I KNOW this stuff!!!

Kat's latest "WAIT... I know what this is!!!" experience...

As I was doing some maintenance in my raised bed vegetable garden, I became distracted by a pesky fly. I kept brushing it away from my forehead, but it persisted in buzzing around my head as I bent over yanking out the weeds from my lettuce patch. I sat back on my heels and slumped over, dejected, and then I noticed it... a Wood Frog (light colored, probably female), right at the edge of my garden! I had my camera and my critter tank handy (it had housed an American Toad on yesterday's walk), so I coaxed the Wood Frog inside so I could look at it and take pitures without having to handle it. I thought about keeping it in the tank to show the babies when they woke, but it was so hot... so I snapped a couple of pictures and then let it go in the cool of the forest (where I am sure it was headed). Later that evening as I was watering my vegetables, a butterfly landed in the tree next to my garden. I got great looks and another good snapshot (my camera was still in reach). I identified it as a Viceroy Butterfly, clearly noting the black line along the bottom quarter of the lower wings that distinguishes it from a Monarch Butterfly. The very next day while donning my garden clogs to do more vegetable watering I saw a strange creature wiggling along my sliding glass door. My camera handy yet again I snapped a picture of this insect, most likely a larvae, moving along the glass in its homemade house of sticks. I was reminded of the Caddisfly larvae we saw this year at Goose Pond Mountain, another creature that builds its own home around itself.

This time I knew exactly what kind of frog I saw... because we had seen them with the Nature Strollers just last month. I also knew that I was looking at a Viceroy and not a Monarch Butterfly, because we had just had the discussion about the difference between the two at a Nature Strollers outing at Kenridge Farm. I am still puzzling over the insect I saw on my window, but I know where to start looking... because we had seen the Caddisfly larvae and read about their construction abilities. I know this stuff... and even my terrible case of "momnesia" could not suppress this information!