Critter Friday

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center sometimes hosts #CritterFriday on their Instagram page, so I thought I’d devote an entire blog post to it, since I seem to have so many critters in the garden as of late.

Not sure what these ants are.  I found them when I was removing rocks from around an oak tree in the front yard.  The came out near the oaks roots.

A little tree frog, no bigger than an oak leaf.

Redstriped Ribbon snake.  This was the only pic I could snap before he was out of sight!

These spiders with clear, lime green legs are all over.  Please eat all the mosquitoes.  Thanks!

Possibly a variegated Gulf Fritillary caterpillar?  I’m pretty terrible at identifying all the caterpillars…

Here’s a cocoon on the Rising Sun Redbud we just planted.  I’m not sure what kind of butterfly it is yet.  Maybe a Painted Lady?

We found this Two-tailed Swallowtail caterpillar on the leaf of our Escarpment Black Cherry.

He’s tat, tat, tatted up.

Not sure if another critter got him or if he just decided to move on, but he left this silky web behind on the leaf that he’d been hanging out on. Maybe the start of his cocoon?

A lady bug, hopefully successfully eating some bugs on the Mountain Laurel.

A wasp looking for a spot to make a nest on the Flame Acanthus, I’m guessing.

A blue dragonfly, taking a break on a cloudy day.
A B

Leaf-footed bug on the stock tank pond.  #chillinbythepool

A skink!  I saw this guy hanging out on some grass cuttings that had washed down after the rain at my parents’ place, and thought at first that it was a snake, so naturally I followed it, and saw its legs.  These little babies move fast! Mom got the feed bucket so we could snap a picture of it.  It was returned to the original spot shortly thereafter.

A spittle bug uncovered.  They are everywhere this year! I’ve never seen so many; maybe it’s the rain?

And finally, we lost our sweet Honey cat last fall. We’re not sure what got her.  Our neighbors saw a fox between our houses the day she went missing, so that’s the most likely scenario.  We’ve been looking for something to memorialize her in our garden, but nothing could do her gobliny-weirdness justice.  And then we stumbled upon this hideous looking thing at Goodwill.  She just had to come home with us! It captures Honey’s creepiness perfectly.

RIP Honey (AKA Goblin, Honey Gob, Golbee) She loved Reba and being rubbed by FEET ONLY.