More Bugs

Lots more.

Swarming all over the lily pad leaves in our back pond.

Thousands of them.

I had thought they were nymphs of some kind, but it turns out they are adults. Megamelus davisi, a species of plant hooper the specializes on water lilies.

Thanks to John Maxwell for figuring out what these critters are.

🐞  🐞  🐞  🐞  🐞

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Feeder Fail

In this post I wondered what was getting at the cakes in the new suet feeder.

It has gotten worse.

I had put two new cakes in the night before, restocking as it was gonna get very cold and the birds would need the food. The next morning I found this. Both cakes gone, the lid missing, and the wire mesh pulled away. I suspect raccoons, but I've no evidence to prove it.

🦝  😬  🦝  😬  🦝

There Was A Little Black Dot on the Sun Monday ...

... the Same Black Dot I Saw This Day ... *

This past Monday the orbital mechanics were such that the planet Mercury, the planet Earth, and the star Sun lined up with Mercury in the middle. And thus observers here on Earth, using suitable eye protection, could watch as Mercury transited across the face of the Sun.

Unlike the previous event, I observed this transit alone and from my yard.

The transit started at approximately 7:30 AM local time, but as our place is in the woods I needed to wait until the Sun cleared the trees. And I was also battling high thin clouds which acted a bit like a haze filter. But I saw it and was able to photograph it, although I'm a bit disappointed with the resulting images, Mercury is not tack sharp.

I first used a white light filter, essentially a neutral density filter that allows safe viewing of the Sun, on my 600 mm lens. I could not see Mercury in the viewfinder or on the view screen, even at 10x magnification. Unlike the prior transit, there were no sunspots to focus on, as we are at solar minimum. You'll need to bigafy the image and even then Mercury is a small black dot in the center of the yellow disk.

I then switched to my dedicated H𝛼 scope. And while I could see Mercury when looking directly through the scope, once more I could not see it when using the camera. You'll again need to bigafy and Mercury is below and right of center, in line with the "4 o'clock" position.

It was a rather frustrating day and at the time I did not think I managed any usable images. So I was glad when I looked again at the images on my computer. And I've plenty of time to practice before the next one in 2032.

🌞  🌞  🌞  🌞  🌞

* With apologies to the Police.

Worms

In the Ants post I mentioned looking under a log for worms for Patty. I didn't find any. Patty went looking in the yard and came up empty as well.

So she ordered some. You can get anything on the Internet these days.

And they came in this bag. 1000 of them.

Patty had prepared a home for them. A plastic tub with dirt from the garden, shredded newspaper, and kitchen scraps.

So far they seem to like their new digs.

Looks kinda crowded though.

🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛

Patty teaches first grade. And in school one day recently the discussion turns to composting. "Patty you compost, don't you?", "Yes, I do.", "Can you make a compost bin for school, just drill some holes in the lid of a plastic tub ...".

And that's why we have a tub of worms in our dining room. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

YAK

Yet Another Katydid. This one above our back door.

Short-winged Meadow Katydid, Conocephalus brevipennis.

This one I did not correctly identify on the first try. Fortunately one of my bug geek correspondents, John Maxwell, was able to set me straight. Interestingly, he made a similar mistake, which took almost ten years to be rectified on BugGuide. So I don't feel so bad about my ID requests languishing there.

🦗  🦗  🦗  🦗  🦗

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Winter Is Coming ...

... I better go get the shovel ...

Ants

Look closely and you'll see ants.

Lots of ants.

Except for the few pieces of salt hay it's all ants.

🐜  🐜  🐜  🐜  🐜

The ants are nesting under this log on our Bench Garden. I was looking under the log for worms for a school project for Patty (more on that later). I found no worms that day.