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White Rock lake, Sunset Bay
Photo story
Photo 1:
Well Hello There
Tracey & I were at the lake and there was a juvenile grackle that approached Tracey. I gave Tracey the bag of bird seed I had with me and she fed the baby. She sat down & it came right up to her.
Photo 2:
Would You Like Some Peanuts?
I have never seen a juvenile grackle ask people for food and be hand fed before. Possibly something happened to its mother. In the bottom left corner you can see a rock dove also interested in the food.
Photo 3:
Don't Worry, You Don't Have To Share With The Rock Dove
The dove was making the baby grackle a bit nervous.

Photo 4:
Here's Some More
It seems to be focused on Tracey as she talks quietly to it.
Photo 5:
Careful, That's A Big Bite
Junior has a beak full of bird seed & Tracey looks like she is cautioning Junior to take smaller bites.
Photo 6:
You're So Brave
Such a brave bird. We ended up leaving a small pile of birdseed on the ground and went on our way. I had never seen anything like it with a wild grackle.

There was a continuous buzz from low shrubs, as in the sound recording attached -- so certainly there were numerous such cicadas in the area.
The one i was fortunate to photograph had been caught by a robberfly.
Reference soundfile: www.insectsingers.com/100th_meridian_cicadas/songs/04.US.OK.SCA.01.C9_11.Beameria_venosa_fragment_filtered.mp3
Sanborn & Phillips distribution maps found here: www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/5/2/166/htm

This specimen has much smaller spines than I thought was characteristic for horse crippler cactus--but perhaps it's fairly variable?

UPDATED: changed from Echinocactus texensis to Cactaceae based on Sam's comments below.

Snakeweed grasshopper looks fetching in this daring ensemble of fall colors: Green leggings with a splash of orange flair, chartreuse chitin exoskeleton hand-made by mother mature (complete with fabulous white and black linear accents), designer wings composed of the world’s finest cuticle, all of which is accented with a pair of stunning articulated antenna. Call 1-800-GO-OUTSIDE to see yours now. Don’t wait.

Low growing, perhaps 8 inches in height. Just a few of the blossoms retain ray flowers.
Soil in this spot will be wetter than usual, perhaps alkaline.
Formerly Bahia woodhousei.
http://www.opsu.edu/Academics/SciMathNurs/NaturalScience/PlantsInsectsOfGoodwell/plants/pasturefiles/pasture90.html
http://intermountainbiota.org/portal/taxa/index.php?taxon=2280

Fly was perched on a blade of grass in direct sun, making for burnt-out photographs, but also making its blue iridescence visible.
In the last photo, the fly had moved over to a sprig of juniper in the shade, so head features more visible
aka "blue-banded flower fly" http://bugguide.net/node/view/1083349/bgimage
http://syrphidae.myspecies.info/taxonomy/term/152/media

Found the insect early in the morning floating in a chilly bird bath. I took it indoors and photographed it as best i could under household fluorescent lighting, but not adequately.
I made the following visual observations:
The insect is pale green in color with a beautiful golden sparkle on both body and wings. The eyes are shiny red-gold in color. There are no markings on the head or pronotum, but a row of copper-color spots down the dorsal ridge of the abdomen. Characteristic?
It quite resembles a number of other Chrysopidae observations that have yet to be ID'd, to my knowledge:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/389293/bgimage
http://bugguide.net/node/view/341208/bgimage
http://bugguide.net/node/view/464839/bgimage
http://bugguide.net/node/view/595340/bgimage
http://bugguide.net/node/view/649760/bgimage