little live things

I found a tiny caterpillar on my dill- it's barely a fourth of an inch long. I think a black swallowtail. I'm happy to let it eat the dill- I've already cut what I need to dry for my own use- and if it finishes all that off, I'll put it on the bolting second-year parsley down in the garden.

Cranefly on a turnip leaf-

Catbird on the fence- they are definitely nesting in the euonymus shrub by the garden. I was pulling weeds under that bush and stuck my face in- saw the nest up above- then worried my nosiness would frighten off the parents. But I did the rest of my garden work, and kept an eye on the catbirds while I did other stuff around the yard. They darted into the grass after bugs, flitted in the maples, chased a robin- and swooped back into the euonymus- always after pausing on the fence to look around

I've been seeing wolf spiders, jumping spiders, and orb weavers in the garden- always pleased at their presence. This was a new one- a spider with a fat yellow abdomen marked in black. My picture is really blurry- it wouldn't pause in hurrying through the bamboo mulch- but I looked some up and think it's a yellow garden spider- another kind of orb weaver- that makes a fantastic zigzag pattern of thicker threads in the middle of its web. I will have to look careful if I see it making a web somewhere, and try to get a photo. I've seen one that built a huge web in the corner of an office building entrance, and it was amazing.

I've startled many lizards (happy to see them about too), but haven't got a good photo of one yet this year.