People often question how I manage to find so many different things when I’m out walking. I reply that I just look. A nameless person suggested that I must have a bird’s perception to be able to look at a bush and see a caterpillar, or did they mean that I must have a bird’s brain. I’ll have to think about that. Anyway, as a demonstration of finding things just by looking, I walked back to an area of small shrubs and trees and gave myself fifteen minutes to find as many caterpillars as possible. This leaf tells me that caterpillars have been here.
A caterpillar skin. A shed skin suggests that there should be a larger and easier to spot caterpillar somewhere nearby.
Searching for one thing doesn’t mean you ignore everything else. I enjoy each new discovery as it comes along. The oak leaves are developing some wonderful galls. I’m not sure how large these pea sized growths will eventually become.
Here’s a neat insect. I’m guessing it to be some type of predatory bug. The front legs are much stouter than the rest and are held together in much the same manner as the front legs of a mantid. I can imagine those legs holding onto some small insect while the juices are sucked out.
The Bladdernuts have produced several fruits this year. The fruit looks like it could provide a lot of good eating, but inside is mostly air with a few small seeds.
This is a beautifully colored assassin bug. I don’t remember ever seeing a specimen with this yellow and black pattern. He wasn’t very tolerant of my presence and flew just after I took this shot.
The nuts are ripening on the Common Hazel. The leafy bracts turn the nut into a piece of art. That’s the end of my fifteen minutes. I tallied zero caterpillars, but that doesn’t matter. I found some really neat things while looking. Things that I never would have seen had I not gotten close enough to discover them. I often go searching for specific things, but I never let that objective keep me from enjoying all the other natural wonders that are out there to be found.
People often question how I manage to find so many different things when I’m out walking. I reply that I just look. A nameless person suggested that I must have a bird’s perception to be able to look at a bush and see a caterpillar, or did they mean that I must have a bird’s brain. I’ll have to think about that. Anyway, as a demonstration of finding things just by looking, I walked back to an area of small shrubs and trees and gave myself fifteen minutes to find as many caterpillars as possible. This leaf tells me that caterpillars have been here.
A caterpillar skin. A shed skin suggests that there should be a larger and easier to spot caterpillar somewhere nearby.
Searching for one thing doesn’t mean you ignore everything else. I enjoy each new discovery as it comes along. The oak leaves are developing some wonderful galls. I’m not sure how large these pea sized growths will eventually become.
Here’s a neat insect. I’m guessing it to be some type of predatory bug. The front legs are much stouter than the rest and are held together in much the same manner as the front legs of a mantid. I can imagine those legs holding onto some small insect while the juices are sucked out.
The Bladdernuts have produced several fruits this year. The fruit looks like it could provide a lot of good eating, but inside is mostly air with a few small seeds.
This is a beautifully colored assassin bug. I don’t remember ever seeing a specimen with this yellow and black pattern. He wasn’t very tolerant of my presence and flew just after I took this shot.
The nuts are ripening on the Common Hazel. The leafy bracts turn the nut into a piece of art. That’s the end of my fifteen minutes. I tallied zero caterpillars, but that doesn’t matter. I found some really neat things while looking. Things that I never would have seen had I not gotten close enough to discover them. I often go searching for specific things, but I never let that objective keep me from enjoying all the other natural wonders that are out there to be found.
