The squirrel would like me to know that the corn cob is empty and she may need to speak to someone in management if I don’t remedy the situation.
A pointed look
Category: Wildlife
Inside view
A grass spider setup camp in our window, between the glass and the screen. It must have been catching enough to survive because it grew, and as it grew built several tunnel webs, which gave us a neat view of the structure.
We did free the spider and clean the window after taking pictures. I wasn’t sure big enough prey could now get caught in its web.
Convergent Lady Beetle
I learned something new when I snapped a picture of a lady bug resting on a Gregg’s mist flower leaf and uploaded it to iNaturalist. The name of my friendly neighborhood native is the Convergent Lady Beetle, because of the “two short white lines on the black pronotum (shoulderlike section behind the head) that converge toward each other.” (Mdc.mo.gov) The markings are harder to see in my picture, but these are the most common of the 500 lady beetle species in the US.
The Gregg’s mist flower is doing its job of attracting pollinators and helpful insects. Our front garden bed is full of the mist flowers and Common Yellow Wood Sorrel, which are also native and edible. The yellow and purple are nice together, and the density of their leaves is blocking out other unwanted growth, which means less weeding for me!
Fawn
I haven’t checked the trail cam in a couple months, and when I did there were only 39 pictures. Several of those 39, though, were of a Doe and her fawn.
I wasn’t sure at first if the smaller one was a fawn, or if the picture had some perspective magic happening, since there are not visible spots on the fawn. A quick internet image search brings up other night vision photos of fawns where the spots don’t show up. Interesting.
Hello, bee
I was walking by my kitchen when I spotted an anomaly on a box on my counter: a bee.
What are you doing inside little bee? And where have you been, and what brought you to this particular landing spot? Mysteries. I put a small amount of white sugar in a spoon and filled it with water and offered it to the bee. It was very thirsty and gladly accepted the offering, but wasn’t keen on leaving the box. I put a small puddle of sugar water on the box, then took the box and the bee outside in the shade. I had to run errands, and when I returned home, the bee was gone. iNaturalist folks identified her as a Western honey bee.
Now I have “give me sugar, in water” stuck in my head from the movie Men In Black (1997).
Critters and Craft 