I have learned quite a bit about ducks just from watching them each week.  Several months ago, I noticed the ducks pairing together and suspected that eventually I would see some ducklings.  I looked online and noted that the males usually leave the females when the eggs are laid.  When I noticed that the males were no longer with the females, I suspected that ducklings would soon be there.

Sure enough, several weeks later there were ducklings!

I used my 100-400 to get these shots, combined with a fill flash.  The mother was very cautious with the young ducks and it took me a bit of time before she would let me get close without feeling threatened.  Still, she kept a sharp eye on me while I took these shots.  In particular, I wish some of the plants weren’t there and I didn’t get the angles that I would have preferred, but I still think the shots show that the ducklings were indeed cute!

Interestingly, a bit later a crow came near the ducklings and the mother duck went straight at it.  I later read online that crows will eat ducklings.

Other predators that will attack ducklings in our area include owls.  Hopefully the majority of these cute ducklings made it.

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I immediately wonder whose eggs these were. There were several insects in the area, so I tried a process of elimination.

Ants – It is well known that ants lay their eggs within their colonies, where they are tended to by other ants. They do not leave their eggs just sitting on the ground. Therefore, I felt it safe to assume these were not ant eggs.

Woodlice – According to Wikipedia, woodlice keep the eggs on the upper side of their body. If they are that small, then they are certainly bigger than these eggs. While there were woodlice around where I found these eggs, they don’t fit the bill.

Spiders – Spiders usually keep their eggs either on their underside or in silk bundles called egg sacs. These clearly did not look like spider eggs.

Centipedes – There were a number of centipedes near where I took these shots. The following is a picture of one.

I must admit that I had no idea how the centipede lays its eggs, but after searching Live images I found the following image – http://www.myrmecos.net/amblyopone/centipede.jpg

These eggs looks suspiciously like those in the picture, and I now suspect that the eggs I found are indeed centipede eggs. Unlike the tropical varieties of centipedes, the garden centipedes we have here are harmless to humans so I am not worried by their presence. Still, I am very tempted to set up a terrarium with the eggs to show my kids, but I am afraid I would end up messing something up and the eggs won’t hatch.

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I’ve always rather liked leafhoppers. Many of the insects here are rather drab, but leafhoppers are remarkably beautiful – particularly when photographed from the side. However, I have had a tremendously difficult time trying to get a good shot of one from the side. Given that this one was on the shed rather than on a leaf (which I could accidentally bump), I tried getting side shots.

When I uploaded the pictures onto my machine, however, I was rather bummed that I didn’t get the angles I was hoping for. I was ready to delete the shots when I noticed something peculiar. Can you see it?

Yup, on the back of it we have a little army guy! There’s a light green face in the center with a straight mouth and two eyes and above the face is a rounded army helmet! Perhaps this is nature’s attempt at mimicry. The next time some human goes to squash this bug – he’ll mistake it for an army soldier and not squash it! Actually, I’m sure this is a natural defense, though I doubt that humans are the intended target. Perhaps the intent is to make the insect look larger, though I suspect the goal is to make a potential predator think it is looking back at it.  In this case a further away shot would probably contain the clue – but I did not take one from further away (the MP-E 65 is a close-up lens).

Here’s another shot of it with a bit of the side view.

Here it looks like the army soldier is wrapped up in a sleeping bag (the wings are the bag). One final shot of this peculiar phenomenon.

You have to hand it to nature when it has such a sense of humor.

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