Welcome to my world!

Backyard Birding in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas:
Surrounded by great birding destinations, our favorite patch is still the backyard (or the front), where we've seen more than 270 species of birds. Sit awhile, and watch the river and yard with us!




Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!


In our neighborhood we seldom see Trick or Treaters knocking on doors and asking for candy. But when I look closely, I see that Nature itself has done a pretty good job of celebrating Halloween.  In fact, here are quite a few spooky characters I've seen around the yard.















Can you tell what's making this scary face?  It's a pomegranate hanging from a bush in the yard.  (I flipped the photo upside down so that you can appreciate the Halloween mask. )




Cactus blooms can also make faces worthy of Halloween!




This Fungus Face was hiding on an old tree stump--

Talk about disguises:  the Walking Sticks in the photo below came to the party as, well...walking sticks!

What's a Halloween party without a few well-dressed spiders?

Another Silver Argiope is spinning her web.

(A flash from the camera lights up this Wolf Spider's creepy eyes.)
(What's in this web--is it spider or prey? No matter, the web is a masterpiece, a fine Halloween decoration!)
(Click to enlarge:  you'll see the hundreds of baby spiders creepy-crawling out of their pod.)
Other guests at the Halloween costume party:  a butterfly dressed in ghostly garb...

and another appropriately named the Funereal Duskywing, just perfect for Halloween haunting...

Some little goblin  (bee or butterfly?) dressed up in a Flower costume:


and a Black Witch Moth (yes, that's really its name) flew with five-inch wingspan into our house and slept on the curtains:



Last, but never least,  a night-time owl prowls the neighborhood on Halloween night:





4 comments:

KaHolly said...

I always look forward to your posts, and I wasn't disappointed this morning! Such imagination. ~karen

Arkansas Patti said...

Now that was scary. Sure would like to borrow that owl however for my wire eating mice.

Kay Baughman said...

Wire-eating mice! Did you try offering candy corn?

Kay Baughman said...

Thanks, Karen! Blogging is especially fun because of the new friends I've made.
K