September 9 - Monday - Cicada time

Monday when I let the dog out I caught this cicada emerging and was able to snap a few photos.  There is about twenty to thirty minutes between the second and third photo.  In the first and second you can see the wings rolled up and then unrolled in the third.  I've witnessed this a few times and am always amazed at it.

2009-08-08 Saturday - Cicada Molting

I went out at about 1:30 am to let Binkley out and noticed a cicada molting on the bottom rung of the deck railing. I always find the discarded shells, but rarely catch the actual molting.

What's that?

Oh, it's a cicada emerging from its old shell.

Family values

As I was coming in tonight I barely noticed something on the bricks by the back porch light. I had to put my reading glasses on and lean way over the railing to see it closer. Once I realized what it was I quickly ran to get the camera.


Make sure you click on it to see it closer. It's a mother wolf spider carrying her young on her back. I've only seen this sight a few times and was glad I could capture it with the camera. Mama wolf was very cooperative and let me take several flash pictures relatively close to her until I got one that wasn't too blurry. If you look at the mortar lines on the bricks you can see that she was pretty big. I'm glad she and her brood were outside the house.

I also saw two adult cicadas up close today, but didn't have my camera with me.



The best I can do right now is post this picture of a cicada emerging that I took in August 2005. I'm always fascinated by the natural world in which we live.