Band-winged grasshopper

This band-winged grasshopper (Oedipodinae) caught my eye with yellow wing showing!

Poison ivy leaf (Toxicodendron radicans) in case you were itching (groan- LOL) to see its leaflets. It is a show stopper in the fall.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker makes horizonal holes on trees. This is a Cedar Elm tree. This is a good sign that you have a  sapsucker in the neighborhood. The green on the bark is a lichen called Lepraria neglecta. A crustose lichen (a lichen that is embedded in the substrate) that almost looks like someone painted the tree. The lichen is not doing harm to the tree so just enjoy it. A number of lichens are actually good indicators that air quality is good.

Goldeye lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus) is a most colorful orange lichen. It is categorized as a fruticose lichen which means it is shrub-like. The Goldeye lichen is usually less than 25 mm (1″) tall. The round more orangey parts are the fruiting bodies called apothecia. If you look closely on the apothecium, you can see little hairs on the edge which are called cilia. We have another species of the same genus and similar look but without the cilia. 

A rather whitish praying mantis egg casing.