Oh Deer

Backyard Mammal of the Day:

 I took this photo with my zoom lens with the 2X extender. I was not so close. I did end up scaring the deer off, though, and after it bounded away onto a path where I could not see it I could still hear it. I used to think that deer were silent; I didn't think they were able to make sounds other than rustling against plants, but a few years ago I found out they can communicate by snorting, and that is what I heard on the far side of the thicket after I startled this dear into fleeing.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a question mark butterfly.

Other Bugs:

 I haven't been seeing lady beetles much this autumn, but today I saw two.

 

 Sweat bee

Leaf-footed bug

For a couple of days I thought the "small" brown hooded owlet moth caterpillar had moved on, because I could not find it, but today it was back in its old spot.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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There is a plant in my old vegetable garden whose flowers have gone to seed, leaving behind the spindly, bare plant, and today it was covered in spider webs:

 There were three (I think) of these orb weavers, so tiny I can't tell what they are.

 There was one web with this bowl-and-doily spider, and several other webs of that style that did not seem to have spiders on them. This is another thing that I have not seen much of lately. Most years they are all over the backyard. Not this year.