The Velvet Ant

According to What's That Bug,
This is a Velvet Ant, a flightless female wasp. Watch out, she stings. We found a species match on BugGuide.
It couldn't get away from me fast enough; it was hard to get a good shot of it. Seems that you'd have to work pretty hard to get stung by one of them. It was quite large---1", possibly 1-1/2" long.

The Painted Bunting

May 26 2007: A painted bunting showed up outside the (rather spotty) bathroom window. He did not obligingly allow me to capture him from all sides, but I am just happy he was here at all. I've never seen one at our house before.

"Strange Wasp-like Bug with Long Tail"

The title of this post is what I googled to find the identity of this bug. The pen, by the way, is 5.5" long, though it seems smaller in Hugh's giant hand.


As always, What's That Bug came through for me:
http://whatsthatbug.com/ichneumons.html

This is one of the Giant Ichneumons in the genus Megarhyssa, probably Megarhyssa macrurus. Giant Ichneumons are non-stinging relatives of wasps. This female is ovipositing. The long stingerlike "tail" is her ovipositor and it enables her to lay eggs deep in borer infested wood. The food for the young Megarhyssa is the larval form of wood boring insects like Horntails.

I never cease to be amazed that I can have lived for plenty of years so far and yet be surprised on a daily basis by things I've never seen before. I shouldn't be surprised, as there are approximately 10 million kinds of bugs in this world, but I am.

Not to Ignore the Other Birds of 2007!

We obsess over our prehistoric woodpeckers, but we obsess over all of our other birds, too. This year's group, so far:

• One pair of Titmice nested in the hole in the oak tree just outside the window by my desk, where a pair nested the year before last. The baby is out and about now, and there is at least one other family in the 'hood; the other day I heard, then saw, a little gathering of them out near the birdfeeders; there must have been six or seven of them.
• Two little gray-headed scrappy Mexican Scrub Jay babies so far, as well as the usual group of adults.
• Approximately two dozen or so hummingbirds. We have a couple of different kinds--I am not positive which ones they are.
  
• Wrens: I have yet to figure out what kind they are--we have several, and these are the smallest of the group. One is nesting in the skull hanging on the front porch; another out back in the roof where there is a little gap at the bend. Yet another keeps considering the little bag hanging beneath my bicycle seat and putting nesting bits in it, but no permanent residence yet.
  
• The Scott's Orioles are back this year! At least one pair is at our house, and I hear them all over the valley as well.
  
• We have three pairs of Cardinals that come to our feeder. I can never figure out where they nest, but one pair is perhaps out in back somewhere, and another in the tree in the meadow, I think.
  
• There are so many Zenaida doves that they are eating us out of house and home. I bang on the window frequently to make them leave the bird feeders to give the other birds a chance.
  
• Tons of chipping sparrows
• The Rufous-crowned Sparrows (alternately called the Asteroid birds), previously discussed in the tragic-yet-happy-ending baby bird post
  
• Tons of house finches, and at least one other kind of finch. They are hard for me to identify, as they change their outfits through the seasons.
  
• The mockingbirds, of course, though they've been in rather spotty attendance this year. After one wintering with us and tapping many times daily on a living room window (with me trying to teach its name when it did so--we don't know if Mocks knows who he/she is now, or not), they've been coming and going.
  
• The "weebly-wee bird" that we hear at night--some kind of quail-type bird? I've never seen it.
  
• Another bird heard and not seen was a bobwhite! Just once, only this year and never before. Finally I have heard their call!
• And lastly--for now; I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting right now--the little chickadees with their 3-note songs.
  

Woodie 2007: The Modern Dad

Once again, we have a pair of golden-fronted woodpeckers nesting in the tree by the patio. Both of them are on the small side, and have somewhat mottled coloring, as though they've been rubbed with rust here and there. This past Monday I first heard a tiny cheep from within the tree; and yesterday evening, Friday, I walked out on the patio and heard what sounded like static from a faraway radio, only to realize it was the sound of the babies, amplified somewhat by their cavernous hole. This photo from Tuesday shows Dad on his way in to feed the wee babes a lovely, crunchy bug!

Friday

Here is the evening sky:

Tarantulas

The tarantulas have been out in force these last couple of weeks. I keep coming across them crossing the road that runs from HPR to our house, and I've seen several on the patio and environs (though none in the house yet). They are so sweet and shy! Curiously, just before I started seeing them everywhere, I had a conversation with a co-worker in which he allowed as how it was the tarantulas that ran him out of Denton. I scoffed but he said, Yes, it's true, when they are so thick on the ground that you can't pull in the driveway without smashing a dozen of them, it's getting bad. When you look at it that way, I suppose that yes, there could be such a thing as too many tarantulas.

Scorpion #3, 2007

May 31st, approx 10:40 p.m.

Callie the dog got stung by a scorpion. I had just gotten up from my chair in the living room to go to bed. Callie was right in front of me and had her nose to the rug; I assumed she was snarfing up biscuit crumbs. Suddenly she sprang up, sort of yipped, jumped sideways, and rubbed her nose or snout or lip, I don't know which part, on the rug like crazy. I thought, Something has bitten her! My discarded jeans were draped on the footstool and floor in front of my chair, and in front of my feet, and when I picked them up, something ran underneath the footstool. I kicked it out of the way and sure enough, there was 2007 Scorpion #3.

I had to stomp it. There were dogs and cats milling all around and I didn't have time to run for the Scorpion Catch-and-Release container that I have specially prepared for humane treatment this year. Sigh. Well, as J pointed out when I related the tale, it *did* sting first, so perhaps fair action taken on my part. J also asked if I sucked the poison out, knowing full well my slant on dogs and touching them. Anyone who knows me will be rolling on the floor in paroxysms of laughter over the thought of my mouth anywhere near the fur of a dog. Ew, I say, ewwwwwwwww. I'd rather take on the scorpion.

Callie, by the way, is fine. I kept checking her for swelling, pain, irritation, etc., but after the initial reaction, there was nothing. Dogs. I will never figure them out.

Scorpion #2, 2007

5.19.2007: Toilet Room Wall, approx 10 p.m. Catch and release program is now in effect after the tragic and guilt-ridden 2007 #1 sighting, killing, and posting. There was accidental letting out of a cat this evening which complicated the release, but it was done nonetheless; just a little closer to active property areas than is desirable.

What To Do When Your Cat Gets a Baby Bird

If you got here because you're desperately searching for what the the hell to do with the baby bird your cat got, click this link is to Austin Wildlife Rescue: http://www.austinwildliferescue.org/html/wildlife_in_need.html

What I found there that helped me when my cat dragged a baby out of its nest and injured its wing:

• Keep the baby warm and call 472-WILD (9453) immediately. Baby birds do not live long without proper nourishment. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FEED ANYTHING TO THE BIRD! Many times feeding the wrong diet, or the right diet incorrectly will kill the babies.
• Injured baby bird:
• An injured baby bird must be brought to the Intake Center and placed with a rehabber, especially if it has been in a cat’s mouth. Cat’s saliva contains toxins that are toxic to small animals.
• Sick baby bird:
• A sick baby bird must be brought to the Intake Center and placed with a rehabber.

What Happened At the Cabin:

On Tuesday evening I went for a walk down the hill with the animals. On the way I scooped up Hamilton, who was eyeing the cardinal's nest in the yucca (the cardinals, by the way, have nothing to fear; I'm just afraid that Ham will put an eye out on a yucca spear trying to get at the safe-as-houses nest within). I started down the path with him struggling in my arms and finally let go, as I'd gotten him away from his point of interest. The dogs were way ahead and little Fritto was trotting behind and Hamilton the Giant didn't really follow, but that's not unusual for him; he usually heads cross-country to meet us on the other side of the hill.

Unusually, I came back up the hill the same way I'd gone down it, otherwise I wouldn't have caught Hammy with the baby bird. It didn't even have feathers yet and it was lying sadly by a clump of grass while Ham sniffed at the teeny piece of wing he'd torn off. I grabbed him up and ran into the house with him, then had to do the same with Fritz, before I could tend to the little baby. I was heartbroken, and I thought it was near dead if not dead already. I realized he'd not fallen (nor been snatched) out of a tree, but was from a nest tucked into the center of the clump of grass! There was another little bird within the nest, seemingly unhurt.

I didn't know what to do. I've always heard that you should leave baby animals where you find them, or tuck them back in their nest, and so I went away, hoping the parent birds would come down and do I don't know what. There was a terrible storm in the night and the temperature dropped; in the morning I went back to check on the little guy and lo and behold, he was still breathing. And still not in the nest, though I think the parents did tuck him into the grass next to the nest a little bit. I finally got smart, got online and found Austin Wildlife Rescue. After making a panicked phone call, I got a box (with airholes and a towel in it), got the bird and took him in. Today I called to check on his status and found that he has been sent to live with a rehabber, who will care for him till he is well; then he will be placed with a group of his own kind (or similar, I assume, in case there are no exact others) for a while; and at some point, the group will be released together back into the wild.

The only other time I've ever called the Wildlife Rescue group--20? 25? years ago--they were simply a group of people that cared and knew what they were doing (we hoped), and when you called, a person would show up and take the animal to nurse in their home. I don't think they had a base of operations or anything like that. I was so impressed by the now-existing facility (though it is humble, and they need donations, hint hint) and by the knowledgable and capable woman who checked in my little baby (as well as the animals of the other two people who showed up in the same five minutes that I did--if they're always that busy, then I'm even more impressed). Among other things, it inspired in me the desire to learn what I myself can do in the face of wildlife emergencies. A panicked tizzy is very ineffectual in times of crisis, especially if you live out in the boonies amongst nature and wildlife, as I do.

By the way, while the drama was unfolding, there was much angry and alarmed noise coming from many birds in the tree beside the nest. There was a wren and two of the birds I call the asteroid birds because of their "tew tew tew tew tew" cry that is so reminiscent of the old arcade game. After sitting down with the bird books and photos I took of them the day following the incident, I have identified them as Rufous-crowned Sparrows, ground-nesters and criers of "dear dear dear," according to Peterson's Birds of Texas ("tew," "dear"--close enough, I say; it's hard as hell to write with letters what a bird call sounds like).

We'd already been keeping Hamilton in from dawn till afternoon every day; now both the cats are under house arrest until all the babies in the area are fledged. It's going to be a long and loud few weeks.....

Spring is Here! and 2007 Scorpion #1

With a vengeance. And I mean that in the best of all possible ways, because Spring in Texas usually lasts about 3 weeks, and this year it's been about 4 months. It's also rained like mad, which is equally fantastic. There is tons for me to catch up on so I will dive in tonight with 2007's Scorpion #1 of the Year:

April 23d, approx 8:30-9 p.m.:

Outside, but right above the front door, a great big fat specimen. I wavered between Kill and Catch-and-Release, and decided to whack him symbolically as the first of the season, but really mostly because I didn't like the thought of him dropping down upon me or dog or cat. So I whacked it, and immediately repented. I shouldn't have done it and I apologize to him or her, and I hope that this does not bode ill for scorpion karma this very wet year (though that's secondary, and not the reason I am apologizing, which is because it was just wrong). Please, not on the bed. Please.

Scorpion #9

Sunday night—or rather, Monday morning—9.18.06, 3 a.m. Thirsty. Where is water? Make way to kitchen. In dim nightlight see movement in sink. What's that?, I think. Turn light up a little more. Scorpion!!

Poor little guy. He was trapped by the curved and shiny sides of the sink. I couldn't kill him; it would have been unfair advantage. Instead I scooped him (NO, not with my hands), carried him outside, and dumped him into the garden, never to be seen again (touch wood).

Scorpion #8

Friday September 15th, 8 or 9 p.m., on the wall between the lightswitches just inside the front door. After being smacked, it fell to the ground. Alive or dead, only the shadow knows.....

The Accidental Bee Trap

A friend is moving away and gave me her pretty glass hummingbird feeder, the kind with three separate little containers, each with a red glass flower in it which is the channel through which the hummingbirds drink the sugar water. Sadly, it became a bee & wasp trap. The throats of the flowers are large enough to allow the insects through, so they crawled down and then got stuck in the sugar water and died. This is a terrible, terrible thing. I will have to find another use for the little feeder, or give it to someone else who has fewer bees and wasps.

The Hummingbird Moth

In the garden Sunday evening, arranging all the beautiful plants that Carolyn B has given me as she packs up and disposes of possessions in anticipation of her move, I was near the red sage that the hummingbirds love (the one Hamilton used to park under to snag them, before we curtailed his early-morning outdoor activities) and suddenly a little hummingbird moth was right in front of my face, flapping its little moth wings like mad as it had a go at the sage. It didn't outright hum, as the larger one that we saw last year did. But it was spectacular nonetheless.
The next day Hugh saw it outside the kitchen window and swears that a hummingbird bird came along and tried to flirt with it before realizing it was the wrong species.
Sadly, we have yet to capture one of these on film....

The Night of the Spiders

I was in the kitchen on Tuesday night, post-dinner, putting some dishes in the dishwasher. Suddenly on one return to sink from washer, there was a giant spider there in the sink! It seemed to be wet, and I think perhaps it came out of the drain that leads to the disposal. It sat there in its wetness of in sort of a stupor; who could blame it? I scooped it up in a plastic tub and put it outside on the front porch.
Less than 30 minutes later I was in the big chair in the front room, watching a spot of telly before going to bed, and (suddenly again) there appeared on the wall behind the television another giant spider! I ran for the camera yet again. (I do that a lot at the cabin.) After the photo shoot, this second spider made its way up the wall and then disappeared into a little space where the wall meets the cedarwood window trim. That corner is a favorite of spiders and scorpions. I thought they were both were wolf spiders, but looking at the pictures now they seem to be different varieties. As I said, that first guy was wet, so it's hard to tell.

The Thrashing Caterpillar

On my way to the outdoor shower on Saturday morning, I stopped to visit with Fritz on the back porch. There he was, all innocent and cute, and there were rustly, thrashy noises coming from the garden. "Oh no!" I thought, "he caught a bird and it is lying over there in death throes! Or in wounded throes!" and I ran over to look. Nothing readily apparent, but still could I hear leaves moving about. I waited and waited and finally my eyes honed in on a little caterpillar! Or rather, a rather large caterpillar. And it was thrashing like mad! It thrashed itself right out of the dry leaves under some plants and onto the rockwork of the back terraced area. It started crawling toward Rosa Winchester Cathedral, with periodic fits of thrashing. On the rock, after thrashing, it would find itself pointed a different way each time and so would start crawling off in that new direction. I was a little worried about him being on the very hot rock so I got a leaf and tried to help him onto it, which caused another fit of thrashing; so I got a larger leaf, tricked him onto it with no thrashing, and deposited him in the tall green grass of the kitchen garden. I could hear periodic thrashing throughout my shower, and could even hear him about an hour later when I went out to see how he was doing. I have never seen such a thing before. Film to be posted as soon as I edit out the parts where I got distracted and the camera without me filmed things like my feet and the towel I was wearing.

The Dog Days of Summer

I had a whole month of no entries in between Scorpions 6 & 7. The dog days of summer are here. It is hot, dry, tiring, indeed nigh exhausting. There is not a lot going on with birds or bugs or cats or me or anything; we are all too tired. The hummingbirds are the only thing that show no signs of weariness.

Scorpion #7

Saturday 7.29.06, afternoon or evening--6ish?
Can't believe there have been only 7 scorpions this year so far. And this last one barely counts. I found it on the porch under one of the recycle bins, half-smashed, apparently from me moving the bin over while he was under it, poor thing. I might have let him live, seeing as he wasn't even in the house.

Scorpion #6

Scorpion #6 fell onto our bed last night from above, approximately 11:30, post-potluck and guests. I was in bed; Hugh was on bed. It fell right on his (naked) foot, which he then shook violently, sending the scorpion flying, not that we knew for sure that it was a scorpion yet, only that it was a something that was suddenly on his foot. We leapt up to find where it had gone; Loretta the cat quickly tracked it to where it had slipped between bed and footboard. We carefully loosed the end of the bedspread and then Hugh, sport clog in hand, got remorse and began calling for A cup! A cup! I ran to the kitchen but by the time I'd wrestled an appropriate container out of a drawer and made it back to the bedroom, he'd impatiently knocked the scorpion off the spread and onto the floor, momentarily lost it and had to find it again, and was just smashing it as I came back with the Humane Catch & Release Tupperware Tub. Oh well. We left the container in the bedroom at hand for easy access for next time.

The next surprise was this morning under the sink....Antvasion, Part 87! We'd carefully cleaned up thoroughly last night to avoid a scene this morning; so the ants kindly left the counter and sink areas alone and had a big party down under instead. I am too unnerved to comment more fully at this time, but I did have the strength and courage to get the teeming garbage out the door and onto the front porch, where it now sits in double-bagged glory. How telling that the ants completely ignore the compost bucket.