Yesterday I noticed this little creature on the netting around the decking.
It was only when I got close for a better look that I realised that she (green = she in Mantis world) was actually on the inside of the insect screen and not on the outside.
Here she has adopted the more familiar 'praying' stance.
She was tiny, just a couple of inches long. Much smaller than the green giants that we saw at Meadowlark Gardens last year.
This evening as we sat down to eat there was a cacophony of bird noise from one of the trees behind the house. The little birds were 'buzzing' this large hawk who was sitting quietly in the tree and looking for his dinner in the grass below.
He is a Red-Shouldered Hawk, feeding mainly on small mammals and insects.
The other 'local' raptors - the Coopers Hawk and the Sharp-Shinned Hawk hunt on the wing and are known to use bird feeding stations as a reliable source of food during the winter...
I think I would rather see the green she on the outside of the net. Assuming the net is to keep tiny midges out how did such a large thing get IN? Our swallows make a hell of a row when the sparrow hawk is around.
ReplyDelete