debris

Living in nature is not neat, or comfortable, or predictable. Services like water and power are not automatic. The weather throws surprises. Even worse is the predictable "yard waste" clean up after a flood or winds, and the mud.

In nature, things are rarely where they are "supposed" to be. However, finding the unexpected is why it's worth it.

All caterpillars are bulking up as the nights cool again. But these guys are the heavyweights. A sphinx moth caterpillar. It appeared under some elm trees after a hailstorm. On my nature walks, the biggest caterpillar can be larger than the smallest snake!

This is not a sphinx moth. It is a pink sweetheart moth and is huge (width of your hand). Not the biggest, but these very large moths are appearing now for a brief period. The rain usually puts a damper on the moth numbers and varieties, but the ones you see are pretty breath-taking. This species has bright pink underwings.It flashes the color as a "dazzle" while it escapes.

Moths are camoflage and dazzle specialists. This one is easy to see on the "wrong" background, but it could also easily pass as a dried leaf if it changes the outline to being more irregular. The soft fur fringes along the trailing edge of the wings deadens the sound of flapping. The wings themselves are covered in tiny slippery scales that absorb sound, too.

At night the moths fly to the flowers, but they shelter in the leaf litter during the day. You can often hear loud rustlings in the undergrowth that comes from the noisy towhee birds as they shake the dry leaves. This behaviour is to try and scare the moths into flying away and revealing themselves. While moths have no stingers, some species often squirt a foul goop to distract predators as they escape.

The sunflowers continue to provide abundant pollen for all insects. Native bees are covered in pollen. In this picture you can also see the tiny flowers clustered tightly. The seeds will grow below these flowers and feed songbirds and other insects long into the winter and the following spring.

nature can be very annoying, especially to an amateur. This beautiful hognose snake was not going to wait around for a photo op, and rushed off the dusty trail into a clump of grasses. There, it tied itself into a writhing, ungrabbable knot. These snakes often play dead and poop on themselves as protection. They rarely use their short fangs, and their bite is barely venomous. They are usually very mellow and easily handled. This one was far more active than is usual. As it was clearly not in the mood for socializing, I took the best picture I could, and moved on. Snakes are not bad guys.

A good story always needs an awesome villian. Here is one of the best; meet the adult female squash bug. An indestructable, proliferative monster. These bugs are impossible to remove from soft young plants once they begin to hatch. They stink too, and move just like an evil monster should, all jerky and unpredictable. They grow to pretty big sizes, and become pests on all the prize plants in a vegetable garden. It will not mattre what you do, they are unstoppable. They wither away the green produce long before it can look facebook worthy.

Never underestimate good public relations. This bug also stinks, is prolific, and the larvae are ugly. It is also a destructive insect, but only kills aphids. So humans grow and release these insects in large numbers. Helps to have friends who write storybooks about you.

The trumpet flowers attract great numbers of insects. This yellow spider crab sticks out a bit, but I have noticed these arachnids will hide under the edge of the flower's edge and ambush anything. This small bee is not going to get the chance to learn to avoid it.

This day lilly's ancestors were likely in someone's garden. Now it grows wild along the side of the road. Roadside verges are unique enough that they could be considered their own ecosystem. Tarmac has many challenges and benefits for life.

I don't know what this plant is, but it is growing in the cracks of the asphalt. Few other plants have the ability to grow here. Without any competition, this plant is growing fast. But notice the blades of grass that will eventually outcompete this plant.

But grow too fast, like these sunflowers, and those top heavy plants will topple as their shallow roots are ripped out of the ground in high winds. This lack of space for roots is often why trees fall in a forest, but not at the forest edges.

The rain will lead to an explosion of small winged insects very soon. Once the sun comes out, the lizards are going to be very busy putting a dent in those numbers.

Every animal is better adapted to some environments than others. This mouse was swept into the arroyo by the flooding. They can be strong swimmers, but water is not their natural habitat. People's houses usually are.

The hallmark of biology, what it is famous for, in fact; is the ability to adapt. This coopers hawk is well known for being a bird catcher. This one was acting oddly, so I took some time to study the behaviour.

Turns out, today it was hunting cicadas. It took 20 minutes to eat this one. It holds the carcass down with those yellow feet and plucked out the gooy bits very delicately. Nature surprises in all it's nuances.