Autumn Moths

These largish (2-inch wingspan?) moths are making bedroom appearances in the last week. They come in and flutter endlessly against the ceiling 15 feet up. This one from last week I found dead on the floor the next morning; last night's moth came down to ground level long enough to be trapped and transferred to the great outdoors. They have large, startling black eyes.

Holy Mother of God, the Most Giant Recluse of Them All

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 8th brown recluse of 2008 At the Cabin:


This spider escaped me in the bedroom earlier; I just came across it again and SCARPed it and my oh my, it is THE BIGGEST brown recluse I have yet seen. Great googley moogley. My. My, my, my. It appears to be dusted all over with a fine crystalline powder. And what is up with the hairy legs? At least, hairy upper thighs? Recluses do not have spines on their legs, but I guess that does not count hairs, because I see some here, and I see the eyes, and I see the fiddle. It's a recluse, all right.

MANT! I Mean, MANTIS! Or, Perseverance Furthers

This mantis was the main excitement at the lamp last night; I suspect that the fly in the previous post may have ended up as one of its meals.

A Fly?

There was a lot of activity at my bedside lamp last night. I think this is a fly; it looked like a fly, albeit a very large one; but now I see its little striped bod and I wonder.


With green lacewing eggs


Inside the lampshade

Dead Insects of Lake Watauga, Part III: Only Not All Dead and Not All Insects

Not all dead; some just interesting natural items. The butterfly we've seen before; the beetle will be covered in a later post. The acorn was just there and very pretty.


The root I found (already detached from its plant or tree) on the Appalachian Trail. I forget where I found the nuts, and I don't know what kind of nut they are.


No idea what tree or plant this is from, but I love it. It's beautiful! I brought home all the items in this post, except the beetle, who was not dead. Yet. But possibly is now.

The Bee from the Spider's Web: Lake Watauga Dead Insects, Part II

Or, Likely Suspects, Anyway

I saw this bee being wrapped up by a spider in its web on the porch of the house we were staying in at Lake Watauga. By the time I went inside for the camera and came back, the bee had freed itself from the web and fallen to the floor below. It was dazed and confused, probably injected full of spider toxin. You can see a bit of the web on his back end in this photo.


After a while I moved him to a place on the railing where the screen had been torn and was quite open. Later he was gone. Did he live or die?

The Dead Insects of Lake Watauga, Part I

We begin with the butterfly: a gorgeous, intact specimen lying on the floor of the screened-in porch outside our bedroom door.

At the Cabin at Lake Watauga

So last week when Hugh and I left at 3:30 in the morning to go catch a plane, we were on our way to Lake Watauga in northeastern Tennessee. It was a most utterly beautiful place! This is the view from the house we stayed in, just two doors down from the house of the friends who were hosting the reunion of Hugh and his high school buds.

Move Over, Rat Pack—The Dog Pack is Here

Loretta

Birdproofing

The glass front door, when unadorned, is dangerous to birds

Lemon Bud

My Improved Meyer Lemon tree is budding, I noticed this morning. Is it possible that we will have lemons before the summer (or autumn) ends?

Nature in Action: Spider Eats Moth

I watched this jumping spider (possibly Platycryptus undatus or Metcyrba taeniola) stalk and kill this moth in the outdoor shower today while I washed my hair. The spider is larger than most of the other jumping spiders I've seen around here; it was perhaps half an inch long. It jumped right on the moth's head as the moth was clinging to the rock wall of the shower; by the time I'd rinsed and dried enough to run for the camera, the moth had been flipped over by the spider, as seen in these photos.


If you click to enlarge these two second photos, you will see a drop on the spider's back. Not sure if that's a drop of water from the shower or some bizarre spidery thing about which I know nothing.

Argh: I Am Weary

Unexpected house guests. Very busy week. Very tired person (me) who has to catch 5:30 a.m. flight tomorrow. Some day I will have some time to spend on posting photos that I might again have time to take....