Carolina Mantis

I had just succeeded in taking a rather annoyingly difficult photo that I planned to use for today's blip, walked back up on our porch and started sweeping leaves off it. All of a sudden I saw THIS! This is big news not because it's a praying mantis, but because its a native praying mantis rather than the Chinese variety that is everywhere. I don't know if I've ever seen a Carolina mantis, to be honest. I have seen their egg sacs - which are elongated rather than sort of rounded cubes. Anyhoo - very exciting.

Thus - the extra is the photo I struggled to take. There was quite a breeze blowing and it was hard to stop the motion. Plus the sun was blinding me. And my "real" camera wouldn't focus on it, so I had to resort to the iPhone, which did a bang up job in the end.