Learning to prowl
The Queen Anne's Lace flowers—QAL is actually a kind of wild carrot—are wonderfully abundant these days, and, as I've learned with my hydrangeas, bear careful viewing. The white-ish blooms host an equal abundance of insects, so it's always worth giving the blossoms a once-over to see who's busy working the terrain for pollen and prey. This young Praying Mantis belongs to the latter group, and I noticed it carefully prowling the floral landscape for unwary critters, most likely bees, beetles, or flies that were too busy eating to pay attention to the potential disaster that lurked nearby. The mantis didn't find anything to eat while I watched, but it was certainly paying close attention, both for the possibility of prey... and the location of the photographer.