No Shortage of Fall Natural Wonders

In these first weeks of fall, we have been

richly blessed with sights and sounds of

natural wonders all around.  Like this

uncommon early morning rainbow Judy saw.

And how about this cooperative praying mantis who
posed on our birdbath?

He's the only insect that can turn his head.
But he didn't try to prove it that day,
ignoring me completely.

Checking under logs around our woodpile to see
what we could discover we were delighted to find
North Carolina's wonderful Red-spotted Newt.
Click that link to learn more about this salamander.

The link shows the remarkable changes in appearance
the newt undergoes during its life cycle.

The same day, this butterfly decided to put on a show
for Bri and Hunter.

In this humorous video, they observe the 

butterfly, shrieking with delight when it

takes off.  They are off in hot pursuit to

keep up, crouching to watch it again.

Hunter keeps blowing on its wings, I guess

to help it fly.  Finally we mercifully leave

it alone.

I'm sure you've seen plenty of these

beautiful colors around courtesy of

crape myrtles and dogwoods.

Bri and Hunter didn't have a monopoly

on wild things.  Claire and Evan got to

watch this hump-backed orb-weaver at work.

Next to watching a spider build a web, the

second coolest thing is to feed them.  Not

many bugs were handy, but I found a small

sowbug (pillbug/roly-poly bug) and tossed

it into the web.  After a few moments, its

slight twitching assured the spider it wasn't

just the wind, and he made his move.

Here's about a minute of video of the

spider tightly wrapping his tasty morsel,

perhaps to save for an evening snack.

That wasn't the last nature discovery that

day.  Out in our field, we noticed small 

flying insects floating everywhere.  I tracked

them down to a spot on the ground and called

Judy and the kids over.  These are ants setting

out to establish new colonies for next spring.

No wonder we have the little anthills everywhere.

Not to be confused with winged termites, which

also swarm seasonally.

Well, how's that for a full load of nature, 

without even leaving the yard.  Gotta go now,

though.  It's time to feed the spider!