Skip to main content

Backyard Wildlife

imageLadybug on banana leaf (one of two I grew from seed!)

spider 008

And here’s a spider on web spun between two tomato plants. 

spider 010

They love this spot!  There is always a spider here by this time of year, as well as between any two tomato cages that don’t get too much human traffic.

image image

Anyone want to tell me what species this is?

Here is a link to a past spider!  And a swarm of baby spiders!

Ooh – postscript:  I just went back out to try to get a picture of his back and markings, and I must have jiggled the web, because he ran off… but as he did, I got this shot.  Based on the stripey legs and markings, I suspect it’s an Orb Weaver of some type. 

image

Whatever it is, we are lucky enough to live in Ontario, where there are probably fewer venomous spiders than anywhere else in the world.  There are apparently a couple of native species of Widow spider, and rumours of Brown Recluse.  Others say Brown Recluse are strictly warm-weather spiders.  Either way, they are more rare than rare.  I feel happy when I see spiders because it means I am fostering a nice ecosystem full of delicious bugs.

Ditto with the ladybug.  Despite their smooth, cheerful appearance (which tells the birds they taste gross!), ladybugs are ferocious, carnivorous predators that prey on many of the bugs, like apids, that gardeners hate.

I try to feel happy whenever I see a bug, any bug.  If it’s an aphid infestation, I just tell myself the ladybugs will find it soon, and leave well enough alone.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a