November 9, 2025

Yes, Fall is well upon us.  Sorry to say, Burr Oak Street is STILL under massive construction/destruction, with grand plans to have a modern Water/Sewage system installed by Winter?  Spring?  Cross your fingers!  Here are a few pictures of a male Cardinal as he hops about looking for treats.  Note: in picture 3, it apparently is never too cold for a cardinal to take a tub bath!

Here it is again, a true sign of Autumn - the Eastern Boxelder Bug.  What you might have missed (and I did for years) is the young nymph of this Bug (picture 2).

They aren't JUST a sign of Fall.  Here are a few typical Stink Bugs.  I don't notice any particularly vile smell from any of them, but there must be a stinky subspecies.

Here are a few Beetles.  First (and second) are Locust Beetles.  It was one of the first creatures to discover the Goldenrod, which is now gone from most places.  Third is a Cucumber Beetle.

These asters are now long finished flowering.  They now can be spotted from their fuzzy round seed heads.  Even these are starting to fall apart.

Here is a Lacewing from last week.  Number 2 is Emesaya brevipennis.  For those of you who like to parse names of creatures, Brevipennis means "short WINGS".  Third is one that I have never figured out!   Anyone have any ideas?

Here is a Common Green Lacewing.  Maybe it will be green at some stage or maybe it was named by a color-blind person.  I saw this one in fall of 2024.  I have a bunch of pictures from different times but they are all labeled "green".  Let's see.  We had a nice batch of Spiders last week.  Not so many showed up to have their pictures taken this week.  Here are a couple of Spiders that I don't know by name, although the middle one looks like some kind of little Crab Spider.  The third one seems to be devouring an Ant, doesn't it?

So, my friends, here in South Central Lower Michigan (you can't make these things up), Autumn is upon us.  But only a month and a half to go and we will be into the next year, and it will be almost Spring!  Good luck to the workmen working on the water mains out front, and see you all next time!  Love, Martha,  Oh no, take just one last look at the pond now covered again with leaves while I was editing this Blog.  A raker's work is never done!!