The nursery....

Return with us now to November 11, 2011, when our argiope mother laid a beautiful egg sac near our front door. For 10 days or so, she guarded the sac, then I found her gone...except for a few straggly legs left on the porch.

Ever since then, the egg sac has remained fastened high up in the corner of our porch. I'd thought about collecting the sac and keeping it safely in a jar. But I never did....until earlier today when I noticed a hungry wren scouting around the bricks and porch light. Uh oh! So I got my camera and took a photo or two of the sac. When James got home, he held the sac for me so I could photograph it in the sunlight. Can you see the beautiful golden silk threads. They are STRONG! Took me some doing to carefully remove the sac.

Now the sac's safely in a jar with hose covering the top. I set it on a window sill and will keep a close eye on it. Many years ago, my daughgter Lindsey and I did this. That spring, I kinda gave up on any kids hatching out. But long about May, I heard Lindsey yell, "MOM, COME HERE!" Sure enough, the spiderlings had broken out and were ready TO GO! So we took them outside and they ballooned or crawled away. I'm hoping for another happy ending this spring.

Behold

My 67-cent mealy sage–a sad little thing bought off the sale rack last summer–returneth! I just love spring!

Today's lesson...

This afternoon, I headed outside to clean out the DRATTED sparrows from our purple martin house. Beautiful day! Sunny and warm. While I wrapped up the house project, I looked around the Meadow and admired the tiny sulphurs flitting just above the grass. Hmmmm. No flowers to be seen. What the heck were they doing? I watched one land on a greenthread and perch a few moments. Then it flit away. DUH! I crouched down in the grass to confirm my suspicions. Bingo! Time for my camera!

But first I had to mark my place in the grass. Which I did.

Look carefully at the photo above, and you'll see a teeny tiny, elliptical yellow egg. Just laid by a dainty sulphur (Nathalis iole). I took some more photos and barely caught another female depositing an egg (below). See her bent abdomen? (You might have to click on the picture and see it enlarged.) The next photo is the new egg....

She's depositing her egg...

The new egg

A dainty sulphur

We're officially "bee-friendly"

Like I say a lot, I run down a lot of rabbit trails whenever I'm researching online different subjects. One recent trail led me to Texas Bee Watchers, where I happened onto Kim Bacon's ambitious project, "52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks." In her intro, Kim writes, "Texas Bee Watchers is challenging Texans to plant 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens by the end of the 2011. Since TBW may be the only site certifying Bee Gardens, you can make sure Texas has more Official Certified Bee Gardens than any other state by certifying your Bee Garden! Go Texans!"

Naturally, our Wildscape needed bee certification, too! So I wrote Kim and asked if we qualified or did we need to plant a new garden. "Of course, you can apply and get 'certified," she responded. "I saw the list of  plants on your blog, and you've got plenty of great bee plants in your Wildscape. Existing gardens certainly qualify–you're a trendsetter! I took a look at the bee posts you mentioned on your blog. I'm always telling people to watch the bees in the cactus flowers. It's just like you describe–they seem to be having so much fun."

"I'm very serious about people planting for native bees (and other pollinators)," Kim added. "So send in your photos and list, and I'll put your garden on the beewatchers website and you'll be one of the few CERTIFIED bee gardens in the WORLD!"

This morning, I received happy news from Kim: "Thanks for certifying your Bee-Friendly Garden. I've just posted information about your garden on the Texas Bee Watchers website. Your garden is wonderful, and I am sure it will inspire others to restore their their own residential landscapes to a more bee-friendly state. Attached is your official certificate. Welcome to bee-watching!"

On her cool website, Kim gave us a real nice write-up about our Wildscape and posted the photos I submitted. Wow. Give it a read! Thank you, Kim!!

First robins!

We ate our supper outside on the patio for the first time this season. It was WONDERFUL! It got EVEN better when I spotted a robin. Then another. Then James pointed out more.

SIX ROBINS in the Meadow! I'd say spring has sprung!

UPDATE MARCH 5, 2011–Our friend (and monarch watcher), Kip Kiphart in Boerne told me that I should report this sighting to Journey North. Which I just did this morning!

What is Journey North? That's what I wanted to know.

Here's what the website says: Journey North "engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere 'citizen science' project for children. The general public is welcome to participate."

Cool.

ShaZAM!!

Look back at my post, "So much life" (October 19, 2008), and you'll see this photo of an ant. "A rather large species of ant" was my caption.

This week, I'm researching ants for a magazine project. Since I'm getting more smarts about different species, I thought I'd go through my blog and see if I had any images of ants. This one popped up. Curious, I clicked on the picture and peered at the thorax (an ant's middle section). Hmmm. Then I looked at the head... Hmmm. Hey, wait a minute! Next I went to Bugguide.net and pulled up some ant images. Hmmm. Then I did another search. OH WOW!

"JAMES!" I hollered. "COME SEE THIS!!"

Good sport that he is, James walked into the office and stood next to my desk. "What's that look like?" I said, pointing to the picture.

"An ant," he said. Naturally. I grinned.

"Ah, look CLOSER," I said, beyond excited. "What's it MISSING!?"

James looked closer. Then he shrugged. "I dunno."

"MANDIBLES!" I exclaimed (like I'd found loose coins on the ground or some such treasure). "ANTS HAVE MANDIBLES!" Then I pointed to the long, thin beak coming from the insect's mouth end. "THAT'S A BUG! AN ANT-MIMIC BUG! Isn't that just COOL!?"

"That's nice, Sheryl," James said as he backed away from my desk and tiptoed toward the hall. "Yeah, really nice." James gave me a worried smile, then disappeared.

From ant to broad-headed bug nymph. ShaZAM!!

Incredible photos of insect eggs

Just never fails....I'm on the Internet, researching a subject, and I run across SOMETHING ELSE that sends me down a rabbit trail. This time, I HAVE to share! Please surf over to National Geographic and check out Exquisite Castaways, a gallery of insect eggs that were made using an electronic scanning microscope. In a online video, scientist/photographer Martin Oeggerli explains the arduous process of producing and coloring images, which takes more than 40 hours each! The images are stunning. Take a look!