December 10, 2023

Martha O'Kennon It must be Autumn! The temperature has been about the same as last week's: even the water temperature has been about 50 degrees F, and so I have been feeding the fishes less and less. It has now rained several days in a row. The vegetation is thus quite green. The pond has not changed to the eye for a long time. A couple of Lily buds has been quiet all this time, and I've no evidence that Rocky has been fooling with them all week. In fact, I stopped feeding Rocky about a week ago. Here was the Pond on the morning of November 19. (The white flecks are fish food.)



Lets look at our Ants. Actually we have to decide which are Ants and which are Spiders and which might be Ant-mimic Spiders.



Remember that there is information in the name of the file for each image. You can see it by mousing over the image - look at the lower left of the screen. Or you can click on the image to get to the (usually) larger image. Then the info is displayed in the address line above. Sometimes the second click will actually display a different view of the original image.

Here are a couple of Barklice. There aren't very many of these out now that Winter is upon us. The second one is probably a good guess. Third is a little nest of Graphopsocus..



That seems to be it for the Barklice. So let's move on to the Beetles. Here we see a Redbud Seed Weevil, or Redbud Bruchid. Next is a Plant Bug. Third is one of the Leafhoppers, in genus Eratoneura.



First here is a Crane Fly. Then one of those Fungus Gnats with a lot of WIP color. Finally another kind of Crane Fly.







This next one I hadn't seen since 2020. This relative of the Hover Flies is the American Snout Fly (Rhingia nasica) and is drinking from one of the Bushy Asters. Picture 2 is from September 2015th and shows the snout more clearly. Next is a member of the genus Rhipidia, which the strange "pectinate" antennae tell us. Third is Cladura flavoferruginea, which Stephen Luk tells me is identifiable from its wing markings and its habit of appearing so late in the Fall. I've seen it for four or five days running.



Look at the eyes on this guy! They are large and iridescent! It is called a Woodpecker Fly, although I don't have a clue what the name has to do with the rather little bird called a Woodpecker. Picture 2 is from July 28, 2022. The third seems to have been riding a motorcycle with no helmet - look at that tousled hair! It is probably one of the Hump-backed Flies.



Down to the Moths! First is a tiny long-winged Moth called the Texas Gray (Glenoides texanaria), and second is a long little Looper, the larva of a Geometrid Moth.



Having seen all the Flies and Moths of the week, we traditionally take a Flower Walk through the botanical beauties of the yard. So off we go, this time starting with the little deck box containing the miniature Sage plants. They have only just begun to bloom rather prettily, but I'm glad I didn't pull them out of the box. Let's see if they can survive into next Spring! I hope you remember how gorgeous the Purple and the Pink Asters were as they bloomed in panoramic scenes just a week or so ago. Well, they are now OVER with. But a strange thing has happened. A couple of much smaller-flowered Asters have shown up. Here is one with small bluish blossoms in a place where the large-flowered banks of Asters were NOT. And another with tiny white flowers - these were ID'ed as "Bushy Asters". Note: the Bluish flowers are much larger than the White ones.



But as you will see from these shots, the Bushy Asters look different from day to day. The yellow centers turn redder and redder each day. And unlike the ordinary Asters, they bloom on branches that go longer and longer.



One long spray of tiny Bushy Asters!



One more colorful scene - the Euonymus by the front of the house is getting redder and redder. The Birds will enjoy those red seeds all Winter.



And now, my friends, that was about IT for blooming plants. So let's see what we saw in the way of Spiders. The Common House Spiders were the most frequent of all I saw. They love their prey! Picture 2 is a kind of joke as it looks as if the Spider's head had popped off! Picture 3 may be a Spider with an Ant prey item.



First, a large Crab Spider. Then a grey Spider, the Broad-faced Sac Spider, Trachelas tranquillus, followed by what looks like a relative in the CGI box. @huttonia says it is a Ghost Spider in Family Anyphaenidae, then in genus Hibana or Anyphaena. So they AREN'T relatives, but it surely fooled me!



Here is some kind of Octopus Spider.



Since it has gotten so chilly and dark, it is hard to see the Frogs very well. They have become much less friendly with us humans, and duck into any hole they can find in the pond lining when they see us coming. The same thing happened last year - but remember how joyous a day it was in this past Spring when those few big Frogs finally came up to catch some Sun!



How about our beloved Fishes? They still have moments at which hunger brings them to the surface when I sing to them, but they are eating much less and staying down much more of the time! They had a wonderful Summer though, of growth and delight. Here are a few of our Fishes in the past week.



So here we have a week with no sunshine and very little warmth, and a forecast that doesn't offer much more meteorological magic. But you know how it is, suddenly in the darkest moments, a cloud will lift and we will remember what we're here for - namely to keep our spirits high and help to infect the world with our joy and resolve to bring our better climate back to earth.

Love, Martha



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