A Friendly Little Fellow

A friendly little fellow lapped my sweaty left hand and fingers today while I admired his cheeky good humor.

Oh, American Snout (Libytheana carinenta), how persistently you probed with your proboscis. Some may find you plain among butterflies, but as Jimmy Durante was, you too were gentle.

Good night, wherever you are, and thank you.

Who You Lookin' At!

At night, the window above the kitchen sink becomes a vertically raked stage on which creatures appear, flying and walking into and out of view.It's easy to tell who was more shocked by the face on the other side of the window. I peered in closer and closer while the katydid beat a hasty retreat!

Eat or

be eaten. That's what my friend Jill said when I bemoaned the death of a hummingbird moth at the grasp of a predator fly.

Today, I saw an eater and the eaten again, but not at first. It's hard to see the big picture when focusing on one thing -- in this case, a skipper oddly still, upright, on a basil stalk. Only when I downloaded the photos did I see what had not seen in person: the spider's legs. I drove back to the garden and looked more closely at what I had originally missed -- a somber scene of death and life locked in a dance of death. Eat, or be eaten, indeed.

Learning Their Names

isn't easy when they look so much alike. On occasion, one sulphur, or two, will pause long enough for me to remove my glasses and lean in for a good look. Now I (think I) know three names!

Clouded Sulphur Cloudless Sulphur Orange Sulphur I am feeling accomplished (I think).

What Lies Beneath

the woolly coated and fringed Ilia Underwing (an owlet moth) shocks with pleasure, like the joyful sounds of a New Orleans jazz funeral -- grief and celebration, above and below.

Of Walking Sticks and Leaf-footed Bug Nymphs

At the Gardeners' Market this morning, two friends presented me gifts.

Lynne brought me a walking stick she had lifted from a bumper and plopped into a plastic grocery bag. So fast was he that I almost couldn't snap him or save him. I think I got him turned toward the treeline rather than the parking lot, finally.Tam asked me to come to her house and look at her "red ant-like bugs." Sure enough, gathered at the base of an okra leaf in the shade, a slew of little critters waited and then bolted, all under the watchful eye of their parent: leaf-footed bug and nymphs!If only every morning could begin with scones, friends, and bugs!

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The Monarchs arrived! Or, perhaps to be more accurate, two Monarchs arrived, and I photographed them. Oh, Louis Comfort Tiffany, thank you for trying, but . . . your work does not substitute for the real thing.A visitor ran round the perching ring of my hummingbird feeder. Silly caterpillar, where have you come from and where are you going?
I'll leave it to you to decide which is the sublime and which the ridiculous.