The big jumping spider that's been hanging out on my work table the last few days. Last night it ran across the top of my computer then made a gigantic leap all the way onto the cactus pot. Very awesome.
The woodpecker right outside my window today, indigo buntings, a really pissed off barn owl (oops), and the sea birds that are migrating through. It got warm enough to play outside today so I sat on the edge of the lake at my favorite park and watched pelicans and cormorants and gulls swooping down over the water.
And mound-building ants are here!! The ones I saw in Minnesota thatch their mounds so they're pretty obvious. And huge. The property owner cut them down when they got too big, but one of the old mounds I saw was about four feet across at the base. I didn't think we had anything like that here, but I found some today. I must've seen them a million times before but never recognized what they were because they're out in the prairie and completely grown over with grass. Boyfriend pushed on one with his foot and noticed that the soil was much softer than expected so we dug into it, and ants! Beautiful Formica ants! I can't wait to set up my microscope tomorrow! Happy specimens for me!
