the cave dwellers

Last week was freakishly hot and humid...and this week was almost like fall.  Pepita spent a lot of time rolling on the ground outside and I felt like doing the same!  While keeping a sharp eye out for ANYTHING changing colors/looking like a sign of fall...

...I also enjoyed the last of the mid-summer flowers.  

Guys, you're facing the wrong way!  The garden's over there!

Another sign of the advancing season...tiger bee flies are back!  Telltale signs include white drips on the porch...

...larvae cases sticking out of carpenter bee holes on the upper portion of the deck...

...and, of course, the bees themselves.

They hatch, they mate...

terrible cell phone pic

...and they're gone. 

Lots of wasps are making nests right now.  We've got paper wasps building nests on the porch and in some of our bushes...

...and grass wasps carrying long strands of vegetation into pre-drilled holes for nesting.

Cooler weather gives me a great opportunity to actually be outside...and see things!

raccoon print in the mud

eastern box turtle shell

a skipper

Todd's and my 17th anniversary was this past week.  We decided to go to Bluespring Caverns and take the longest underground boat tour in the U.S.!  I got a photo of our walk deep into the cavern...

...but unfortunately, a cell phone that takes fairly terrible pics in broad daylight is not going to do well in a dark cave.  Oh, well!

At home, Frances is finally reaching his potential as the fat, lazy cat I knew he could be if he just put in the work.

Of course, he's earned his rest...he works hard at keeping Pepita in line, mostly by sitting on her leash so that she's unable to move.

He is a great  partner in crime to the Barnacle (what we call Barnabas 90% of the time), too.

Still not allowed on the dining room table, not that they care much about that!

Pepita is still learning "Be nice to the cats!"  She sees them as romping partners, or maybe big squeaky toys.  

the side-eye

It will just take time.  This whole experience is definitely teaching me patience.  Oh...and SOMEONE took a very important test recently.  It turns out that Pepita is NOT an Australian Shepherd...not even a little bit.

(Her "supermutt" is Australian cattle dog, chihuahua, pug, collie, and German shepherd)

It's probably a good thing.  We rather impulsively adopted her without considering the breed.  I read belatedly that Australian shepherds are incredibly high-energy, tend to bark, can be suspicious of those outside the family...I'm glad that our lower-energy people-loving mutt is exactly who she is.

Have a great week!   

"fawned" of the babies

 The garden is in full swing!

I took these photos a week or so ago and so many more things are blooming now.  

And again I say...where did all these CONEFLOWERS come from?!?  I only planted a few, but apparently, they spread.  No complaints, though!

Coneflowers are great for pollinators.  Sure, you have the usual butterflies, but also bees, of course.

southern plains bumblebee

The stiff, full petals provide great cover for them at night, or during the rain.  You can see a bee peeking out here, checking to see if the coast is clear!

I also spotted this tiny green lacewing egg last week.

Caterpillars, like this Eupithecia moth one, love them too.

I'm getting some great variants.

I picked a big armful of them yesterday and have made some beautiful bouquets!  

In the heat of summer, lots of interesting things around.  Caterpillars...

pipeville swallowtail

sycamore tussock moth

...and moths, of course.

harnessed tiger moth

banded tussock moth

Other interesting fliers...our tiger bee flies are back!!

Tiger bee flies lay eggs in carpenter bee holes, and their larvae eat the bee larvae.  We have an excess of carpenter bees, so they are definitely welcome here.  When I start seeing white drops on the porch rails and larval casings on the ground...

...I know that it's tiger bee fly time!

I've also found some great eggshells this week.

cowbird

robin

Now, a few weeks ago I mentioned that there was definitely a fawn or two around.  Finally, the trail cams confirmed.  BABIES!!

Now that he's getting older, I'm starting to see him in the yard, too.

Our apple tree is absolutely overloaded with apples...

...so he's got plenty to eat!  

So much going on that it's hard to keep up.  Have a great week!

a bit of fun from the trail cam

oh baby

I'm loving our new habit of daily morning walks.  Even the humidity has a silver lining:  the hazy air is beautiful in the sunlight!

At home, the ducklings may be nearly grown, but it's quite clear that it's still very much baby time for many others.  So much activity!

Sarcophaga Flies

Squash Bugs

"baby" Squash Bug

Skippers

Milkweed Bugs

flirtin' Spicebush Swallowtail

Twice-Stabbed Stink Bugs

Tiger Bee Flies

Squash Lady Beetle Eggs

Everyone is hurrying to mate, lay eggs, and for those young who won't be overwintering in eggs: a chance to live their brief life before winter comes.  Those recently born are doing what they can...

...like this Cecropia moth.  The pulsating body told me that it had recently hatched.  It has no mouthparts and cannot feed...its brief two-week life will be spent mating and/or laying eggs.

A group Tiger Bee flies, too, just "hatched" on the front porch. I've been absolutely fascinated by their mini drama!  I kept finding these strange shells dropping from our porch ceiling:

It turns out that these are Tiger Bee larval shells.  

These, too, kept falling.  They seemed to be immature carpenter bees:

I kept an eye on things, and was soon rewarded.

Tiger Bee flies don't sting or bite.  They're great pollinators, and they also have been helping us in another way:  they lay eggs in carpenter bee holes.  Their larvae hatch and devour carpenter bee larvae, which is why I kept finding those bee corpses.  We definitely have a excess of carpenter bees so this is a great development!  

Strange, though, that all of the new adults were dripping a white liquid. 

It turns out that it's meconium!  In their pupal state, they don't excrete.  When they emerge, they pump the liquid through their wing "veins" to help harden them.  Once they are fully filled out, they simply drip out the excess.  So interesting!  

Caterpillars, like this Tiger Swallowtail, are eat, eat, eating to prepare for their pupal stage.

This little guy was on the dill that I'd potted up on our porch steps, and I checked his progress every day.  Yesterday, though, he was gone.  Maybe he's made a chrysalis somewhere nearby!  

In other baby news, our young "chogs" have finally grown and left the nest.  We've gone from seeing them multiple times a day to a complete absence, and it's about time...it only takes about 44 days for young groundhogs to mature and leave the nest!  We're worried that a fox has moved in, though, judging from the smell and the increased digging.  A trail cam will be set up soon to verify!  

Phew!  It's been busy, but I'm loving it.  We're getting things done despite the suddenly-hot weather...

...but a little time to relax, too.

Have a great week!