Farwell Ye Dog Days of Summer

I don’t know about you, but I already miss the dog days of summer, just sitting in the sun and relaxing now and again.

Little Dipper chillin' out in the sun.
With temperatures dropping and Mark back to school, Little Dipper won’t be sitting outside sunning herself much anymore.  Poor thing.
I also miss sitting outside and watching birds fly around, like this hummingbird.
Hummingbird at my feeder.

Of course, not even the hummers had it easy all summer long.

Stinging nasty chasing a hummingbird away from the feeder.

We haven’t seen any hummers for several days now.

I also liked watching the occasional bird take a dip in our bird bath.

Red-wing blackbird taking a bath.

Of course, not even the red-wing blackbird had it easy all summer.

Red-wing blackbird bath interrupted by a baby starling.

We haven’t seen a bird take a bath for weeks now.

I also miss the ants that were in our backyard.  We had a huge ant nest.  But one day about two weeks ago, I looked outside and saw hundreds of them lifting off into the air.  Mark said they were leaving our backyard to mate and start a new nest somewhere else.  Like it could be better anywhere else.

Winged ants at the top of a weed in my backyard.

I’m thinking the world looked pretty large from an ant’s point of view.

Winged ant looking rather puny in the grass and weeds.
The object was to climb to the top of a weed or grass blade and take to the air.
Winged ant beating its wings, ready to take off.

Some ants were more hesitant than others.

Ant on the left preparing for take-off; ant on right airborne.

Some ants had a hard time getting off the ground.

Ant struggling to get to the top of the grass blade for take-off.

Like most people, I wanted to help the little ant.

Ant I helped take off.

But even the ants didn’t have it easy all summer.  This crow came along more than once to poke at the nest with its sharp beak.

Crow on the ant nest.

The crow poking the nest aggravated the ants and caused them to squirt their formic acid on the crow.  This helps kill the crow’s parasites.

Crow getting a spa treatment at the ant nest.

 So when summer ends, ants take to the air to mate and start a new nest, hummers and black birds migrate south, and birds that stay around all winter stop taking baths and go dirty for months at a time.  Farewell ye dog days of summer and all the critters that I got to see.  I hope to see some of you next spring.

As for Little Dipper?  Well, she’s adjusting to the end of summer just fine.

Little Dipper settling into fall snuggling mode.
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