I love watching praying mantises grow from tiny replicas of their parents to the biggest insect I see by season’s end. It’s hard to imagine how they start out about the width of my little fingernail. Depending on the size of your screen, the photo may be enlarged. This insect is actually about 1.25 inches long. They seem to be very patient hunters. I wonder what they think as they wait.
Fortunately for me the deer don’t permit such a profusion of day lilies to grow in my yard. Obviously they haven’t found this overly colorful group. It’s along the road to the soft serve place in Accokeek. Please notify them when you see them.
It was exciting for me and the busy bee to find some milkweed blossoms the deer haven’t eaten yet! The milkweed pollen our bee is collecting looks like butter! I wonder what it tastes like. We ate young green milkweed pods once over 40 years ago. As I recall, you need to boil them twice, changing the water. Warning: Please Google before you try them. They tasted like string beans.
You can clearly see all 4 beaks in today’s photo. Imagine if they all had their mouths open at once!
Once hidden in an apple tree, a lovely nest of 4 mockingbird chicks grows louder every day, drawing attention from endless predators. At this stage the chicks are mostly mouth! Mom and dad are constantly busy feeding and defending their gang. We barely survived their attacks as we took a quick photo yesterday afternoon.
Here they are this morning, twice as big as yesterday. Look carefully for 4 heads. My husband is taking these photos because he is taller.
Is that a Bactrian (2-humped) camel on upper right side of photo? What else could it be? Box turtle patterns are amazing!
I should have turned this photo upside down…FYI, it is a male. Please be careful to wash your hands thoroughly if you pick one up to move it out of the road. They do carry salmonella.
A pile of Polistes wasps. Left photo is top view. See all 3 heads lined up like beads. Right photo is side view. That’s where you can see more clearly what is really happening. Crazy! Bottom wasp is smaller female. The pile moved around, climbing and flying. All the climbing and flying was done by the female with the males remaining on top of her. When I Googled it, someone said they’d seen a pile of 4 wasps. These photos are dedicated to my friend Tom Cullen to wish him a happy birthday!
