This enlargement of an insect covered in artistically created camo was crawling on my leg. It or its friend dropped down from a white mulberry tree later and bit me. I thought I’d been able to ID it last year but now I can’t find it. I’m afraid I reacted too quickly to being bitten to figure out if the stick thing in lower left is a leg or a camo stick thing.
I cannot resist jumping spiders! This one looks like it came directly from a Star Wars set! Magical metallic monster! (Remember they are not insects.)
What could be more wonderful than lilacs and ladybugs in bloom?!
Where else would a bee be but at Tudor Place, DC where spring comes early in February? I had no idea! My mouth fell open at the sight! It was definitely a banner year for this early bloomer. The fortunate tree and the gleeful bees took advantage of a shocking break from winter as temperatures hit the 80s. We stood there amazed, in a late February snowfall of pink petals.
So exciting to open my kitchen door on 1/27/18 and see my exit blocked by a dangling spider! It is climbing up its web to a Chinese fir. Seems like a warm January though it is actually average. I assume many of you are happily enjoying this most bug-free time of year. For that reason I haven’t shown you the beetles I saw on 1/1/18, snuggled up under dead tree bark, in diapause. But I plan to share them eventually…
As I stared at the sweet gum ball, trying to figure out how to draw it, I could suddenly hear dozens of screaming baby birds! All those mouths would be a mother bird’s nightmare!
I never dreamed of anything as lovely as a dogwood hung with frozen spiderweb chandeliers melting in this morning’s advection fog!
