Backyard Look, Part 2

This is Part 2 of some things I saw in our backyard. Part 1 was about plants, and Part 2 is about things with multiple legs.

Every few years, after spending years underground, a major emergence of cicadas occurs somewhere. I have experienced these hordes of cicadas, and they are deafening, among other things. These cicada appearances get a lot of publicity.

However, there never seems to be a mention of the yearly cicadas like we have. And, quite frankly, I'm getting irritated with them. Their song is loud and annoying. I know the birds are still around, but I can't hear them over the cicadas. 

Complaining is done, so here is the rest of the story. Cicadas don't cause major plant damage and serve as food for many birds I struggle to hear. (I admit all of this grudgingly, because I'm still annoyed, so maybe I'm not done complaining. 😀)

Anyway, now for a few pictures of some more things in my backyard. 

A cicada hole that was made so it could emerge from the ground. It's about the diameter of a pencil.

Molted cicada exoskeletons. This happens as the nymphs change into adults.

Adult Linne's cicada. These are native to the eastern US and emerge every year.

Moving on to other insects, this caterpillar was still wiggling, but the ants were able to drag it across the driveway.

We've seen a few swallowtails on the butterfly bush, and yesterday I saw a monarch. However, not as many butterflies visit as I had hoped. This volunteer plant came from Aunt Martha's yard. I was excited to plant it because her bush was usually covered with butterflies. Ours has never looked like that.

A yellow garden spider has taken up residence in one of our bushes. They are quite common, although I don't remember seeing one before. This is a female, and she is still constructing her web in this picture. Notice the characteristic zig-zag in the web.

Now see how much better the zig-zag has developed. If you look very carefully, you will see little dots on the web. Those are egg sacks. The male spider builds a small web in the area of the female's and, after fertilizing her eggs, he dies. The yellow garden spider usually stays in place for the entire summer. This one has been here for about a week and a half. I hope it stays for the rest of the summer.

Transverse banded drone fly. These flies like nectar, much like the bees they are mimicking.

These surprise lilies don't have a bug on them for you to see. I forgot to include them in Part 1, so I'm including them here because they will be gone before I do my next backyard post. 

Until next time...

A Second Look--October 28, 2015

The remnants of Hurricane Patricia are coming today bringing with them a lot of rain. It's amazing to me that a system that started in the Pacific could make it all the way across the country over the varying topography and still have this much rain left in it. Weather and climate are such complex things, I'm not sure we'll ever totally understand them. Or at least that's how I felt after I took a class about them in college.

The leaves are at their peak now and color abounds. Such a beautiful sight everywhere you turn. Since dark is encroaching the day much earlier, I haven't had as much time when I'm at home to do Second Looks. In fact, I didn't go to the back 40 of the yard at all this week. However, I will share with you a few pictures on trees in the front part of the yard as they are showing their colors. There is about a week's range in the pictures and you can see how much the colors changed during that time.

Also, when we visited a local park on Sunday, I talked to the naturalist there about the curious-looking spider I showed you recently during another Second Look. With her help, we determined that is was a lattice orbweaver spider. Although the internet is very helpful with these questions, talking to a real person is even better.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Female downy woodpecker.

Lattice orbweaver spider (Araneus thaddeus) The white thing on it's back is actually its abdomen. Once again, I've never seen anything like that.