I don't know if spring is really the best name for this time of year. I think yo-yo would be better, because that is what the temperature does. Warm(ish) one day, snowing the next. In this case, by next I mean yesterday. It snowed all day. Miraculously we only got about 2 inches from all of that precipitation, because for most of the day the ground was too warm from the previous days of modestly warmer temps, but by the end of it all the ground was completely covered again. All of that lovely bare ground (which, I admit, is actually kind of ugly, but I love it right now anyway) had disappeared. Much sighing ensued. Then today the sun came out, the temperature crept above freezing a bit, and most of yesterday's snow melted. The backyard still has more snowy areas than bare ground, but today I was able to do a circuit, more or less, of my usual walking area wearing my gardening clogs instead of boots or snowshoes. It felt like a victory. A squishy, muddy victory. Also, I really want the dung beetles to come back.
In my last post I featured downy woodpeckers as Backyard Bird of the Day. Today I have something different:
A hairy woodpecker! I know what you're thinking (unless you are a real birder, in which case you are better at this than I am) - that looks exactly like the downy woodpecker from the last post! Well, they look a LOT a like. For years I have been confused by them (and within a few days I will forget everything I have recently learned that I am about to tell you, and will go back to being confused) because they look so much alike, so when I see a woodpecker like this I have just been contented with knowing that it is either a downy or a hairy (even those names mean something similar). But since I was featuring the woodpeckers so heavily in that last post, I figured it was time to figure out which was which, and I looked it up. One difference is that the hairy is bigger than the downy, but that's really only useful information if you have two of them sitting next to each other. Then there was some information about one of them having white tail feathers, and the other having white tail feathers with a couple of black flecks, but these are the underneath tail feathers we're talking about. Do you even see those in this picture? No. So, I found one useful piece of information - the size of their beaks is different. The hairy woodpecker has a beak that is about the same length as its head, and the downy woodpecker has a shorter, stubbier beak. There, was that so hard? So, this is a hairy woodpecker.
I think.
There was only one woodpecker today, not a pair like the other day, and it was not picking of bugs from the bark of trees, but spent the whole time I saw it doing the classic woodpecker peck right in the same spot on this tree, which may be dead now. I am sad about that, because I love trees, but dead trees are a boon to woodpeckers, so I guess Nature knows what's best.
Note also the snow in the tree. Grrr.
The temperature today did not reach impressive heights, but it was sunny and above freezing so when I got a chance in the late afternoon, I did a bug walk. I had seen quite a few tiny flying things, and went out to see what I could see. And as often happens, I found a pleasant surprise.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
A moth! The other day I looked back at the bugs I found around this time last year, and I found a similar moth right around this point, but I didn't expect a repeat this year, because it's been so cold. I don't know if this is a moth that overwintered as a moth, or if this is something that has recently eclosed from its cocoon, but either way, I think it has probably emerged a little too soon.
Close up of scales on the wing.
For some reason one of the under wings was protruding at a weird angle.
I love moth eyes. They always look like they are undergoing the cartoon version of hypnosis.
Here's something else wonderful I found today:
Possibly the worst picture I have ever posted here, but it's not the quality of the picture that is important, it is the subject, which is a wisp of spider silk wafting in the breeze. I was pleased to see quite a bit of spider silk on bushes in the backyard today, because there's no way after the winter we've had that these are anything but recently spun threads, which means there are spiders active in the backyard. I couldn't find any of the ones that made these threads, but they're out there!
This little tree had silk lines all over it.
Another fun find - cedar apple rust. It doesn't have tentacles at the moment, but some day...
I found another cricket, under another board, one we keep on the deck under potted plants. I happened to move the board and spotted the cricket. Under lumber is evidently a good place to spend the winter if you're a cricket.
I found a lonely snow flea on a tree:
I don't know what those white flecks are.
Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
One of several spiders that lives under the same board as The Cricket. If you look carefully at the brown blur above it in the picture, that is a springtail. If I was a springtail I would not be creeping around spiders, even one that is so obviously trying not to be noticed.
No comments:
Post a Comment