A Murder Mystery

Monday I found this Northern Short-tailed Shrew lying in the garden path.

Dead. Obviously.

Clearly something had ripped it open. But why? And then why leave it?

These shrews are venomous, with a toxin strong enough to kill small mammals. Perhaps there were no winners in this encounter?

Or perhaps one of the cats we occasionally see in our yard killed this one and left it. That was my theory the last time.

Perhaps both are true and we won't be seeing that cat anymore.

But I suspect this will become a cold case and we'll never know the true story.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

If it anything like ours ...

... then it grows like crazy when you're not around!

Yep, thats a walk way.

💐🌷🌹🥀🌧🌻🌧🌼🌸🌺🎋

We went away for two weeks and returned to this overgrown cacophony of flowers. Apparently it rained a bit while we were gone (we had nothing but sunshine out west).

Of course the lawn grew just as much. So I'm looking a a Labor Day weekend of yard work.

Yay yard work! [/sarcasm off]

Hurricane's Edge

On our way back home from our Eclipse (and more!) trip to Oregon we passed through Dallas this past Sunday.

I had a window seat looking south as we took off.

This is what I saw.

The edge of the hurricane Harvey. The storm ravishing the the Texas coast.

Yet in Dallas, 225 miles from Houston, it was sunny, albeit with signs that of rain earlier in the day. We had been concerned that our flight would be delayed or canceled. But there were no issues.

⛈☔️⛈☔️⛈🌪⛈☔️⛈☔️⛈

There are plenty of issues further south. Click here to make a donation to the American Red Cross to help the victims of this storm.

Yard Critter of the Week - Yellow-necked Caterpillars

Or critters as the case may be ...

These are the same Yellow-necked Caterpillars featured in this post, grown up a bit, Datana ministra, continuing the assault on our Serviceberry Tree.

🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛

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

Yard Critter of the Week - Eastern Gray Squirrel

My mom's least favorite critter.

The Eastern Gray Squirrel.

Shown here eating the flying squirrel platform feeder.*

Perhaps the wood of the feeder absorbs something of the peanut butter we put on it. A residue the squirrel finds tasty and delicious.

Otherwise it is just an squirrel that thinks it's a termite.

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

🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿

* One of the many reasons mom is so un-enamored of these beasties is that they used to chew through the wiring of her car, while leaving dad's car, parted adjacent in the same driveway, untouched (un-toothed?). So they do have some peculiar eating habits.

Yard Critter of the Week - Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar

I was wandering about our back garden, looking at all the insects busying themselves in our Mountain Mint patch when I spotted some curious movement. A bit of brown, waving in the breeze.

Except, there was no breeze.

Intrigued I looked closer. And spotted this.

At first I wasn't sure if it was a creature of some sort, or just a bit of old leaf, perhaps stuck in some spider web, jiggling as other insects hit the web or the leaves it was attached to.

But no, this is a caterpillar. A Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar.

It takes bits of the plants it eats, it prefers flowers, and using silk it spins attaches them to its body. Here it has adorned itself with the dead flowers from the mountain mint; you can see a few of the brown flowers still on the mountain mint flower head.

This critter is small! It is just to the right of this conveniently located dime, which completely covers a mountain mint flower head.

The Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar becomes the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth. We'll be watching the moth sheet to see if this little fashionista makes it to moth-hood. And if it does I'll let you know.

🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛

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

Death in the Pines

Luna Moths are quite beautiful and in the adult stage live for one and one thing only: to make more Luna Moths.

To that end they are simply sex machines. They have no mouth parts and no digestive system.

And live for but a single week.

This year we seen a number in the yard; I've caught (and released) three. No breeding project this year.

But I've also found the remains of two in the yard this past week.

Eventually the food reserves built up by the caterpillar are exhausted. And the moth settles to the ground. One final landing.

The body, a tasty morel for some other yard critter. The wings a transient reminder of what was.