Hello? Bugs?

It's been a puzzling few days in the backyard. The conundrum that confounds me is, where are all the bugs? Since Thursday the daytime highs have been in the low 60s, and the nighttime lows stay in the 40s or 50s. It's been beautiful. Perfect weather for bugs who were hunkered down for the winter to come out and enjoy the balmy December, but nope, they didn't. Friday I did a bug walk, and saw one winter crane fly. Saturday I didn't do a bug walk, because I didn't have time, but I did do some work out in the backyard, and didn't see any bugs. Today I did a bug walk, and I saw two insects (well, two live insects - I also saw a dead ant) and one spider. That's it. Now, today was really overcast, and the last two days have been more cloudy than sunny, and bugs do seem to prefer sunny weather, but it was still a huge surprise to me that I didn't see more bugs the last couple of days. I know that a lot of bugs die at the end of autumn, maybe not so much from the cold, as from having reached the end of their lifespan. But in the past, even after a long cold spell, if the weather warms up even into the 40s I have seen bugs. So to not be seeing them when it's 60 is strange.

Here's one of the two bugs I saw today:

 Winter crane fly. The other one was a springtail, and it sprang away before I could get a picture of it.

Oh, I just remembered that I saw a moth on the front porch the other night, one that was NOT one of those winter moths that have been around a lot lately, but I didn't get a picture of it. So, there was that bug.

Speaking of bugs... All of the calendars are done, and if you can stand a plug for them, you can get them HERE for Bugs!, HERE for Bug Faces, HERE for Caterpillars, HERE for Beetles, HERE for Intriguing Insects, HERE for Lovely Lepidoptera, which is butterflies and moths, but I am sure you knew that, HERE for Buzzz, which is bees and wasps, and lastly, HERE for Spiders.

I think this may well be the last blog post of the year. I'll keep doing bug walks for a couple more days (the next few are supposed to be in the 60s again, and then in the 50s, and then the 40s...), but I don't expect to find anything interesting. There's always a chance of interesting birds or other fauna, but for now, I think it will be 2016 before I have anything to post about again. So, if I don't see you... Happy New Year!

And speaking of spiders... Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I didn't get any good pictures of this spider, so I will make up for it by giving you a lot of them. I found it because I broke off a dead branch that was hanging low over a path, and the spider was on the part of the branch I left behind, but when I broke it off, it came dangling down on a thread. It climbed back up to the branch, which is where it is in these pictures.

 I love when spiders try to pretend they are just part of the branch by straightening their legs like this. Honestly, if I didn't know it was there, I wouldn't see it, this trick works so well.

 Trailing that anchor thread.