We love our resident banana spiders, and each summer we chart their progress as they move around in search of the perfect spot. Back in July, a giant female setup shop in a vast expanse of empty space near the marsh. She built her web about five meters above the ground and is still there as I write this. She attracted 2 males and a female, who together patrolled a giant swatch of our backyard airspace  for the better part of 2 months. I’ll miss her when she runs from the cool temperatures to come, so today I made sure to take a photo of our banana spider of the year.

Ahhhhh, tree frogs and bokeh make for nice bed fellows…

This shot came from a set taken about 2 months ago, but I never posted it here. Not totally in focus, but still showing off some of the features that make mantises so sci-fi.

The boys and I were wandering around Daniel Island today and bumped into this extremely tame red-shouldered hawk. It looked as big as a red-tailed hawk on-site (around 50 cm), but when I saw the photos I knew otherwise. His long yellow legs were the real giveaway, as well as the rusty breast. It is always a pleasure to see a critter like this up close, especially with my kids…

We caught this male (I  think) praying mantis sunning itself on our deck.

This brilliant blue fly was buzzing all around us the other day, and I couldn’t resist trying to capture it. I had no tripod, nor was I prepared to shoot a fast moving nervous fly, but I got this shot out of the 10 I fired off. You gotta love blue critters.

Hey, have a look at this dead, ant-filled grasshopper. Spiky legs!

We found something amazing in our yard the other day, and it turned out to be an automeris io, or Io moth. This green spiked caterpillar eventually turns into a beautiful moth with giant circles on its wings that look like eyes. It’s common throughout the continent, but I’ve never seen one in all my years of nature gawking. Which is weird, because this thing was florescent green and the size of my thumb.

Enjoy the pics.

I had a moment of food chain serendipity while playing with my boys in the front yard, which was followed by a sight both creepy and presumably moderately rare (vague enough?)

My youngest son was fussing after the cats, who were attentively stalking the mockingbirds, who were feasting on the hundreds of insects wafting up from the street garden. We naturally moved closer, and saw a light fuzzy area near the mailbox. It was moving…moving a lot.

It turns out that it was a swarm of reproductive termites flowing out of the mulch, then fluttering into the stiff breeze. Once we stepped back, we could see the termites in the air like snow. Hundreds of them, haphazardly being swept down the street in the wind (thank god!).

In the end, I think these guys were getting out because the garden became inhospitable. Let’s hope so…at least for the termites.

This spider is amazing, despite its diminutive size. It lives in the side-view mirror of my car, and uses the reflected streetlight to catch its dinner each night. When I leave in the morning, it moves in and out of the mirror’s safe interior while cleaning and repairing the web. Twice now, it has fixed its web while going 70 mph on I-526, while I stare open-jawed from inside. What an odd place to thrive.

Here’s the high-res on Flickr, and a cropped detail.

Despite the fact that catching a blue-tailed skink may have given my cat feline vestibular disease, he fearlessly brought one up on the porch yesterday. The boys and I immediately captured and documented it with photos. I also learned that these are technically called 5-lined skinks.