Lincoln: Wilderness park

Sunday, 7 July 2013

Jacky spotted a leafhopper on my camera strap. With a certain amount of twisting and turning, I was able to point the camera at its own strap.

This morning, Jacky and I met Loren and hiked Wilderness park.

In contrast to yesterday’s open, windy grassland prairie, today’s hike was forested, full of poison ivy and other low ground cover, and replete with mosquitoes.

As always, we kept an eye out for small animals, and even found a few.

One of the high points was the nest of spider hatchlings.

The black dots are eyes; it’s easy to see four and, depending on your imagination, six or maybe even more.

Here (above) we see four main eyes and a pair of running lights on the side.

The wolf spider has two headlights, four parking lights, and two rear-window lights. It’s hard to sneak up on a spider!

I thought this bee was terrific, as it hugs itself onto the flower.

But the real discovery of the day was harvestmen. I have been watching for them constantly, but these are the first I have seen in Nebraska. There were so many that I eventually stopped photographing each new one we came across. Nice!

We came back into town for a quick fast-food lunch, then went our separate ways for the afternoon. We’ll meet Loren’s new wife Sandra at their house this evening, along with Allison.

Tags: harvestmen, Lincoln NB, Wilderness park