Small Critters

I've been accumulating photos of a lot of interesting critters.

I'll start with the invertebrates.

While moving firewood, this Northern Black Widow spider caught my attention. We occasionally see Black Widows in our firewood racks - one of the reasons I always wear gloves when dealing with firewood. (The other reason is splinters.) Fortunately, they're not very aggressive, especially during the day.

This brightly colored millipede was under Lon's wood-splitting block.

As were two or three of this very shiny "Bess-bug" or "betsy-beetle".

Our lavender patch attracts lots of pollinators, especially bumblebees. Here a Silver-spotted Skipper sips nectar from the lavender flowers.

Moving on to vertebrates:

We've seen hardly any box turtles this year, but lots of toads. This is most likely a Fowler's Toad (or perhaps it's an American Toad).

These hatched Black Rat Snake eggs were found in our compost as we spread the compost in the garden. We've got lots of mice and not nearly enough rat snakes!

American Goldfinches love to perch on the chickenwire that protects our asparagus beds from rabbits.

From there they like to fly to the tops of some smaller oak trees. (Male at left; female at right.)

A rear view shows the black feathers underlying the bright yellow head feathers.