May 25, 2025

What a way to end the month of May!  Chilly, dark, quiet.  Usually you can see a tiny change from day to day, but this week seemed almost static, at least temperature-wise.  But you will see, there have been a few little signs that June is almost upon us.  We'll keep our eyes peeled for these signs!  Here you see a Bumblebee of some species enjoying a new sight - a black raspberry blossom full of pollen.  Next, a Common Snipe Fly, which though common doesn't show up till NOW each year.  And third, a black Snail charges across the scene.

It was a busy week last week, what with the American Toads arriving amid loud trilling for a night or more.  Here are several pictures, including this last shot of a fat female with a male on her back (the traditional mating position).

After the mating scenes, the Toads disappear back into the garden somewhere, but a couple of days later, we are treated to this scene - I'm almost sure the little black marks in these pictures are tiny new (American Toad) tadpoles.  The eggs are laid as hunks of edible foam with tadpoles inside.  

I'm naturally happy to see Nature doing its thing, but one thing that makes me a bit sad is that the arrival of the Toads has meant the disappearance of the lovely Green Frogs that we have been admiring for some time.  Just to refresh your memory, the one on the left is Froggy, the male, while the rightmost one is the female Frogga (remember she has the sort of snaggle-toothed mouth line).   Anyway, I'm waiting with bated breath to see them again.  Hopefully, they will soon be (and may already be) back now that the noisy Toads are gone. 

Let's take a break from the animal life in and near the Pond and admire some of the pretty Flowers and other Plants out there.

Actually, this picture shows some of the loveliest Fishes too.  Just to the right of the middle two Fishes, you can see a dark reddish globule at the surface.  This is a Water Lily bud.  We should in a few weeks be able to spot some later buds and finally some of the beautiful Lily flowers.  

Last week we saw pictures of the Lunaria (money-plant) from the front yard.  This week I've been visiting Abby Mortensen as she prepares her old house for sale and saw this lovely planting of Lunaria in HER yard.  (Look for the "coin" features on the plants.

Our lovely orange poppies in the front yard are almost done, but they were lovely when at their peak.

In the side yard of the back garden, the Dame's Rocket (an early Phlox knock-off) is blooming with its own special kind of pink four-petaled flowers.   I wonder if the second picture might not show Dame's Rocket buds.  In the front and side yard, these purplish-pink flowers (Geraniums and Cranesbills, Genus Geranium )  are so pretty even though spaced so far apart.

Here are two cousins: a Damselfly, Ischnura posita, and second, a Dragonfly, seen at Dottie Kammer's yard, and called a Whitetail.  It's actually the female who has the white tail!  This must be the male!

Here are two small Butterflies.  The first is probably the Zabulon Skipper, one of the smallest Butterflies around here.  The second would look more like Pieris rapae, the Cabbage Butterfly, if it had a couple more black markings on its wings.  

My poor nose has been running non-stop for weeks now.  I thought this little plant, growing around the base of the woodshop, might be Ragweed, but turned out to be Common Mugwort.  

Here is a White-margined Burrower Bug.  Next is a possible Biting Midge in genus Bezzia.  This is odd because I always hear about non-biting Midges, but never a real live possibly Biting one.  Third is a European beetle, the Eurasian Red-and-black Melyrid.  This is the second year I've seen one of these, so maybe they are moving in!

Here is a picture Polly Moore sent from Tennessee.  My ID from iNat said, Yellow-and-black Flat Millipede - Apheloria tigana,  but another person said it might be a member of Cherry Millipedes, Family Xystodesmidae.  I read that people in Tennessee call it a Kentucky Millipede!  

Here are a few kinds of Flies.  You already saw the Common Snipe Fly above.  I'm not sure what the first of these is, but we have already seen that the second is a Black Blow Fly.  The third one here is probably a member of genus Eutrichota.

Here are a couple more things that look like Flies.  First is a Muscoid Fly.  I think calling something Muscoid means it is generally like a housefly.  The next one is not really a Fly, but most likely a Sawfly, the Elder Strider Macrophya alboannulata.  (Sawflies seem to be more nearly related to Wasps than to Flies.)

We are seeing quite a few Spiders nowadays. Here is  one of my favorites, the Common Pirate Spider.  Last year I saw so many of them!  But this leftmost one is the first one I've seen in 2025.  The second one is a different species, but it shares with the Common Pirate Spider what looks like a prey item tatooed onto its abdomen (really its head). Third appears to be a "Daddy-long-leg" or "Harvestman", a Spider look-alike, but not specifically a Spider. 

Well, my friends, here we are on May 25, and Spring is slowly, grudgingly coming in in my back yard.  Come back again next week and let's see if June will have made some progress.  Take care of yourself and your environment and let's see you again soon.

Love, Martha