tfandre's Identifications

This one is for the cottontail in front of the owl that the male delivered to his mate during the night. This is the species we have here, you can recognize the fur and see the cotton of the tail and it is their most common prey.

Grasshopper Lifer Drinking Tree Sap
This was a new species of grasshopper for me. So well camouflaged it is a wonder I saw it. It appears to be drinking the tree sap.

I was with Tracey, her observation of this individual is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66002455
@tfandre

Look Who Was Sitting On The Railing
Of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to get a nice shot of him. His eyes match his wings.
Id confirmed in bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2312396 @tfandre

It's Fall Webworm Time
These are all over the place right now. This one fell out of the tree above me onto the wooden bench I was doing stretches on.
id confirmed on bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2311976 @tfandre

Photo 1:
Swarming Army Ants
This was a new species of ant for me. I noticed movement in leaf litter in the woods and investigated. A large amount of ants came swarming up from under the ground and leaves. There were both small worker ants and huge winged males. I took photos at a safe distance. This shot is a multitude of workers pouring out of a curled up leaf.
Photo 2:
One more shot of the boiling mess of ants, cropped closer. All workers again. These ants do not have permanent nests. They are nomadic and make temporary camps each night before moving on the next day. They stay underground most of their lives, coming out at night and cloudy days. Found these in a dark area of a woodlands that is a riparian forest.
Photo 3:
Common Army Ants
The ant on the left is one of the worker army ants. The huge, winged ant on the right is a male. In this shot his wings were a blur of motion although he never actually took off & flew.

The last 4 photos added to see if this can go to species. Regarding behavior, at first we thought the smaller ants were attacking what we thought were wasps coming up out of the ground. Later found out the "wasps" were the males. They were emerging from the ground with the workers running all over them while they did so. The males still had their wings so probably brothers to the workers. Read males from other colonies have their wings removed after they enter to mate with the queen. Kind of captive sperm bank? Anyway hopefully I got some detail that helps with species id.

Center Of The Web
This web was huge and stretched across a little game trail I was following. I literally had to duck under it to keep going. The bold spider never budged and stayed put. I was able to get a shot with spider and web lit up by sunshine with pretty greenery behind it. Like other nearby webs, there were tiny water droplets on each of the web spokes. And they sparkle.
ID confirmed on bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2227074 @tfandre

Had a wonderful time with a group of naturalists documenting LOTS of things at this new nature preserve in Rockwall. All of this data will be used to guide management of this land by the city of Rockwall.

Spotted Orbweaver With A Snout & Bark Beetle Snack
She had just started wrapping up her meal so you could see enough of it to identify it as a big weevil. Look closely, you can see her shooting silk out of her spinnerets. The web was up in the sky above my head so practically invisible when shooting straight up. There is a smaller tidbit for dessert in the lower left of this shot.
I believe the weevil is in the genus lixus

ID confirmed in bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2220576 @tfandre

Had a Visitor Last Night
This happened about 8:30pm last night & my yard cam captured it. That is one plump raccoon although the tail looks a bit strange. Came right up to my front door before going for a drink at my fountain.
33 second video can be viewed here: https://www.kapturedbykala.com/Animals/i-qgmnt67

Rowlett Creek Nature Preserve
They are not aggressive and rarely bite. And that rare bite is less painful than a mild bee sting. This was my first fishing spider and was a small one. This species of fishing spider is found in wooded areas.
Interesting face with a beard worthy of ZZ Top. The eyes are kind of sweet.

Photo 1:
Shore Bird Lifer!
Finally saw some verifiable stilt sandpipers. We only see them during migration. There was a flock a good ways from me on the other side of a mud flat. Most of the larger birds with long bills are the stilts. Possibly a couple of dowagers too. Smaller birds most likely least and/or semipalmated sandpipers. Stilts were lifers for me.
Photo 2:
They are migrating thru on their way to South America. All 3 of these are stilts.

Leafhopper Lifer
My friend spotted this one in the woods. New for us both. No common name. Researched & found out it is fairly rare. Not many reported in North America much less Texas. Not a lot of information about it. Looks very different, more like a spittlebug than a leafhopper.
Same individual as Tracey's in bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1871216#3190249 @tfandre