Some Of The Other Animals On Bedlam Farm

The monarch caterpillars aren’t just growing longer, they are thicker too.

The one in the video above is an inch long and unlike a few days ago, easy to spot.  That’s a couple of dew drops on its back.    It was windy when I took this video, but you can still see the caterpillar eating the milkweed leaf.

I’ve been trying to get close to the frog I’ve seen on the edge of  the pond for over a week.

It looked different than the Green Frogs I saw earlier in the summer and I thought it might be a Bullfrog.

It’s bigger and has less definition to its body.  Also, that line that goes from the eye all the way down the Green Frogs side, simply wraps around this frogs ear.   And it doesn’t squeak when it jumps into the water.  It leaps silently and lands with a loud plop!

I don’t know why it tolerated me getting close enough to take its picture this morning, but it sat still long enough for me to get a good look at it too.  Now I’m almost certain it’s a bullfrog.  I’ll have to listen for it’s distinguishing call.  I’m more familiar with the sounds a bullfrog makes than what they look like.

Last night what looked like a very big moth was flying around the living room. When it landed above the window I got up to try to catch it and let it out.  But it wasn’t a moth at all.

It was a Fishfly.

I only knew what this insect was because I had seen one the day before on the barnyard gatepost.  It was at least 2 inches long with serrated antennas. I walked in and out of the gate several time and took it’s picture, but it never moved.

The one on the wall stayed too.

I was easily able to scoop it up in my hand and gently make a fist so it couldn’t fly away. Not that it wanted to.  Once I was outside, I had to nudge it off my hand onto table.  And still it didn’t fly away.

That’s how I was able to see that unlike the Fishfly on the gate post this one was a male. I could tell by the furry antenna compared to the thin comb-like antenna of the female.

Fishfly’s  live near bodies of water (they are an indication of healthy steams) and spend most of their life as larvae eating plants and small aquatic animals like tadpoles.  They don’t eat as adults and only live about a week, long enough to lay eggs.

I read they can pinch humans with their mouths, but are harmless.