Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Summer visitors



A few weeks ago, on a damp morning after a rainy night at the end of July, this garden snail showed up on my garage vinyl siding.  I thought it was completely cute and its shell beautiful.  I know they are supposed to be garden pests, but one would never know by the looks of my garden.



This afternoon, as I was on my front lawn watching contractors give me new front doors and new shutters, I happened to glance over to the garage where new shutters would be placed.  I saw this (I think male?) praying mantis perched on my garage window frame.  Even though I rarely see praying mantis, I do think I have seen another in my backyard once before.  Still, this was a surprise.  As the guys began to put up the new shutters, it moved along the top of the window frame before flying off into the Norway maple.


Look at those pinchers!  I did half wonder if its presence in my yard had anything to do with my hummingbird feeders as in this 1:06 minute long YouTube video.  My feeders are not nearly so active as the feeder in the video, but I did get a chance for a few photos one recent evening when dueling birds were battling for feeder dominance.

     

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