Aye, the Gnats!

Travel these parts in the dark, very early morning hours and you will slide through clouds of gnat-like insects. It's an amazing experience for former city dwellers. As a now long time resident, these bugs are nothing new. But here they are clouding up the skies in the late morning. I caught this cloud above my trees and watched birds and larger insects fly through them, feeding on the plenty. And I will say my frogs are very fat!

Not a Bee

Often mistaken for a honey bee, this is the Drone Fly and he likes nectar. An easy way to identify is to look for a "waist". The honey bee has one, the fly does not.

The Grasshopper

The detail on this fellow could only have been made by the finest draftsman.

Yikes! The Cicada Wasp

I saw the attack, the paralizing sting, and the struggle to manage the much larger Cicada. The wasp will take the cicada to it's ground burrow. But first it climbs a tree to get the loft needed for the flight/glide down. This one hauled the cicada up the tree nearly 20 feet before I lost sight. Whew, I promise less drama tomorrow.