Eagle update, a creepy crawly critter...
First, though, the eagles. D14 is the designation for the youngest one, and all along, people have been predicting that he (or maybe she, but he seems on the small side so I'm calling him a he) will be the first to fledge. He hasn't yet, but he accomplished one of the milestones along the journey toward fledging yesterday afternoon by "branching". Or in this case, it was really more like "twigging" because he didn't fly to another branch but sort of hopped onto one of the branches that make up the railings of the nest.
Here he is, on the branch, his first foray out of the nest proper.
He stayed perched there for about 17 minutes, watching the world far below and giving his sleepy sibling the occasional superior glance, before he decided to come back, stepping on said sibling as he did so.
And he took a moment, before collapsing on his belly for a long nap, to triumphantly show off his mighty wings!
"Beat that, sibs!"
And now for lesser beasts closer to home:
I was looking at the daylilies and spotted this fierce-looking little guy looking back at me. He's an assassin bug, one of the beneficial insects to have in a garden but not one to try to pick up! They're relatively passive but they will sting you if you're not careful.
Finally, here's a happy little leopard frog sitting on the front porch, peeking through the daylily foliage and probably trying to figure out how to hop high enough to get that assassin bug way up in the flower!
