The Daily Bucket is a place where we post and exchange our observations about what is happening in the natural world in our neighborhood. Each note about the bugs, buds, and birds around us is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns of nature that are quietly unwinding around us.
Gooseville, Wisconsin
I'm sprawled comfortably in a soft chair on the deck sipping my morning coffee. The dogs are stretched out in the shade panting loudly.
I catch a sudden glimpse of a weirdly floating 4-inch piece of dead grass hovering in the air next to my bare toes. The grass blade is held by grasping jaws and securely thrust beneath thin dangling legs and wings that flash iridescent blue in the sunlight with an amazing thread-like waist supporting a pulsing abdomen.
Oh, you're very welcome here, Isodontia, my sweet tempered little grass-carrying wasp. I have been delighted to watch a female build her nest in one of the small holes in the old deck chairs each summer.
She deftly slides head-first into the chosen hole dragging her burden inside and reappears in seconds to fly back into the tall grass on the hillside below the deck. I sit cross-legged on the deck and count 23 determined return flights with neatly cut blades of dead grass brought back into the growing nest.
She stuffs the last one into her hole and pauses to jiggle a crooked twist and flies away. I never observed her grim return with the paralyzed tree cricket or small grasshopper host that will feed her summer brood, while still alive.
I found an excellent video on nest building.
What's happening in your backyard or neighborhood today? Is it flying, crawling or blooming? Feel free to throw your observations into the bucket, or today because it's soooo hot, the fancy swimming pool in the backyard. Curly Kodiak, brought his pool toys to share and all are welcome here.