You are listening to Nature Stories with Simone.

Today, I saw a stick bug! It looked like this:

I have never before seen a stick bug of any kind except in the form of pixels on a screen, so this sure was a delight! (If you could hear my voice right now, you may think to yourself that you’ll be getting annoyed any minute now, even though I’ve spoken less than four sentences, and you’ll also be thinking that my voice bears NO resemblance whatsoever to Brad Neely’s voice.) I was swimming in the pool, as I always am when I encounter nature, when I saw a very thin creature swimming on the surface of the water. As usual, my ignorance led me to be quite frightened by the fragile, moving twig. Also as usual, I felt the obligation to rescue the critter from the dangers of the sea… or a pool. Its antennae and pointy butt caused me to be worried that it may try to attack me in some way, so I attempted to get it out of the water without touching it. The flimsy, unmoving twigs surrounding me were of no help. I was forced to create a tsunami that would wash the stick bug ashore. (My voice has now rested at a normal tone, and you are no longer distracted by a strange, unusual sound. This parenthetical, however, is distracting you.) I knew for certain that the bug was still alive, but he seemed to be playing dead. I thought that maybe the water was gluing his legs to his twiggy body, so I used a relatively strong, unmoving twig to move the legs and body of the previously-moving twig. After positioning the bug in a standing position on a dry spot of concrete or whatever my patio floor is made of, I continued swimming. For several laps (this is a measurement of time for the time being), the bug stayed in the exact same position. Then, after a while, I looked for it again, and it was gone. I searched the grounds (literally, the ground) for its slender body, thinking it couldn’t have gone far. Unfortunately, it was gone for good, back into the wild of my backyard.

Thank you for tuning in to Nature Stories with Simone.

Thank you, Simone, for sharing your most creative story and excellent artwork with our readers. Please send us more as nature inspires you in the future.

January 19 – 9 lbs.

July 1 – 60 lbs.

While driving across Alligator Alley in South Florida, we spotted these vultures posing on an almost-dead tree, against a backdrop of a dusky sky. I could not have asked for a better pose, if I had arranged those birds myself. I used my Nikon D40 with my 55-200 lelephoto lens.

Thanks for the photos, Randy and Rene!

Darwin chasing a laser light up the fence. Can you see the red dot?

Never wearing out!

Loves to pose for the camera!

Archimedes, the adorable hedge hog (photo courtesy of Ben Picolo)

An unwelcome visitor on the shower curtain

A turtle at TY Park in Hollywood, FL scrambling toward the lake

Read Rachel’s review of the book, King Lear by Gareth Hinds on LA Parent Magazine’s website.