My cat Bones found a very cool looking bug today. It’s a fig beetle (or junebug), which I don’t recall ever seeing around here before. The focus in this photo is a little funky – I’m generally not squeamish about insects, but I wasn’t charmed by this one’s repeated attempts to jump on my face. Its wing appeared to be damaged, so it kept spastically hopping around trying to fly, which resulted in a lot of not-quite-in-focus shots. I was greatly amused by its “fork antennae” though. 🙂
I was wondering who was making all those half circle patterns in the morning glory leaves. I suspected a leaf cutter bee, but it took awhile for me to actually spot one in action. Today I noticed a bee kept returning to the same vine to collect leaf bits, so I parked myself there for awhile and took some photos.
My little greenhouse has become quite the bird trap this week. The visiting racing pigeon has been caught in there three times, and then this morning when I went out to the garden I found this little dove flapping around inside. Neither one seems to be too traumatized by the experience, since they both keep coming back.
Bones and his frenemy, Taz, keeping a sharp eye on the pigeon who was visiting the back deck. Taz is the laziest cat I know, but she has special qualities; for example she can sometimes disappear completely simply by closing her eyes.
Just a cell phone snapshot today, edited with snapseed.
Anyways, I think it’s a blue-eyed darner dragonfly…
Just messing around with rocks and a magnifying glass.
Looper caterpillar in action… but not for long. After spending the day eating my garden, it was in turn eaten by a bird. Hey, it’s the circle of life.
The titmouse pair are so fun to watch. They dig through the feeder looking for the particular kind of seed they like, take just one, then fly up to a branch and start pecking at it. Once they have finished that course, they fly back down and start all over again.
