More Local Wildlife

I've been luck enough to encounter a lot of local animals that I have either never seen or have not seen by where I live before. The assassin bug I mentioned before is one of the, but here are some others:

A daddy longlegs. Also known as the harvestman, these spider relatives are common locally but this was my first time seeing one at my house. They are known for their incredibly long legs and are not to be confused with the daddy longlegs spider. One of the easiest ways to tell them apart is the fact that the spider has a waist and the daddy longlegs does not.

A praying mantis. This is my first time seeing one found locally. I though it was a walking stick at first until I noticed the posturing of the forelegs, and then the large eyes. The only ever live specimen I saw before this was a Chinese mantis that was caught near Chicago.

I also saw a five-lined skink near my house, which was the first time I saw one outside of a nature preserve. I was a fast little thing, though, and darted under a pile of pine needles before I could get a picture. Here are some finds, though more common than those above:

I found this grasshopper on one of my tires when I was checking the pressure. It was depressingly easy to catch because it had lost both of its large rear legs. It may have also been lethargic because it had just rained and it may have been cold.

Yet another green anole. They are quite numerous here.

I found a lot of these flowers.

A spider in the door frame.

Mushrooms on the lawn after nearly a week of heavy rain.

Vultures after a heavy rain, drying their wings on a dead tree. These birds have been nesting in hollows of that same tree for several years. They are really obnoxious, actually.

One thing I never grow tired of is the sky after a rain.