Horrible things that live in my yard, Part 58

[phosfate]

1. Caterpillars that look like tiny steel-belt radial tires. Lots of them.

2. Large but flightless baby robin. If robins ever stage Of Mice and Men, this one will play Lenny. Its mother is convinced that I mean it harm, and keeps faking injury in order to distract me from her tasty, tasty child. She's like Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black: "Eat me! EAT ME!" I have explained repeatedly that I don't want to eat her, or her lummoxy offspring. When I go inside, she switches her attention to the blue jay, who only wants to sit on a bit of fence and probably wonders what exactly he did to offend.

3. Rabbits. They are not in fact horrible, but they are everywhere.

Comments

[finabair.livejournal.com]

Do the radial tires have horns on them? Are they furry or hairy at all? Any colors other than black, such as red or yellow?

[finabair.livejournal.com]

There are many pictures here: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/insects/cateast/families.htm

And there's this one, which appears to be a variation on one that's often lots greener: http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/phgall4l.jpg

Anything look familiar?

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Maybe a Poplar Tentmaker, but all the other photos Mr Google came up with look a lot greener. Also, they weren't in any kind of tenty tree thing, but in a clump of dead leaves in a fence corner.

All those pictures have made me a little nauseous.