Friday before the long weekend

Yesterday, I found a shield bug outside a glass door on campus and since I didn't bring my macro/telephoto lens, I brought it home in a glass jar.

And today, I brought it back to school (along with the lens) and took photos of it on the dead yarrow.

Don't know what species this is, but it is still pretty cool-looking.


Side-view

In the afternoon, after a dead long seminar talk (it was an interesting talk but I think after-lunch-and-before-long-weekend is the worst time to sit through an hour of presentation on physiology of hummingbirds and their muscles), I practically ran out of the building and went to my office to grab my camera and headed outside for some down-time with nature. That was when I saw this brown mantis on the side of the road.

I brought it away from the pavement and put it on a dead yarrow and snapped some photos.



Cleaning its legs, just like a cat!


And then I spotted another mantis hiding in the grass. Hello!

After that, I went to the hill and tried to look for some birds. While sitting behind a mound of gravel, a deer ran in front of me followed by two humans with loud music playing from a phone.

Taking photos of small birds is so difficult, especially when they are well-aware of your presence. I think this is a young Yellow-rumped Warbler, but I could easily (and probably) be wrong.

This is one I know, Dark-eyed Junco!

Leaves changing colors.

While many students go back home or their cottages, I am staying put and working on the many assignments that I have. Plus, it is unreasonable to go back to BC for just a three-day break.