It’s almost 4 AM right now, and don’t ask me about my sleep schedule. But yesterday evening (as in, about seven hours ago,) I checked on the mantis egg sacs in the yard because I know they’re due – actually overdue, going by previous years. Nothing was happening then, so as I stepped out this morning at 3-ish I only glanced down at the nearest one in passing, since it sits
Tag: Tenodera sinensis
On this date 58
Yes, this topic has not died yet, but there’s a special reason for it to occur this time, and we’ll get to that. Right now, let’s see what was happening on this date in history. Pretty recent history, and nothing at all historical. Pretty self-centered, to be blunt. But it’s a blog, which as I’ve said before, is an exercise is thinly-veiled narcissism. If it’s
I let my guard down…
… and of course someone snuck in.
In this case, it was the first of the mantis egg cases (oothecas) hatching. There are several in the yard, including four now that had been naturally placed there – three Chinese mantids and a Carolina. I was doing routine checks, but the last one discovered, deep under an untended thicket of mostly vines, I now realize that
Oh that’s sneaky
So as I said last year, I was endeavoring to photograph a Chinese mantis creating an egg sac, or ootheca, and never managed it. Actually, in all my years of chasing hexapods, I’ve done it just once – one lousy frame. Last fall, I had a likely candidate
Profiles of Nature 8
This week we’re getting acquainted with Mordecai, part of our Street People series, candid slices of urban blighted hellscape. Mordecai is a member of the “Mants,” a gang that holds sway over the Azalea Bush On The Right, and takes no shit from anyone he’s been known to spray-paint trite, unoriginal designs onto walls where the cops can’t
Profiles of Nature 3
In today’s Profile, we have Szczęście in her favorite headshot, the industry term for the flattering portrait necessary if you intend to do anything at all in show business (as opposed to the gamer term which is decidedly less family-friendly.) Szczęście has every intention of making it big in Hollywood and has the acting chops to do so, but she’s
Cleaning out the fridge
I mentioned earlier that I might do this, and you’d hoped that I wouldn’t, I know, but here it is anyway because I’m sadistic. In sorting video clips, I realized I had a handful (well, 25) that I’d been pleased to get – they just weren’t enough to justify editing and uploading, and while I’d waited to see if I’d get some more to make a complete
K? K
As promised in the last post, this one now ties the record for the most posts made in a year, so everything after this is gravy, and whatever photo I put here will be the 1,000th picture uploaded for the year. Which is pretty damn good, I have to admit, but it has a few caveats. As always, there’s a small handful that were other peoples’ images, and some odds-and-ends stolen from the
Podcast: Improvements
So here we have the… second? Is that right? Holy shit, that’s bad… podcast of 2020, kinda pathetic but whatcha gonna do: withhold your payments? Yeah, that’s right, sit down and hush up.
This time though, we’re going into improvements. No, not improvements that have been made, but improvements that will be made. Maybe. Hopefully. Soon… ish…
It’s actually
Accomplishments and not
Tallying up the posts and uploaded images for the month of September, I find that not only did I set a record for the year-to-date for images posted (127,) but it would only take seven more to beat the total for any year that I’ve been posting: last year was the record-holder with 747, and I am presently at 741… with six images lined up to be included in this