[FishermanTim]

I haven't seen one of these creatures in many years and was pleasantly surprised to see one on our screen door last Saturday morning.

It was a preying mantis, about 5-6 inches long.
It was a cool morning and I fisgured that when it warmed up enough it would move on. I couldn't find any bugs to feed it, so I gave it a worm to eat.
It hung around all day, and I was able to rustle up a couple of grasshoppers for it to munch on.
Fed it again on Sunday, and was going to again on Monday, but it had moved on.
The best/unusual part was that it didn't move far from our back door screen door the whole weekend.

I would love to have them make our yard part of their hunting ground, but with the number of birds and bird species we get, they would probably get eaten by one of them.

Anyway, it was cool to see one up close and personal!