Backyard and Beyond

A Red-tailed Hawk slid across the distant sky without any wing motion at all. Closer, much closer: a tiny bird landed in a nearby tree, and, while looking for it (it was a kinglet) I saw a Northern Flicker. The kinglet leaped around the tree, the Flicker was still. Then, glancing down, I saw a black beetle hurrying along. Searching for it, I saw something honey-colored, I’m not sure what, perhaps a queen ant who already lost her wings? It seemed very hymenoptera-ish, but this habitat is multidimensional and full of cloaking devices, mostly old leaves. (Soon after, a winged honey-colored Winter Ant Queen landed on my leg.) And down on the ground was one of the innumerable smallish wolf spiders that dart through the scruffy grasses here, giving the underbrush a sense of constant movement and life.