Beetles, Belligerent Bugs and Birds, Etc.

Like ours,  many of the neighborhood horses are wearing fly masks and moving around a lot, to fight off the clouds of nasty and mean bugs making their lives miserable during the early evenings.

This one lives over on Hickey Road. 

Yesterday while planting some of my flower starts in spots out by the deck, I heard something that sounded like water running. 

I couldn't figure out why there would be water dripping but just continued on with my project. 

Several minutes later, I returned with some more young flowers and heard the same sound. 

By this time, I had to figure out what was making that noise.  I looked all around and could see no hint.  So, I relied on my ears to lead me to the sound. 

Soon, I discovered its source, inside a small plastic pot which had been cast aside last year to a pile in between the planters. 

I picked it up and looked closer and watched at least a dozen shiny beetles, all the same size desperately trying to escape their enclosure. 

I'm assuming that their beetle mama must have laid some eggs a few months ago. 

And, because it's not good to "ASS-U-ME," I did some googling and found that a 9-year-old with a British accent knows more about the life cycle of a beetle than I have learned in nearly 72 years. 

Thanks to this young chap's You Tube video (below), I feel much more beetle proficient and don't know whether to be proud or embarrassed that I freed the young beetles in that flower pot. 

Believe me, they wasted no time scattering once I let them go. 

Learning about beetles took up just a small portion of another beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Besides transplanting flowers, I dug out two of the side doors to the barn in hopes that the horses would not be eaten alive by the mass of mosquitoes hanging in the air and pouncing at every opportunity. 

At least the mosquitoes are nice enough to stay out of the barn, so the horses have an escape for at least overnight. 

I also spent some time visiting with CB over at the Colburn farm and then visited a wetland along HWY 95 north of where my sisters live. 

The place was alive with birds, including one busy red-winged blackbird which flew over and performed on the high (and probably hot) wire above me. 

I saw one bird which I've probably never seen before. It's the brown one flying off in the photo above.  The photo makes it look much larger than it actually is; I'd estimate its size to be in between a chickadee and a robin.

So, any bird experts out there who can identify the species, please do. 

In other news, you'll see that horse-drawn rake.  It's sitting in my neighbor Gary Finney's field, and so far, I see just two furrows in the field.  I'm hoping that when he does hook it up to a horse, I'll be able to catch some photos in action. 

Fun times here in the country, and we're blessed with the hope of many good times ahead this week with gorgeous weather.  

More planting, mowing, painting and maybe even finding more mysterious phenomena to add to my knowledge. 

Happy Tuesday.