Really Neat Bird Video

Dino found this great high speed video (1000 frames/second) of an Eagle Owl landing on a perch.  Here's a short youtube version, but you can see a longer version here.  I am entranced by how the feathers move as it lands.

When Is a Bug True?

On my way back from a walk several days ago, I was greatly distracted by the creek we have to ford on the way to our house. It's still got some water in it, not much but enough to attract all sorts of critters.  I watched flame and widow skimmer dragonflies and took a picture of a wildflower I haven't been able to identify yet. Then I saw these bugs - ha! You should have known there would be insects.

I sent off a query to the excellent What's That Bug web site and I got a wonderfully detailed reply a few days later.  Turns out, they were: "...two immature individuals of a species of Giant Water Bug in the genus Abedus, based on this image of Abedus herberti posted to Bug Guide. The yellow individual in your photos and the BugGuide image are newly molted nymphs in the teneral stage, meaning that their exoskeleton has not yet hardened and darkened. Insects are especially vulnerable immediately after metamorphosis. We believe the dark individual in your photos, also a nymph, is taking advantage of its weaker coeval by preying upon it. Of course, your photos do not reveal the final outcome, and the teneral individual may have actually been the victor in this food chain drama."

Cannibals! The reply went on to describe typical habitat, which was quite accurate for where I found the bugs. And these are what is known as "true" bugs, not that I know why some bugs are true and others are not. The males carry the fertilized eggs on their backs and pictures of this behavior look absolutely disgusting and fascinating at the same time.  Yes, these are of the Toe Biter clan.

First August Update

The vegetable garden is starting to die down - the cucumbers are tapering off heavily, and the green beans are done.  The delicata squash is still ripening.  Tomatoes have been disappointing overall, although we are getting enough to have in our salad every day.  I had grand thoughts of having bushels that I would have to make into sauce and so on. 

This year I also planted some soup beans, i.e. beans intended for drying.  It was an interesting experiment and although we haven't eaten any of the beans yet, if they are anything like the beans I've gotten in the past from Rancho Gordo which sells these heirloom varieties, they will be delicious.  I bought the seeds from Seeds of Change, which offers organic and heirloom seeds of all sorts.  I planted one of the raised beds with two varieties:  Yellow Indian Woman and Tiger Eye. 

Dino has been working on the shop building - the electrician finished up last week (well nearly, there are a couple of minor details still outstanding.)  Some of the equipment we had in the garage got moved down to the shop, and we've been discussing how to reorganize. 

We've been greatly amused by the Acorn Woodpeckers, who seem to have a bit of a sweet tooth, as evidenced by their frequent visits to the hummingbird feeders.

Number 88! Also, Fun at the River

Last night, while seated at the supper table, we spied the lovely fast swoops and dives of a flock of Barn Swallows in the area at the front of the house.  I'd seen them a few days ago while watering my vegetables, but wasn't quite comfortable in my identification.  I believe I speak for us both when I say that we hope they caught a very large number of those dang grasshoppers, which are a plague again this year.  Although these birds are not uncommon by any means, this was our first ID here.  Dryad Ranch species # 88: Barn Swallow!

We had house guests last weekend, and a fun time was had by all.  Nothing like being able to head down to the river to dangle one's feet in the coolth:

Hilarity Amongst the Tomatoes

Dryad Ranch was blessed last week with an overnight visit from my son, who was on the first leg of a cross country road trip to his new home in Washington DC.  His fiancee just started a new job with the Department of Energy and it's been just a tad stressful for them the last several weeks.  (Yours truly can hardly wait till August for the big matrimonial event.)  Of course, there had to be a photo op and what better place than the tomato patch? 

The raised beds that were built for this year's vegetable garden are proving to be ever so much more productive than our straw bale attempt last year.  We've been eating cucumber salad every day for a couple of weeks and have practically forced some of the overflow onto friends and neighbors.  (I still have a lovely freshly-picked selection right now as a matter of fact, if anyone's interested.)  We're about done with green beans, I think, maybe we'll get one more meal out of those.  I've also done the first picking of a couple of varieties of heirloom soup beans - they did well, but should really be considered more of a row crop I think, as we won't end up with a large quantity.  It's not the plants' fault, now we know how many need to be planted, meaning more than we have room for just now. 

Oh what the heck.  For the entertainment value, another insect photo.  (If not fungi, then bugs.)  I found a couple dozen of these tarantula hawks on some evidently delicious wildflowers down along Lion Creek.  I love how their antennae curl like that.

Sparkling Gem of a Driveway!

I could possibly go exclamation mark-mad but will somehow restrain myself to only one.  The other day, our neighbor Tom, who writes this excellent blog, came down the hill with his grader and did a superlative job on making our circle driveway Downright Spiffy.  Heaps of gratitude coming your way Tom for that assist.  The next day, a big truck arrived and now the driveway is all gravelly and really super duper.

Any Number of Complaints

Last Saturday afternoon, after a mini-cleaning and cooking frenzy, I blew off the rest of the chores and shouldered my camera bag and went for a walk. I decided to go down to the big ford on a neighbor's place and then walk downriver till I got to our place, then hop the fence and head home. This is where all those complaints I mentioned there in my title come in. It was hot, I had a 17+ pound sack of camera gear on my back, my right sock wasn't on quite right, I dropped my big water jug in a fetid backwater of the river and got some nasty scratches on my arm from a blackberry bush when I fished it out. From time to time, some salty sweat rolled down my face into my eye, which stung. The skeeters were fierce and the sun was bright.


And I realized that I had the biggest grin on my face. I love going for walks like that; that river is just the best. What a great few hours. I didn't get home till almost 6.


I was almost home, when I stopped for these wildflowers, which are on the slope just below the house near the spring. Dang, I just love pretty yellow flowers.

Arnica Cordifolia