Oh interesting…didn’t know that - not that I know a lot about bats, but now I know just a little bit more. 
Saw a plump, smug-looking bunny sitting in our backyard this afternoon.
Hopefully, our backyard garden counts as Nature.
Yum!.
Wow, nice! Of course it counts.
A neighbor took this shot of an albino deer in our neighborhood. I haven’t seen it yet but I’m keeping an eye out! I think it would be so cool if it sticks around and grows up and we see it all the time. Then we could name it and people would be so excited when they saw it, but we’d be all casual, “Oh yeah, that’s Nellie.” 
Neat!
Also, leucistic rather than albino . That piebald effect is a dead giveaway. The dark eyes are also very tell-tale, though not quite 100% as the wiki notes.
Ah, yes, I knew that wasn’t the right word. It just sprang to mind so quickly.
City apartment living made me think I would rarely have anything to post but I saw something very cool/weird yesterday. I was canning tomatoes and came across three tomatoes that had seeds sprouting while still inside the tomato. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before so I looked up the possibility. Yep, it happens.
What I found really surprising about it is that the sprouting seeds weren’t within the overripe “canner” type tomatoes I had but in still-firm “roma” type shapes that were still firm to the touch. We’ve had a long, hot summer.
I had a Roma tomato like that a few years ago. It’s like I always say if someone finds a bug in the produce - that’s how you know it’s organic!
My mother used that line on me the first time she taught me to can. It was our own apples and I was totally grossed out (at age 10) to find a worm in one of the apples I was peeling.
The last few days that I have gone into the office, there is a wetlands area right near where I get on the highway, and I’ve seen a big old blue heron out there knee-deep in the water. I keep thinking I should stop and get a picture but I’d have to pull over and get out on the side of a busy highway and not sure it’s worth it.
Also, we are anxiously awaiting our first monarch butterfly. After years of talking about it, we finally planted some milkweed this year. A couple of weeks ago my wife found a couple of caterpillars chowing down on her plants. Then a few days later they were gone, but we noticed a chrysalis hanging under the lip of the capstones on our retaining wall. So now we’re just waiting for that guy to bust out. Any day now!
It’s time to close down my allotment for the year, so I’m clearing out beds and covering them up. I cleared this bed yesterday, and I was just about to cover it when I noticed…
(Damn, you’re going to have to click on the picture to see the full image in order to follow this story. Google Photos :sigh: sorry)
Suspicious, I thought. And had a little dig.
It’s chunks of magpie, so far as I can tell, almost certainly buried by a fox - the second time this has happened. Buried by a fox in the 24 hours since I cleared the bed - huh!
Buried by a fox but not necessarily (as Mrs T pointed out) killed by one. Female sparrow hawks can take down a bird that big, but it’s more than they can eat. And if a fox were to find what was left…
It’s all nature, eh?
j
For clarity, as @Tamerlane has kindly pointed out:
Indeed. Turkey Vulture hanging out in our yard yesterday. Walked all around searching for a corpse, but none to be found. He eventually flew off.
We missed our monarch emerging. The chrysalis was still green when I checked before I went to work yesterday. Forgot to look when I got home yesterday and before I left this morning. Checked when I got home tonight and all that was left was a shriveled empty transparent shell. Oh well, hopefully we have plenty more next year.
That’s how it’s been with us. Each year we plant more butterfly stuff, each year we’re blessed with more.
Sorry for you but yea for butterfly! Here’s to next year!
I didn’t go to church today, but I saw this guy praying.
Nice! I always get irrationally (rationally?) excited and happy when I spot a mantis.They’re around here, but not common enough where I live to take for granted. I probably run across one every couple of years.
My gf and I were doing yard work when I saw the mantis and we both became excited and happy!