Outdoor Hour Challenge #27 & Unplug Your Kids: Insects

(I decided to use this post for double duty as the Unplug Your Kids topic this week was: insects! So, instead of reposting these photos, I'll just link to this post from a few days ago.)

This week's challenge for Outdoor Hour was to study and look for bees. Sadly, we haven't seen many bees in our backyard for the past few years. We have 2 different types of plants that used to be covered in them, but we rarely see them now. So, we were outside and I was sure we wouldn't find any...

but, we found this one... she was dead. But, it was a great opportunity to study it close up and get a few photos.

We spent lots of time in the backyard this week. Alexandra saved this milkweed bug from the pool - he's drying off his wings.

I found this katydid on our sago palm. I love this photo! You might try to enlarge it. I think it is one of my best insect photos ever. And, I actually wasn't sure if this was a katydid or a grasshopper of some kind when I found it. I did some research and found that you can usually tell a katydid by its LONG antenna. They are sometimes even called longhorned grasshoppers, though they are more closely related the cricket.

And, this was just an incredible gift from God! My dog actually "found" it. This was right outside our back door. I actually thought this poor cicada was deformed... and dead. His coloring was so strange! So, I didn't even wake Alexandra to see it. About 30 minutes later, I took her outside to see it...And, he was out and letting his wings dry! Aren't those incredibly colored wings!!! I thought he was a most unusual colored cicada.

But, once again, I hadn't waited long enough... he is actually just an "ordinary" (but beautiful) cicada. Isn't that just amazing???