Buster, the birthday boy.

Every year our neighbor, Roxana has a birthday party for her dog, Buster. She invites a number of people from around the neighborhood – especially those that have dogs. Here’s a selection of this years’ participants.

Cody

Charlie

Tartine

And last but not least, our very own Jackson

Jackson really wasn’t crazy about the band. Maybe he prefers classical music to jazz. Actually he was fine with the keyboard and the bass. It was the saxophone that drove him nuts.

My wife was gardening when she suddenly called me over. She has a small basket for her gardening implements and clinging to the side of it was a large insect – easily 1 1/2 inches long. I’m not very knowledgeable about insects but it seems to me that this is some kind of cicada. There is a species of cicada that comes out every 17 years – in their millions. They were supposed to appear in New York State in 2013 but apparently didn’t. Maybe they’ll come out in 2014 instead. If so we can look forward to a very large number of extremely noisy cicadas shortly. Fortunately they don’t bite or sting and don’t damage plants (although I believe their grubs can).

It’s a strange mixture of the ugly and the beautiful. It has a thick, stubby body that isn’t very appealing, but the diaphanous wings with the bright green veins are quite spectacular. The wonder is that such fragile looking wings can carry the large body. I’d like to see one flying.

Another wildlife picture. I came across this little guy slithering around in the leaves at Hardscrabble Wilderness Area. A say ‘little’ because he (she?) really was quite small – much smaller than he appears in the picture.

I few posts ago I mentioned that I didn’t have many ‘wildlife’ photos because I lacked both the patience and the necessary equipment. However, I was cleaning up my old images and I realized that I had rather more than I thought so I’ll post a few of them from time to time.

I’ll start with a recent one taken during yesterday’s walk. I came across this enormous beetle on a rock by the side of the road. It must have been easily two or three inches long. I have no idea what it is.

UPDATE: It’s a broad-necked root borer.