My eldest likes to catch critters. The only one that has ever bit her here was a grasshopper! Here are a few she caught recently in the back yard!

A bit after we first moved here nearly three years ago, I saw a cool insect and looked up “black and white beetle” to find reference to the ironclad beetle. (I’m not sure why I didn’t get a picture at the time.) It is fascinating how much we don’t know about it! Here is a good blog post. I didn’t see another one until a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was dead in the catio. Bummer. I saw it in there again later and pulled it out to get a picture, because they are really cool, even deceased. I left it on the deck box intending to come back and see how hard the exoskeleton really is and investigate if I could make something from it. I was quite surprised when I came back later in the day and it was moving!! Rather than dismantle it, I transferred it to the wood pile in case it really does eat lichen and prefer dead wood. I also read another blog that mentions that they play dead. That is some serious method acting to play dead for over a week, but I checked on it again a few hours later, it was moving again! I put a lichen covered stick near it and when I checked the next day, it was gone. I hope it is out making more iron clad beetles!

Just because I haven’t shared a trail cam photo of an armadillo in awhile, I offer you one today. Happy Saturday!

We have had a few wild visitors found in unexpected places this week!

A leopard frog found his way into the chicken coop recently. I couldn’t catch him the first day, but I found him in the same spot again the next day. This time I was able to catch him and relocate him nearer our neighbor’s pond.

My husband greeted our new neighbor, the largest spiny lizard I’ve seen, hanging out on the side of the house. My eldest caught her, and she was surprisingly docile once caught, allowing herself to be carried over to a tree.

The rains have finally come, and our poor industrious bumble bee, who has been diligently pollinating the mist flowers, took refuge from the deluge on the wall of our porch.

Even more surprising was the juvenile western rat snake that looked at me when I opened a cupboard in the coop. I was not quick enough with the camera for him!