Amazing Wildlife in the Vineyard

On Sunday, my friend and I were shoot tucking the growing Chardonnay. My husband and I always wonder why we take all this time to create a trellis for the grape vines to grow in, and inevitably none of the growing vines want to grow between the trellis wire. Shoot tucking lasts for the entire growing season of the vines because not all of the vines are the same height so it is almost a daily activity that begins now!
However, the day was a beautiful one, perfect temperature and little to no humidity and the shoot tucking is one of the easier "tasks" early in the season. My friend and I were going along shoot tucking and I saw an amazing sight.
Let me digress just a little. Ever since we put in our vineyard, we have seen what I blogged about in 2013 as The Vineyard Raptor, the praying mantis. We were happy to see the styrofoam like egg cases as well as adult praying mantis. In 2019, while harvesting, my friend took a video of a praying mantis with a yellow jacket in it's mandibles!
We are fortunate that the praying mantis has found a home in our vineyard because (1) they are ferocious predators and (2) it can cost $10.50 for one egg case from Amazon!
So while we were shoot tucking, on my row, I saw tiny praying mantis coming out of the egg case and took a photo and showed it to my friend. She ooed and ahhed and then we continued for not too far when she saw an egg case on her row and I took another photo. It was so cool to see the young hatchlings!
So, without further ado---

Along with having my friend working with me, seeing young praying mantis was definitely a highlight of the day in the vineyard!