Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A Second Look--August 6, 2014

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

I'm starting to get large holes in my basil. This katydid may be partly responsible for that.


On the same basil plant, this small praying mantis was hiding under some leaves.


The bees always love these celosia plants as do the ants. Notice the black spots (ants) at the base of the whitish bloom in the right of the picture.


Unfortunately, the Japanese beetles are also enjoying the day lilies. I managed to get this one off before it did too much damage.



Asparagus berries. I used to have wild asparagus growing several places in my yard. I assume it was "planted" by birds. A few years ago, I dug it all up and planted it in one bed. There's not enough to eat, but they are beautiful plants with  frilly leaves and red berries.


The wrens have just about grown up.


This is the first fawn I've seen in our yard this year although it may have been helping to eat some of our plants when I wasn't looking.






8 comments:

  1. You take the BEST pics! LOVE the katydid, although it's almost hard to see being the same green color as the plant. How were you able to take such a close up of the wrens? We actually had three large bucks in our front lawn. So weird, because we are in suburbia. Trying to figure out where they came from!

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    1. Talk about camouflage. The katydid was hard to see and I didn't notice it at first. I was trying to find the praying mantis I had seen earlier when I spotted it.

      The box that the wrens are in opens from the top, so I can look down in on them. It's much better this way because you don't disturb them much. This winter, I hope we can modify our other two nesting boxes, so they can be opened from the top.

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  2. I agree, your bug pictures are great. The celosia is so pretty!

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    1. The last two years, I've just let them seed themselves. I should have thinned them a little more this year, but they're still enjoyable.

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  3. You have much more interesting bugs in your yard! I've never seen a praying mantis or katydid, outside of pictures. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I'll have to admit, these are two of the more interesting looking ones.

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  4. Do you dry your basil?

    Like Lili, I'm not sure I've ever seen a katydid.

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    1. I probably should before I lose any more of it. For a while, it was beautiful. Growing well, lush and green. Then it seems like over night, it turned brownish and bugs started to eat it. I was very disappointed.

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What do you think?