Mantis Water

I water the plants in my front garden bed and my green Mantis friend emerges from the Jasmine Vine.

Hello! The mantis is covered in water droplets. It sits and wipes it’s head, eating up the water drops and cleaning itself like a cat!

Mantis Returns

We were blessed by a beautiful green preying mantis this afternoon. I was pulling some marigolds that were crowding the dusty miller and disturbed this dude. He climbed up into the jasmine and watched me as he went.

This mantis is only a couple inches long, but dude is huge compared to my micro mantis friend from a few months ago. I’m flattered that he is hanging out at our house. He can stay as long as he likes!

The monsoon rains are in full swing. High temperatures are below 90 for a couple days and it stormed all through the night and today- not just 30 minutes of getting dumped on!

Towhee Energy

This morning on the porch, the same Aberts towhee, looking plump and healthy, came chirping on the fence once again.

Well hello. I guess you’re my new friend. Might as well embrace the new lead character of our backyard, as we move up the food chain from the precious mantis to the predator who transmuted it into her bird energy.

Towhee IS the mantis! It’s a small change with a huge impact.

She chirped to the ground for a drink from the saucer, chirping as she went. The cats just watched from across the yard. She chirp-hopped back up on the fence and was gone the same way she came.

There were two woodpeckers on the palm tree, two mockingbirds scuffling in the ocotillo, two quail digging in the dirt.

Tertiary mantis theory: it went to the lemon tree for some lacewings and in doing so, perhaps, our original hero made it yonder down the food chain and not hither into the mouth of a bird.

Or both!?

Bye bye Birdie

Welp, the preying mantis has moved on- to where? I do not know.

An Aberts towhee landed on the fence, dropped down onto a nail in the fence, hopped down to the ground right next to the lambs ear and pecked it as he went by.

My heart dropped. In a moment everything changed. I went out there and confirmed that the mantis was nowhere to be found.

I do have an alternate theory. When I was looking for the mantis, I noticed that a sprinkler head nearby had popped off. It is evident that water was spraying the lambs ear. Perhaps it forced the mantis to move. Maybe it is happily meditating on another leaf somewhere nearby.

I thank the little white preying mantis for it’s visit to my corner of the world and the wisdom imparted for my life.

It is a creature with intense presence for it’s tiny size and it will be missed!

Resilience

I go out in the yard mid-morning to check- the birdbath is nearly dry. The lambs ear is wilted in the sun and the praying mantis is hanging upside down and holding it’s gaze in the same direction as always.

Mockingbird is with his girl hopping around up in the palm tree fronds. They’re wind surfing!

I run the sprinkler. The lambs ear perks right up and the mockingbird comes down for a drink.

I remember being so upset a couple months ago when the mockingbird and hummingbird nests were both displaced by palm tree pruning. Now they are back home and really, they never left.

We are here to weather the storm and find new life on the other side. We are resilient. Sometimes we’re hanging upside down to take cover from the hot sun. Sometimes we’re surfing in the breeze.

Be Quiet

I go outside the day after meeting the mantis to find him again in his usual spot. I take his photo. Jason comes to the back door and converses with me across the yard.

In an instant the preying mantis has turned to me. He commands that I, “Be quiet!” I snap one last photo and dash inside to avoid further wrath.