Thanks FTM to get rid of that non picture nightmare. Nice photos - your flutteby is a Gray Hairstreak - pretty.

Great pics, FTM!! I love the gray hairstreak! Those striped antennae are so cool.

Is that popular host plant a Salvia? The flowers look a lot like one of those, but it could just be in the mint family.

LOL @ earwig turds! Did you ever figure out what the first thing is? Crazy!

Brenda

thanks, ct on that very fast id! i also love the striped antennae.

that plant is a 5 foot tall giant yellow hyssop, to the best of my knowledge. good eye about the mint family, brenda. i have learned to look before sticking my nose in a flower anymore. yeesh! especially when it is such a tempting specimen as a fragrant lily. the first pic is a pseudoscorpion.

Cool pictures FTM, is the pseudo scorpion poisonous? If so then holy poop it was in your shower!!! I thought they were desert animals, what is it doing in your shower?
I love your butterfly's striped antenna! I thought that was its tongue at first. LOL...I know im not right in the head :) I like your turd lily too, glad you didn't sniff it! I love the way lilies smell so i bet i have snorted up a few turds too!!! EWWWWWW *I feel sick*
Bonnie

lol, bonnie! pseudoscorpions are false scorpions, so i'd say not poisonous. at least, not to us. i read they eat earwig eggs! yes! come one, come all!

Earwigs and click beetles give me the heebie jeebies and not much makes me skittish.

I'm such a dork!! I thought "pseudoscorpion" meant you weren't sure what it was, so you called it that. LOL Hey, any critter that eats earwig eggs is a friend to me! I've never seen a click beetle, but the name alone sounds scary!

LOL!!!! @ Bonnie! That is hilarious. I would feel nauseous, too, if I'd thought I sniffed insect turds. LOL

Brenda

well, randy...you see how patiently i answered your question? :) i can completely understand, as i would have made the same mistake...assuming i were intelligent and eloquent enough to dub it "pseudo!"

i have only seen small click beetles, so not much there reaction-wise for me. although, earwigs can be small too but i still get the creeps. now that you mention it, ticks aren't large either and i get the creeps...

Once again, no photos from Randy, but hopefully, I'll be able to redeem myself with some accounts of things I've witnessed and heard. :D

Account #1 - While up at my folks' this weekend, Mom spotted a praying mantis on one of her plants. I then noticed that it was eating a grasshopper (YIPPEE!!). It was so cool watching it bite into the critter and chew. LOVE those mantises!

THEN, some wasps that we commonly refer to as "meat bees" started taking interest in the mantis's meal. They would fly up, try to land, and get smacked away by the mantis! Its reflexes were so strong and fast, we could hear the whacking sound and see the wasps hitting the ground! At one point, the mantis even let one wasp nibble on the back end (less tender? LOL) of the grasshopper, while it continued to munch on the front. As long as the wasps didn't infringe too much on the mantis's area, everything was dandy. :D

Account #2 - The barn owl has really been vocal in the early morning hours here. It seems to be on a routine of sorts, feeding, or making noise, every couple of days or three. The other morning, when the barn owl seemed to be taking a break, I heard another sound which I can only describe as a "deep, resonating" hoooOOO, hoo-hoo-hoo, repeated just like that, over and over, with breaks in between. No gutteral sounds, though. Another type of OWL?!

I've tried looking for this sound ALL over the place online, but I can't seem to nail it down. When I first heard it, I thought it surely was an owl. It has that classic owl sound to it, but then again, I've never heard a "classic" owl sound in person. LOL

Then, due to call descriptions in my book, I thought it might be a band-tailed pigeon, but the sounds online just don't match. However, none of the owl sounds seem to match, either! And it's definitely not one of the Eurasian collared doves (or ringed-necked turtle doves?) which have been hanging around.

The sound is VERY deep and VERY resonating (almost a bass sound), and yesterday morning, DH and I heard BOTH the barn owl and this mysterious creature at the same time!

I sure hope we can ID this soon....before it's gone! I'm so tempted to get a night-vision something-or-other so we can put this mystery to rest!

Brenda

Brenda, could your bird sound be coming from a Mourning Dove? The first time I heard one, I was sure it was an owl.

Neat pictures fairy toadmother!

Here is a link that might be useful: link to mourning dove sounds

Fantastic description of the praying mantis and bees - no pictures needed!

Could your owl be a great horned owl? I think they are the standard "owl sound" ....

Here is a link that might be useful: Great horned owl

Thanks so much for the input, Pk & Jean!

We have heard mourning doves down the road during the day, so I'm sure it's not one of those. However, the call pattern was almost identical to the one on Cornell's site. The tone was FAR deeper and more resonant, though. It was coming from right behind the house, and the barn owl's screeching was from the large tree right in front of our house.

You know, I could have sworn when I listened to the great horned owl sound the other day on Cornell's site that it was nothing like the one we heard, but...now, it sounds so CLOSE! LOL From what I've read on that site, I wonder, if it IS a GH owl, if it might eventually hunt down and kill my darling barn owl?? Ack! I hope they can live in harmony! This whole experience is like something ingested from the 60s. LOL Too weird.

Brenda

Hey Brenda maybe you have a creepy neighbor messing with everybody?!!!! LOL.....Just kidding, i thought that would be funny to say. Love your description of the mantis and wasps, way COOL! I hope they can live in harmony ( the owls ) that is. I love a story as well as a pic, fine by me. Let us know what happens with the hooty hoots. Bonnie

LOL!! Bonnie, I would NOT be surprised if it WAS a neighbor, the way things have been going around here lately. I have an air gun, though. I don't think he wants to make my day. :D

No noise from the back or front 40 (more like 0.05...:D) recently. I'll let you all know when, if, how, why, where...

Brenda