The Kingdom of Spiders

Thursday morning, though I had the day off, I had to get up early to drive Hugh to the airport. It was very foggy and gray and as I looked around me while in the outdoor shower, I suddenly noticed a spider web, and then I saw another, and another, and another. They were everywhere—the trees were festooned with webs!

They were everywhere! This is part of what fascinates me about nature. It is so easy not to see what is all around you; you have to just go and BE out in it for a while and then you begin to see the small and the quiet things.

There are probably webs out there every single day and I just never see them because I'm in too much hurry or it's too late or too sunny or whatever.

Is the Plural of Killdeer Killdeer or Killdeers?

A small flock (herd?) of killdeer(s) were in the parking lot of Home Depot on Highway 620 this morning. I didn't know what they were; I thought they looked like shore birds and looked them up when I got home. They are indeed shore birds. I have to remind myself that shore birds can mean lakeshore birds, as opposed to ocean. This was 10 or 12 miles from my home, where I have never seen them.

There were half a dozen at most. Their cry is high and piercing and when they weren't walking around the parking lot, they were swooping around, presumably scooping up flying bugs for lunch.

All is Revealed

Or, I Now Know What They Are

They are leaffooted bugs. I learned this from the fabulous Texas Bug Book (Howard Garrett & C. Malcolm Beck, University of Texas Press).

Next up: The Possible Identity of the Fish from Outer Space

Bug Love

Or, The Insect Orgy

In this first photo, note how the insects are tenderly touching back legs (which have a curious, wide, winglike feature, spotlighted in another photo below), sort of as though they're holding hands.

Saturday evening I was on the patio, drinking a glass of wine, alternately reading and walking around with the camera, just hanging out with Special L, when I noticed the sumac berries at the edge of the patio with the evening sun upon them. I wandered closer and noticed an insect on the plant. Then I noticed that there were lots and lots of that insect on the plant! Then I realized that all of the insects were mating! It was crazy! A whole section of the sumac, which is in between being a bush and a tree, was just covered with this insect orgy.

I was reminded of the scene in The Wicker Man when, on his first day on Summerisle, Sergeant Howie goes outside for a walk before bedtime and discovers the green full of couples making love, and then there is an odd zoom-in on two snails fondling each other with their little horns (antennae?) while Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle recites a monologue about something or other and the fact that I can't remember what it's about is a sign that it's time for a Wicker Man fix and maybe I better go watch it right now...

...but first I'll go visit whatsthatbug.com and see what I can find out about these guys!

And, later, the answer is that I have not found them on the site, nor have I identified them otherwise. But I have now submitted a photo of them to whatsthatbug.com, so we'll see if I am lucky enough to have an answer from those oh-so-busy bug people!

The Frog

This little frog caught the interest of a lizard who was also climbing the screen; the lizard was tracking the frog as it would a bug. The frog hopped up and out of the way before anybody tried anything. The light and the smeary kitchen window were working against me here, but what the hell, it won't stop me. Hugh proposes "The Frog & Lizard" as the name of our pub-to-be.

This is What the Sky Was Like

The New Kid's Parents

Don't know where Junior was last night, but his mom and dad were hanging out at the top of the hill.

What an odd color it is behind them! It was pouring in town, but dry as could be at our place, though the sky was full of magnificent and quickly changing clouds and gorgeous colors. Not that you can tell that from these shots.

The August Moon is Almost Full

Lola Bootska

My own true kitten of love, Loretta.


So Brave and So Gray

Dragonfly Summer

There are more dragonflies this summer than I have seen in any other year. I keep trying to capture them in flight but I am not that good yet. They are tiny and fast; my lens is small and my reflexes slow (compared to them, anyway).

The Ghost Cat of Hamilton Hills

On certain evenings, just as summer is thinking about turning its face to the fall and as daylight fades into gray, if you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the Ghost Cat of Hamilton Hills...

There, There! Everything Will Be All Right!

Yow! As antidote to alien fish, I had to post an antithesis. Goodnight, and till the morrow!

At the Ocean: Mutant Alien Scary Fish Secretly Arrived from Outer Space to Take Over the World!

Or, What in God's Name IS This Thing?

Welcome to guest photographer Lina Bruna! As I wander the hills near the cabin with my camera, so she wanders the Pacific seaside with hers, and often she sends me photos of her finds. Like these.

Lina found this on her beach on August 21st. I've spent quite a bit of time googling various strings of descriptors to no avail; she, too, has been searching for the identity of this...thing. Is there a marine biologist in the house, or at least someone who plays one on TV?

The New Kid on the Block

Here's another of the buzzards who have been hanging about at the top of our hill. Note the black head: is he a youngster? I waited and waited for him to take off, but he did not. I wondered if he was waiting for a parent to come for him.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with my brother about a buzzard that seems to be stalking him.

Tuesday Evening

My new friend the buzzard will soon be featured, but until then, this!

Remember the Story that Takes Place in a Wood and Ends with the Birds Killing the Hero and Heroine?

Well, that didn't happen to me, thank goodness. A chickadee in the sunset, above; another finch below.


An Asteroid bird! (Otherwise known as the rufous-crowned sparrow.)

Hark! What's that sound I hear? Could it be a bird telling Fritz to get the hell away from its nest?

Woodie again; he, or she, came swooping down from the Big House.

A dung beetle sans dung.

The woodster went from phone pole to the staging tree. It's hard to take a decent photo when your hands are mostly full of beer bottles picked up from under bushes on your country walk.

And All the Birds Came By to Say Hello

Tonight my sidekick Fritz and I walked up the hill instead of down. Sometimes when I say "walk" I really mean that I go to a place and then just stand a while when I get there, and I look around, and I see who comes to call.

This is especially true when I am on a photo safari, as I was this evening. My sidekick, cat that he is, is both a bane and a boon; the birds stay somewhat away, yet they all come somewhat close to warn away the predator.