Well here is something I’ve never seen before. A wolf spider with her egg sac. I’ve seen wolf spiders carrying the littles on their back (and still have nightmares), but haven’t seen the pre-kingdom-of-the-spiders version.
I disturbed her when I was digging around the coop. Scooped her right up with a load of dirt! Rather than flinging the whole thing, I took her gently over to the edge of the woods and let her go. Much better her outside than inside the house.
Sorry for the low quality picture, but it is a road runner, and they are fast. (Or, I spotted it driving out of the neighborhood and had to take a picture out my window because I haven’t seen one all winter.)
These birds are so much bigger than I thought they would be. No wonder Wile E. Coyote was obsessed, they would make a good meal if you could catch it. Btw, we have those here too. Here are a couple more meh quality photos from the trail cam last year:
Update on chicks: still no chicks. I have a few leads that I am following up on. Stay tuned. Anything worth having is worth waiting for.
I found two of these interesting caterpillars recently. One in the mulch under a post oak tree and one climbing up the side of the house.
I put out a call for help for identification because my identification app doesn’t do well with caterpillars. Mark Barrett came to the rescue with this link. The caterpillar looks the same and is as lethargic as the one he found, but perks up when it thinks no one is watching.
But the underside of the caterpillar was the most interesting! Especially since the dorsal side has amazing camouflage.
On the chicken front, there are no chicks. The company I ordered from in JANUARY, had a computer “glitch” and didn’t send me chicks on Monday. The soonest they were willing to try to send again is the END of May. Grr. I get not having enough, but I would have taken fewer than I ordered, but blaming it on a glitch is ridiculous. So I cancelled the order and am looking closer to home. We are still determined to get Faverolles, so this could get interesting. Stay tuned.
I saw this caterpillar-made tent on a recent walk. Texas A&M AgrilLife Extension has this to say about tent caterpillars. I find them both fascinating and slightly creepy. Maybe I watched too many horror flicks in my youth. I do like the arcs in this tent. And it is surrounded by wild plum flowers, which pleases me. At least I think they are wild plum flowers. I’m still struggling with the wild plum versus callery pear identification. I have marked my trees out back to see what kind of fruit they yield. Independent verification.
I found this one in the house on an Amazon gift bag. Not entirely sure if she hitched a ride, or was inside for the winter and likes the color blue. Either way, this is the first time I’ve seen an Ashy Gray Lady Beetle, although they are common in our area. How adorable are the little heart spots?
Critters and Craft 