Good morning everyone! Welcome to August in Steve’s Country! Well, August certainly arrived with a bang today. When I got up this morning the sky was clear, the sun was just beginning to shine. By 6am it was warm out on the deck, the sun was shining beautifully, the birds were busy, the chipmunks had arrived, it was just a beautiful morning.

Very nice to sit on the deck with my coffee and enjoy the morning action. By 7am it was cloudy, no more sunshine. It kept getting darker and darker and then the thunder began off in the distance. Soon that thunder was pounding away over us, the wind picked up and the rain began. Lots of rain. Heavy rain.

This is the Northern Wasp Fly. It is a flower fly, not a wasp, and does not bite or sting.

An hour later it is still raining, with thunder in the distance again. I am enjoying more coffee. Indoors. Muffin is not enjoying anything. She is hiding in the bathroom, her new favorite place to hide. Thunderstorms were in the forecast, at least a slight chance anyway, for this afternoon. Not for morning. Oh well. They were close.

The rain finally stopped and I went to check on Muffin. She came out, slightly, and looked around a bit. But the rain started again so she went back into the bathroom for safety. We are getting a lot of rain from this storm. I guess August is going to continue where July left off. With lots of rain. It does keep things nice and green though. However, it does make it hard to get out for pictures. Oh well. Little things.

This is the Seven-spotted Ladybird Beetle, commonly known as ladybugs. This one is not a native species, but is a common variety now.

Sometimes we worry too much about “little things” and that can really knock us down and get us discouraged. Now, I know that there are “big things” too. Those are different. But often it is those “little things” that can cause us the most problems because we worry about them so much that we blow them up into “big things”.

This is the Eastern Band-winged Hover Fly. It is about half an inch (12.5mm) long.

Then after they pass we realize they were just “little things” all along. Then there are different “little things”, like the pics of little insects I am showing today. There are some interesting, and little, sometimes very tiny, insects out there. Some are so tiny it is hard to get a nice pic of them. The chipmunks, hummingbirds and blue jays are back now.

Baxter and Betty, my two main blue jays, have brought 3 babies this year. They are just as big as the parents now and they were all very wet from the rain. The babies learned quickly that sunflower seeds are good food, they line up in a row, pounding open those seeds. It is quite comical looking.

This is a Spider Wasp, just one of numerous species we have. I am not sure of the specific species here. I have had them crawling around on my hands and arms. They inflict a very nasty sting. This is a small species about half an inch (12.5mm) long.

I hope you do not mind the insect pics today, there will likely be more coming up too since that is mostly what I am getting these days. Have a wonderful day and a beautiful August! God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.