The Giant Bee (?): Another Fleeting Photo

Junior Cardinals

At least three of our cardinal babies have made it. There are two (one male, one female) that are old enough to have colored beaks now, and one that is still brown all over and hanging with mum and dad. The little male is the most curious transitioning-to-adulthood bird that I've ever seen.




Hugh just wondered if he is a mutant; his little head looks so VERY odd in this photo.

The Giant Bee

These photos are dark. I will continue stalking the giant bee in hopes of getting some better shots. I'm not even sure it IS a bee...its wings are somehow unbeelike. And it's huge.

The Cunning Frog (Toad?)

Frog or toad? He looks too smooth to be a toad. Hugh called me into the kitchen to see a giant red wasp flying upwards gripping something like a locust carcass (which I missed, except for the last dangling of legs moving upwards); when I went outside to see what there was to see, I found this guy perched on the top of the window frame. He was so still and small that I first took him for a mud dauber's nest; then I saw his little throat pulsing. I've never seen one with this unusual spotting around here before. Just went out to assess his size—he's not more than two inches long, and perhaps only one and a half inches.

It Was HOW Hot on Friday??

On our very own front porch Friday evening (photo compliments of Hugh)

English Birds: Parents and Baby

I've just learned that these are (English) goldfinches. How different from our American ones! Two parents and their baby came down to snack on the lawn.




And apparently to gather greens of some sort for some purpose unknown to me, a human.


The baby


A watchful parent keeping an eye out near a starling

The English Moth

This moth flew into the London home on Saturday night. Mary rescued it and put it back outside after we had the photo shoot.

England's Youngest Cricketer

Preparing for her 2024 Olympic Cricketing debut


I do not know this child, but I think that my London friends M & J do; we ran into her on the common near their home.

Going Backwards: Coming Home

These are the views from my window on the flight home.

The Blackbird Father

Oops

Forgot to say before I went to England for two weeks that I'd be in England for two weeks. I am back now. Will be really back later this week.

The Tragic and Untimely Death of a Woodpecker, or Possibly Not

Last week—I think last Thursday, July 3d—when I got home, Hugh told me the tragic tale of how he'd found the body of a golden-fronted woodpecker on the porch just in front of the door. It had apparently run into the glass door and been done in. Heartbrokenly, Hugh took the little body and put it somewhere out on the hill, and of course we thought it was our Woodie. But the next morning there was our guy out on the tree as usual. Saturday morning I hunted all over for the body that Hugh put out to rest, and he helped me look for a while, but we found no body. Had it been done away with before we went to look for it, or had it only been stunned, and later came to and flew away?


These pictures are from the morning of July 4th, right after I first heard him out there and then saw him on the tree. He was sitting there all puffed, looking mighty adorable. We are so glad he's still there, and hope that no one really died.

Fourth of July Sky

Texas Sotol Again

Or, How Tall is It?


Hugh is 6'4". Erika is 5'9" (5'10"? somewhere in there, anyway).

A Kindred Spirit

Isabella Rossellini on bugs:

"I always dreamed when I was a little girl interested in animals that I would go live in Africa. Then I found out that you can look in your backyard, and you can do your own safari."

Lifted from this recent interview with her in the New York Times Magazine "Questions for...."

Tiny Jelly Spider

I believe he is a very tiny variety of wolf spider

More Titmice and Flowers

The Cardinals: An Update

These photos are from, I think, two weeks ago—a couple of days after the second batch of cardinal babies fledged, when the young one/s were still sticking close by the nest site and the parents tending closely to it/them, bringing food, etc. Dad's looking patchy here, and still is. Summer moult?


The missus in flight


I am fascinated by this underneath-the-tail shot. Those sweet and interesting little feathers! Just a couple of days ago I saw Junior again, for the first time since fledging. He and the parent birds were out back near the shed (which is also near the feeders). How many of the Juniors made it, I wonder? There were three babies in each nest...

Brown Recluse Haiku

1.
Little Brown Recluse,
Why are you in my kitchen?
You're not so little.

2.
Little Brown Recluse,
Why are you in my bathtub?
You're not wanted here.

3.
Little Brown Recluse,
Why are you in my bedroom?
This is so not right.

The Bees Storm the Texas Sotol

Hugh took photos tonight of the bees swarming the Texas sotol, which finally has produced its full-on polleny goodness for our beloved bees and other neighborhood insects.


It looks like tiny kernels of corn!