Science Experiment of the Day – The Daily What.
I know I posted this at Facebook yesterday, but I’m testing the Press This plugin (dunno why I’ve never bothered with it before) and this seemed like a good test subject. Have you seen it? Video of a clump of fire ants in water? Fascinating!
See the big rip in its wing? Looks like it may have found our milkweed just in time. It seems too tuckered to go much farther.
This photo by Rose.
…………….“…I am scorched
…………….to realize once again
…………….how many small, available things
…………….are in this world
…………….that aren’t
…………….pieces of gold
…………….or power—
…………….that nobody owns
…………….or could buy even
…………….for a hillside of money—
…………….that just float
…………….in the world…”
………—from the poem “Summer Story” by Mary Oliver,
………which is about a hummingbird and the human heart
He was gone before I could get a non-blurry photo. A pity—he was posing so nicely!
(We’re pretty sure.)
I love those blue dots.
But what the heck IS it??
It flew over the fence, stopped for a brief sip, and zoomed off again. In this picture it has a kind of preying mantis shape, doesn’t it? Except for those copper-colored wings. Could those curly antennae be any cuter?
UPDATE: Dude!!! Tracy identified this beastie in the comments. It seems we have ourselves a (gulp) tarantula hawk wasp.
Tarantula hawk wasps are so named because they utilize live tarantulas as food for their growing young. Adult tarantula hawks are not carnivorous, but drink nectar just as honey bees do. But when a female tarantula hawk is ready to lay an egg, she must find a tarantula, sting it (with one of the most potent stings of any North American insect) and drag the paralyzed spider to its burrow, as shown in this photograph. The wasp will then lay a single egg on the spider, which will soon hatch into a maggot-like larva. The larva will feed on the still-living, but paralyzed tarantula for about a month. The adult wasp will emerge from the burrow the following season. Tarantula hawks may look intimidating, but are generally mild-mannered towards humans. Nonetheless, one should never attempt to pick up or molest a tarantula hawk as the sting is extraordinarily painful!
From the San Dieguito River Park website; thanks for that very helpful link, Tracy!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shudder.
…all my photos look the same.
Same salvia, same bees, same blur.
Can’t be helped. I am powerless to resist those blues, those greens, those coppery wings, this pointed face buried in blossom.
You understand, don’t you?
(You’re just lucky I’m not into spiders.)
Last Monday we drove ninety miles east to the Desert View Tower. I’d been meaning to take the kids there for months. Amazing view and irresistible climbing-rocks, that’s what everyone says about the place.
We’ll have to take their word for it.
Jane and I thought the sign alone—”blight or famine”?—made the trip worthwhile, but some members of the back seat brigade opined otherwise.
We all loved seeing the wind farm, though.
A ballet of giants: breathtaking.
The desert was spread with a threadbare quilt of tiny yellow flowers. Any of you know what these are called?
And as long as I’m asking for IDs, how about this skipper I spotted in the backyard? Anyone? Bueller?
Not a great picture, so I don’t know if you can see the markings well enough to identify it. Can you see what a curious at-rest position its wings have? The top wings are perpendicular to the bottom wings. I’ve never seen that before.
Jane and I had had hopes of finding new-to-us butterflies in the desert, but sometimes you have to rely on your own backyard.
Photos by Jane, except the butterfly.
