National Geographic in our front yard

It always seems that our yard could be a location for National Geographic. There is always something interesting to see.

Here are some scenes from this weekend:

First off, Tony heard a chirping, so moved his flashlight to the sound. It was unfortunate that what he saw was a hummingbird that had been caught by a orb weaver spider - Yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia).




We tried to save the hummingbird, but the spider had already given it the fatal bite and it died just seconds after we removed it from the web.


We have a lot of these beautiful moths that just hang out all over our plants at night. I haven't figured out what kind of moth it is yet.




And the other night, me and Emily spent over three hours watching a cicada nymph morph into a cicada. The nymphs will spend 13-17 years underground, then all of a sudden they all start crawling out in droves to become cicadas. This appears to be the year for them to come out, as we have shells from them all over every vertical surface.

Here is what unfolded:


This is the nymph who had just crawled up from the ground. He is still covered in dirt, and although he is ugly, we grew to see him as cute in his own special way. He crawled around for a long time looking for just the right place to morph.

After a while, he started splitting open and emerging. It was interesting to be there and watch as he quivered and shook while slowly coming out.

And finally, he emerged as a beautiful cicada! I'm still looking up the species, but it is beautiful. It took until 11am the next morning for the cicada to finally fly for the first time.




And just a few more random photos: