We are hardly in the wilderness, but there is plenty of danger if you are small enough.

Wandering around the garden this morning, I saw a tiny fly sitting on a blackfoot daisy flower. It stayed put, so I took some photos for identification.

Looking more closely, it became clear that the fly was remaining on the flower because a crab spider had grabbed it.

As is often the case, the spider matched the color of the flower closely, which both allowed it to capture the fly and to avoid detection by the many potential predators that would like to eat it.

A few more photos showing the drama happening at the millimeter to centimeter scale.

On a larger scale, I have been trying to figure out who is eating the local beetles, by tethering a few and setting up a trail camera. So far, nobody has tried to eat the beetles, but I did get a nice view of another resident walking through.

It went through the meadow at about 7:20, which is when we often see bunnies back there. Interesting to think that the cats are probably watching us many of the nights we are walking around behind the yard.