The World's Dumbest Fly

No, really.  I have seen a lot of strange things, but this is by far the weirdest thing I have ever seen in nature.  Behold:

You know that cold snap we just had? (The one that happened BEFORE Thanksgiving!?!) Apparently it stupefied more than just the local meteorologists.  It would seem this poor fly lost his wits and impaled himself on a lemon tree thorn.  Here's a closer look:

My teenage daughter (A.K.A. the Biology Encyclopedia) informs me that there is a bird called a Shrike that is fond of torturing it's victims in this way.  There is only one problem.  Shrikes don't live around here.  So either this is a suicidal fly or it's really, really dumb.

Update:  It occurred to me that some of you might want to know a little more about this sad, sad fly.  We found it in our patio garden following an early and severe cold snap.  We have absolutely no idea how it got itself into this predicament.  For the record, no one has access to this garden but us, as it is on a second floor balcony, so this isn't a neighborhood prank.  If you have ever seen anything like this, we would love to hear about it.  At the moment, we are just perplexed.

Have a great (and hopefully less weird) day!

Angela

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