularly well.

 The most interesting thing about it is the markings on the bottom. Spiders have a lot of eyes - 6-8, depending on the species, but they are all on top, or kind of on the side of the top. None on the bottom. You wouldn't think that an animal would need eyes that are on the bottom of its body, but the way spiders sit on their webs, with eyes on only one side, the other side seems really exposed. Sure, they can feel if something touches their webs, and that is a warning, but it still seems to leave them vulnerable. However, for this spider I think that the markings are a false eye, which is a defense mechanism a lot of small animals (bugs, fish) have - they can't see out of it, but it will deter predators that want to sneak up on prey without being seen, because the false eye makes it look like they are being watched.
Also cool about this shot is that you can see the silk thread coming from the spinaret.