I Heard That

A tree fell in the woods. I heard it. That's not really a sound you expect to hear out of the blue - or out of the green, to be more accurate. It wasn't even windy. Just crack crack crack whump. I didn't see it, because the greenery is very thick at the edge of the woods, what with the raspberry bushes, the young trees whose leaves are lowish and the older trees whose leaves are high - it's basically a wall of green that keeps me from seeing into the woods (which is why I hear but don't see animals, like those howling coyotes from a while back). I went to look, but there are several fallen trees in there, and I don't spend enough time in that part of the woods to know each fallen tree so I can recognize something new that has fallen. It's a peculiar thing to witness the random falling of a tree, even if it's only by hearing it, not seeing it.

Speaking of hearing but not seeing, I heard a deer today, on the other side of the bramble thicket in another part of the yard. Well, the deer was not in my yard - the thicket is on the border with the lot behind ours. It is so thick now that I couldn't see the deer at all, but I am assuming that's what it was. I know what you are thinking - deer don't make any noises. But they do. They snort. I think it's an alarm call kind of thing. Anyway, the deer snorted, possibly because I alarmed it - perhaps it could see or hear me, even though I couldn't see it. I won't say it alarmed me, but it did startle me.

Once again I didn't see a lot of bugs today. It was hot, but not horribly so - I got my weather sensor working again, and it said it was 85ºF. It wasn't very humid. I am starting to wonder if our drought is the reason the number of bugs seems to be dwindling. It's a mild drought at the moment, but it's a drought. There were four days this week that had rain in the forecast, and it only rained on one of them - for about a minute. Not even enough rain to make the float in the rain gauge float.

The mountain laurel is blooming:

 There's only this one bunch of flowers/buds on the bush, but it is wonderful to see it blooming just after we planted it. I have read up a bit on mountain laurel since we planted it, and what I read said that it tolerates deep shade (which I knew), but if you plant it in deep shade you won't get a lot of flowers. Well, we planted it in deep shade, but it's okay if we don't get a lot of flowers; that's not really what I planted them for. It is nice to see them, though.

And look what else is starting to bloom!

 That's right, milkweed! Isn't it beautiful? And look, a bug has been attracted to it already! (Tiny, tiny bug).

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a stinkbug nymph. To give you a sense of size, maybe, that is a head of grass it's on.

 Another possible stinkbug nymph. On the mountain laurel.

 Garden pest. But it's not in the garden, it's on a plant I call nemesis, even though its real name is nightshade, so it can stay.

 Another one, on the front porch.

 A rather large looper - definitely not an inchworm. More like two inches.

 I didn't get a good picture because it moved really fast...

 ... but eventually it stopped, and I got a pretty good look. I think this might be the same species as another caterpillar I posted recently, but that one didn't move, so I didn't realize it was a looper.

 Caterpillar Close-up

 Immature katydid

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I accidentally damaged this spider's web. It was dark in the woods, and I didn't see it.