Odds and Ends

Here are a few miscellaneous photographs that were not long enough individually for a blog post, but seemed to merit publication of some sort.

This immature Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) looks tough with a sunflower seed in its beak, It reminds one of a mobster with a cigar.

The Assassin Bug (Pselliopus spp.) is quite striking. This creature has a long beak to probe into its insect prey to suck out nutrients. Some kinds will probe into humans who carelessly handle them. So be careful!

We don’t see Red-Headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) very often at our place, so it was real treat to get a look at this one (although quite far away).

Above are a couple of views of a colorful Orchard Spider (Leucauge argyra) that built a web on our back deck.

A wet and bedraggled looking Raccoon visited the area where we feed the birds.

I guess we did not get the feeder quite high enough.

Quite an acrobatic hold on the bird feeder. For such effort we did not chase it off right away. It deserves a few sunflower seeds.