When my children were young, we'd sometimes go outside and plop down on a blanket in the yard. On our stomachs, we watched whatever happened to be crawling by in the grass–ants, spiders, bugs. It was fun to see how nature interacted. We didn't do those mini adventures enough, I'm sure. But then and now, I'm still just amazed at the drama that unfolds in every little square inch of dirt and grass, every minute of every hour.
This morning, I wandered around the back yard with my camera. I tried shooting an antlion "den," where a frantic ant was trying to escape. The antlion, buried beneath the sandy dirt at the bottom of the inverted cone, had hold of one of the ant's legs. Every few seconds, it'd shake the ant like a tambourine. Poor ant. In another trap, a pillbug lay curled up in a ball. As I crouched down to get a closer look, I spotted a tiny grasshopper nymph, newly hatched, in the dirt. Another one hopped by, too.
On the black-eyed susans, a green lynx lurked, waiting for an insect to flit by. That's how they catch their prey–they stalk'em. On flowers, you may also spot crab spiders, sometimes the same color as the flower. They're sneaky that way. They also sit real still with their legs outstretched, waiting for a bug to happen by. Then–WHAM!–they grab it and–PRESTO!–it's dinner time.
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