Our feline strays taking shelter in our garden for some much needed shade in this excessive heat and safe area to enjoy their afternoon nap:

Tikoy J


Gino

Our garden security sensors just announced "motion detected on the walkway"..okay..slowly peeking to see what it was..and here they are:







Those feeding bowls are all empty already. Our stray feline Tikoy J finished off all the dry cat food at sunset. I guess our coon troop is so disappointed..nothing for them.

A yay and an extra cheer for Tikoy J! The rotten voracious raccoons didn't eat his food THIS time!

We got a new guest awhile ago:


Hello Mr. Opossum!

What did the cats think of that?!

Cats think?

Ain't that the truth, Tiffany…

Tikoy J at that time just finished his dinner, and usually scampers away for awhile, while Gino does not stay around at night, so Mr. Opossum has been free to enjoy whatever was left in the igloo food area.

It was funny when I initially saw it trying to climb the chair, I thought what a small raccoon and seems to be in doughnut roll already, then I realized, oh wait, tail is different and it was a white pointy face It has been years since I saw an opossum here in tbe garden. I was waiting a bit to see if other family members show up..or this is just a solitary fellow...thankfully it was just by itself. Nights are colder now in the low to mid 30F's...wild fellows on hungry mode.

chicka-dee-dee-dee




All summer long I have to listen to Mr Macho grunting at the crack of dawn!


Find me:


Deermouse - drunk on fermented virginia creeper berries - thinks he's on an amusement ride!


Nighttime visitor (Cecropia moth)


OK - you got me! The ant is a faked image!

Al

I see a caterpillar in "Find me" pic.

Tapla, isn't it amazing how such tiny creatures have no fear of humans that they come and accept food from our hands? We have the Canada Jays aka whiskey jacks that are also fearless and come and take food from the hand. Birds are fascinating. Right now I am following a family of four hoopoe chicks and their mom on a live feed camera out of Pretoria Africa. She is a very good, caring mother. The father bird as well as others aid in catching insects and bringing food. The odd thing is they bring food to the bird box but pass it over to the mum. They do not seem to enter the bird box, they wait until she takes the food from them. She is the only one who feeds the chicks. Viewing them is very entertaining, makes me think it is spring already with new life even though it is not spring here by a long shot.

Awesome pics, Tapla!

No, it's a praying mantis, Tiffany.

Aha! I see that. Right above the head, it looks like a caterpillar.

purpleinopp said: Aha! I see that. Right above the head, it looks like a caterpillar.

I see a green caterpillar with black stripes but I don't recognize there being a praying mantis. Guess only one who can tell us what is there is the person who took the pic.

It is most definitely a praying mantis. Maybe you guys can see it better when fully traced:

I see the mantis but this looks like a caterpillar to me.

I see the mantis now that you have traced it but is what I think is a caterpillar (little black stripes) part of the mantis' leg? Good catch Johannian. You probably do really well with those optical illision puzzles.

Thanks, tigerpaws, but I'm actually pretty bad at those optical illusion puzzles and don't have the greatest eyesight. Right now I just have teenage youth on my side, but once that goes it's glasses on my nose (yes, rhyme intended ).

There was a nursery cart parked on the lawn and I needed to move it to mow. This is what I found beneath it. Mom wasn't too good at camouflaging the kids. They have almost no scent at this age, and their instinct is to freeze, so powerful is that instinct that they never budged when I scratched their little heads/ ears. The last image was taken a couple of days later when I spied one of the buddies in the garden, maybe the last of the litter. Hawks, owls, crows, cats, fox, coons, skunks, possums, mink, weasels, ...... all take a toll.









Al