It’s been rainy, and there’s a lone firefly blinking at random in my backyard. Considering I don’t usually see them unless I head out towards the swampy areas, I’m charmed that one is visiting me here at home.
I sometimes get a firefly in my bedroom at night. Outside there are a little dot of light. Inside a dark room with dark-adjusted eyes, they are practically a strobe light.
I found some pretty orange mushrooms that someone pointed out were highly valued and highly expensive (more than $200 a pound?) chanterelle mushrooms and not some random poisonous type. Unfortunately, mine were growing inside of a patch of poison ivy, putting them squarely back in the “attempting to eat these could be a major mistake” category. I think I’ll just clear the poison ivy and keep my eyes out for a future crop.
I’ve mentioned before the numbers of foxes round these parts, in part due (presumably) to the fact that our neighbor feeds them. She’s been keen for me to try to take some photos of feeding time for her - these are actually the third attempt:
and
They’re not great quality - sorry. They’re just done on a phone; I’ve been trying to increase the amount of light and reduce the distance, both things that the foxes are wary of. So for photography they’re a bit far away and the light is poor. And they’re somewhat skittish, because they’re not used to me; and because my neighbor’s dog was going beserk (locked in the kitchen but aware that something interesting was going on and she wasn’t part of it).
Gonna try again Sunday. If I can do better I’ll post more.
j
Wow. 
We have foxes around here (theoretically), but it’s pretty unusual to see one. They’re beautiful animals.
Another alligator picture! Sorry, but that’s what I’m seeing in nature these days. (I didn’t think y’all’d be interested in the dead armadillo).
Little gator in the flooded cow pasture:
My first time driving in Florida I saw a road-killed armadillo and was excited to see it.
Today I saw something I have never seen before. A lot of the path verges in the grounds of Arundel Castle have been left to grow wild, and in a clump of wild flowers we saw this fella:
The photo doesn’t quite do him justice - that green is absolutely iridescent. Here’s his wiki:
Sorry about the gobbledegook there - not sure what’s happening. Anyways, I say I have never seen one before, but I have seem something like it, but not in a context that you would expect. We were in Smallhythe Place in Kent.
The dress is on display there and is extraordinary. This blog actually has clearer images than the National Trust page:
j
If I were going to post a gif, it’d be one of those Warner Brothers cartoon reactions to seeing Bugs Bunny dressed up as a girl. (Eyes pop out, jaw hits the floor, heart pounding out of chest, etc.)
Phil knew that he would be snubbed by the prettiest girl on the woodblock, but he didn’t know that it would hurt. This. Much.
I still can’t quite figure this out. Is it a reaction to the bug or the dress?
j
( 
)
Both! It was a really interesting article too. They didn’t even have to kill the beetles to get the wing sheaths.
I saw the classic “Make way for ducklings!”
I was driving down the main north-south thoroughfare, six lanes of traffic, and saw something small slowly crossing the road quite a ways ahead.
Got closer and thought, “Can’t be!”
Got closer still.
Yep, Mama Duck and three little ducklings, slowly crossing the main drag. The one in the rear kept stopping to sniff and scratch himself a bit, slowing things down, and then would suddenly run to catch up to the others.
And all the cars stopped, and we all watched Mama Duck and her little family amble across the road, heading towards the park with the lake.
Average clutch size is 8-15, so that was Mama Duck and her three surviving ducklings.
There’s a skink in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza…
Cool!
Not her first trip across the road.
A chatty neighbor.
I have a tree-frog with unpredictable habits. At any time of the year, a chorus (maybe 10-20) will suddenly begin within a few minutes of 6-pm. It may be almost every day for two months, or just one day out of the blue. after 6 months ol silence. A chorus begins in tight unison , but then y by tailing off with a few lingering single chirps, afteer 2-30 minutes duration… The pattern is regardless of rainfall. A couple of times, there were two separate choruses, maybe 20 meters apart.
I saw one once on our porch, fairly non-descript. This is in the Philippine, where rainfall and sunset are pretty uniform. After a long absence, they were back three days ago, for just one day, about 5 minutes, Heavy thunderstorms occurred two days later.
Was up very early, having my tea on the porch, just as the sun was coming up. When, from between the driveways, out pops a mamma raccoon and three babies waddling along behind as they made their way across the road and headed up the ally across the street.
They were pretty cute and I watched till they were all across the road successfully. Then, unexpectedly, a fourth baby suddenly appeared and waddled out into the road! Wow! That’s a lot for a mamma to wrangle, poor thing!
Just as the fourth managed to cross the street a fifth baby appeared, lagging behind the squad, as it were. Soon they were altogether, a family of six, waddling, wiggling, wonders.
Adorable!
(Times must be good for a mamma to have five babies, yes?)