wild ones

I still have not seen any grown preying mantids this year. But there are dragonflies, and skinks, and little toads! I hear their voices under the window in the evening, and the other day I stepped out after dark to pick some lemon balm from the garden, found these two on the deck railing and chair. One was greenish:

the other plain brown. I'm very glad the toads are here.

This morning I looked out the bathroom window over the back yard and saw something reddish move around the echinacea patch. Two foxes. They looked young- maybe just a year old? reddish fur, dark legs, alert ears, they moved across the grass in that light, floating gait. One had a dark tip to its tail. It feels like something magical to see them, as when the hummingbird flies close by me.

I finally found one monarch caterpillar- a good-sized one- on my milkweed plant. Well, there's plenty for it to eat! So far this one seems to have the three plants all to itself, though I didn't look super close for tiny first instars.