This little one takes great pictures

I recently found not one, but two praying mantis nymphs. One on my orange tree, the other on my lemon tree.

Found this little one on my lemon tree. I’m pretty sure it chased away (or possibly ate) the praying mantis nymph that was there recently.

All the green lynx spider babies have gone into the canyon. Hoping I will get a few of my girl’s babies in my garden this year, but I did find this cute little one yesterday. I barely noticed it because it’s so small and matched the color of the metal tomato cage.

And I have a macro lens attachment for my phone this year, so my pictures should improve!

Great Lakes region, USA. April 2026.

Finally a decent day in the 50°F range. A ton of birds are back and the insects are out. My first butterfly of the year is a beautiful Compton Tortoiseshell perfectly matching its environment. I'm so stoked for spring!

Video: https://streamable.com/6kraxy

Male carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis) on Salvia greggii

So it had been a bit rainy recently and I was starting to get concerned about the egg sac. It was over 2 weeks since she built the sac and there were white spots inside a crack, I thought it was probably a fungus or something that got them. I thought the babies probably died.

A few days later, I noticed she started spinning again, which solidified my theory of a dead sac. The new one was super green because she had been chowing down on some big fat bright green tomato hornworms. I was sad for the first set, but happy to see she had enough for a second.

It was really cool that I got to watch her actually put the eggs inside.

She was really skinny after, so I’ve been finding hornworms and inchworms to place near her and keep her fed. The plant she’s on is dead, so it doesn’t attract much and once the babies leave, the whole plant is getting composted.

Well, finally after long weeks of waiting, I found some of the babies coming out of the first sac. The white I assumed was a fungus was actually from them molting! They weren’t dead and there are SO MANY BABIES!! Just look how adorable they all are!! There are a lot more still inside, but every day more babies venture outside the safety of the sac. They are starting to show a little bit of color too. They are absolutely adorable!

Hopefully in another couple of weeks, there will be another set of babies 💚

Crossposted from https://aussie.zone/post/26230685

A new update on my spider friend! A few weeks ago, I lost track of her and thought she left the garden to find a safe place for her egg sac. I was sad that I did not see her for a while, but I eventually found her halfway across the yard on a tomato plant. The day after I found her, she was doing a funny little dance and I suspected she was getting her sac ready. I was correct and she laid eggs that night!

Since then, she’s caught some tomato hornworms and she got really fat again.

Then I was out of town for about 10 days and the tomato plant died. I’m no longer growing it for tomatoes, now it’s just shelter for my friend. This lovely gal completely changed color while I was gone to match the reddish brown of the surrounding leaves. And she continues to eat the hornworms whenever she finds them.

I can’t wait for her babies to hatch!!

I found more slugs on my hike yesterday and snapped a couple pics.

There's a tiny baby slug in this photo too.

Found this sweet lady in the bottom of a plant pot with dried mulch in it. Super cute spider native to Coastal BC!

I went to the beach to see what photos I could take and these beetles caught my eye. This little dude is crazy fast though. Apparently they can move as fast as 5 mph and are considered one of the fastest land animals for its size.