Flutter By

I saw a butterfly today. I had just opened the front door to let some sunshine in, and I stood there looking out, and thought it would be nice if I could see something interesting while standing there. And I did - I saw a butterfly. If you've been reading this blog at all I probably don't have to explain why I got so excited about seeing a butterfly, but I will - seeing a butterfly means it's really spring. Spring is the one season that seems to be accompanied by a degree of skepticism. When summer, fall, and winter arrive, there isn't that same uncertainty about whether or not the season is really here. Summer days that are not crazy hot are still nice, fall is more about the colors than the temperature, and no one really looks forward to the part where everything is dead, and winter... well, there are people who like it really cold, but I think for a majority of people we are not getting up in the morning in December hoping that it will be a freezing, miserable day (though maybe we hope for some snow. SOME snow). But spring can be deceiving, and it comes on very gradually. When you wake up in the morning and see that it is a glorious looking day, you may be in for a shock when you go outside dressed in short sleeves, and have to go back inside for your winter coat. Just when everything seems to be blooming nicely you might have a hard frost that kills everything. There is a reason we don't plant our vegetable garden until the end of May. THE END OF MAY! That is when the danger of frost is supposed to be past. Depending on whether you go by astronomical or meteorological measures of the seasons, that is between 2/3 and almost all the way to the end of spring. But there are signs that make it feel like spring is here for real. Blooming things. Leaves, leaves, leaves. More kinds of bugs every day. And for me, butterflies. If there are butterflies it has to be spring for real.

The butterfly was, I believe, a mourning cloak butterfly. I remembered as soon as I saw it that the first butterfly I saw last spring was a mourning cloak as well, and having just looked it up, I can tell you that it was on April 9th last year. Given the slowness of our spring this year, it seems reasonable that this was a couple of weeks later (and it could just be chance either way). If I looked it up and was actually able to find the information I wanted I would guess that I would find out that mourning cloaks overwinter as pupae and eclose in the spring as it starts to warm up.

So, I suppose you want to see pictures of this springtime glory? Okay:

 See that dark blur next to the telephone pole? That's the butterfly. Of course when I saw it I grabbed my camera and shoved my feet into some shoes and went outside; miraculously the butterfly was still sitting on the ground by the driveway where I saw it land when I was looking out the door, but as I got close it took off.

I think that's it in the upper left hand corner of this picture. And even though it then landed nearby, I didn't get any better pictures than this. So, that's why the butterfly is not the Backyard Bug of the Day. Bonus: In the lower left corner of this picture is the famed package bin. Still currently full of spiders.

Today was another day of bees and wasps dominating the bugosphere that is my backyard.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I know there was a bumblebee as Backyard Bug of the Day just a few days ago, but this one has green eyes! GREEN EYES! I have never seen a bumblebee with green eyes, they always have black eyes. So, this being an extra-amazing bumblebee, and one I sort of caught in one of those cool in-flight shots, it gets to be Backyard Bug of the Day (because my blog, my rules).

We need a closer look at that, don't we? Here's the same pic, zoomed in.

 What a beautiful bee...

 There were other bees, too...

 And wasps...

I only got pictures of a tiny fraction of what was buzzing around the yard today. But even just these few pictures, there's four different species. (And there are four bugs, of three species, in this picture).

Here's an ant doing something interesting:

 I don't have any idea what it was doing with this piece of leaf. It wandered around with it for a while, but never seemed to be going anywhere purposefully.

 This ant was trying to move a piece of a stick, but it didn't work out for it - too caught among the grass. (I moved from shade to sun in the few inches between taking pictures of the previous ant and this one... and forgot to change the settings on my camera, which is why this is so washed out).

Now if you want to simulate the experience of being out in the backyard watching ants, click Here. This is the big ant hill at the top of the driveway.

A few beetles were hanging around today, willing to be photographed:

 Rove beetle. Hard to believe this insect has a pair of wings hiding under those short elytra.

 I think these two might be courting.

Playing dead so I will go away. Very common beetle behavior. I try not to take it personally.

Random bugs and things:

 Something pupating in there?

Some sort of arthropod...

Springtail. Haven't seen one of this kind in a while - not since last fall.

 Cranefly

 A couple of moths attracted to the porch light.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 There are obviously multiple species of jumping spiders. This is the largest of the ones I see around here. I think this is the largest individual jumping spider I have seen, ever. Not that you can tell from the picture, but believe me, I was impressed. Oddly, these are also the shyest of the jumping spiders.

This crab spider (I think the first I have seen this year) was another porch light visitor.