August 29: The Park (mostly bugs)

[mistressofmuses]

We took the dogs for a short walk in one of the neighborhood parks.

Happily, there have been some praying mantises again! There were a lot of them last year, but this year I was disappointed not to have seen any. Then a couple weeks ago, Alex saw a couple one day while I was at work, and fortunately there's been at least one visible almost every time we've been by since.


Praying mantis!



Closeup of some ambush bugs makin' more ambush bugs. But I really like that you can see their little claws!




Cy enjoying a good lie-down in the grass.


Bella stretching.


A skipper on the sage.


Mantis plus bee!


Three bugs! A honeybee, a bumblebee, and an ambush bug.


I wish I'd gotten a slightly better picture, but please appreciate how GREEN this guy is! (An Agapostemon sweat bee of some species.)


A different, smaller mantis on a different flower elsewhere in the garden.

Comments

[spikedluv]

I'm surprised you manage to get such close-ups of the bugs without them, well, buggering off. *g*

Yay, puppers!

[mistressofmuses]

Many of the bugs are surprisingly chill about having my phone fairly close to them! The bees sometimes fly away, but if I stay still, they'll come back. The mantis was a bit more inclined to start moving away when I got too close to her.

And always yay for the pups!

[adore]

I like these tall flowery plants and these small bugs.

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you! The flowers are mostly Russian sage, which smells wonderful! I love how many bugs it hosts, too.

[scarlipswolfwife]

Neat bug photos and puppies! Look how green you have it there! Everything is dead and brown here.

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you!

We've been really lucky with the green this year. We're almost always in the crispy brown stage by this point, but this spring we had SO MUCH rain. The most I remember ever getting.

Though the plant with the purple flowers that's in most of the pictures is Russian sage, which does fairly well with relatively low water. And the grass mainly benefits from being an athletic field, so they waste tons of water keeping it lush.

[olivermoss]

Great photos! That last one in particular is great

Also, puppy!

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you!

The last one wound up with a very lovely afternoon-sun look to it.

Pups!