Sunday, September 07, 2008

Seen Around Town


This mantis was on the rail of the bridge at James River Park's 42nd Street entrance last Sunday.








We spotted this green mantis sunning itself on a rock in the James near Belle Isle today.









This giant caterpillar (about 3 or 4 inches long), and 2 others like it, seemed to be trapped in a rising pool next to some of the structures from the old industries on the Belle Isle. I coaxed it and another one up a stick and put each on a drier spot. When we passed back by, the apparently dead one and this one were gone; I spotted the second that I rescued deep in the leaves on the log where I'd put it. Was floating in the water a feeding strategy, not a sad result of a formerly dry area flooding? (If it doesn't creep you out, click on the picture to make it bigger and you'll see pill bugs and centipedes and other insects that were creeping and swimming about.)














We were glad for the insect life because the birding was a bit dull. Except for the white-eyed vireo.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You would make such an awesome science or biology teacher. :)

Happy end of summer...

Lisa said...

Aw, thanks. I guess a good science teacher or two and my dad instilled my appreciation of nature. At Kitty for a number of years we used the expression "nature moment" for pausing (on the walk to the pool or whatever) to admire a turtle or snake or beaver or cool plant.

Because only 3 or 4 of us at my library can cope with the natural world, I have nature moments all the time at work as I rescue skinks and spiders. Sadly, a number of birds died by our glassed-in entry way this summer, and removing them was my job, too.