I discover a hoax. And some eggs.

It's been a busy weekend, what with company and making the list of Rock Flippers, (What fun I've been having! And I've met so many new - to me - great bloggers!) but I'm finally getting around to posting my own IRFD report, in two parts.

I stayed close to home all weekend, dashing out every time I took a break to see if I could find a good rock. My first forays were a bust; interesting wildlife, lousy photos. Saturday afternoon, though, I noticed a rock beside our street, a big rock I had passed hundreds of times without ever looking at it. It was far too big to even consider tipping over, but I was getting desperate.

Big, chunky, fake rock.

Then I noticed that white edge. It looked like a coating of barnacles, but here? I went closer and touched the rock. It was just painted styrofoam. How had I missed that before?

A nudge with a couple of fingers, and over it went. And look what I found!


They must be eggs, but what laid them, I don't know. I can see something inside, looking mostly like a bubble of air.

This blurry photo gives an idea of the size; that's a fat earthworm. The whitish thing on the right is a dead woodbug. I'm wondering whether it is warmer under the fake rock than it would be under a real one; I'll have to monitor it over the winter.

A few hours later, I was out again. I crossed the street to our productive vacant lot.

Big slabs of debris from building sites, now almost hidden by the weeds. Too big for me.

Smaller chunks. I could handle these.

Here, I found the ever-present woodbugs, slugs, and earthworms. And the spiders that feast on the woodbugs.

Dead weed stalks make great camouflage for a leggy spider.

Funnel-web spider with packed lunch; a beetle wrap.

And I began and ended with the next generation. These were cocoons containing ant larvae. The adults were frantically collecting them and hauling them down cracks.

All in all, a good haul. And Sunday's flipping yet to come; that will be next post.

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