I don't recall seeing a lot of ladybugs around here, but I recall all too well what a spring problem they were for my friends Cindy and Harley when they lived in Winchester. They'd be hatching and swarming and clinging to the windows and dozens would manage to get into their house.
Several times this spring, these hatchings have occurred here at the Roediger House, so I thought I'd grab a couple of pictures of them:
I hear from the science folks that this is the time for the Eastern Brood of Septendecennial cicadas to emerge. When I pulled the tarp off the old topsoil pile this year, I uncovered this rascal, squirmy and very much alive, and which looked to me like a cicada that ought to still be burrowed, not out in the daylight:
I was also surprised when I pulled that dirtpile tarp off to find this young snake under it, and my reaction (with shovel in hand) was absolutely instinctive:
1 comment:
Raymond, Raymond, Raymond, I have clearly failed you, my friend. I think your snake is a little brown snake, probably a fully mature adult. And although it might have eaten some of those beetles you found on the downspout, it would have had a hard time biting you if it wanted to, although I doubt that it would. You're dead on with your cicada. It's either a straggler from Brood II (most of which have already emerged in NC)or perhaps an annual cicada which might be expected to emerge any time during the summer months. Let's get together soon; I'll bring my nature guides!
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