Hushed

I noticed something strange the last two evenings as I stood out on the back porch looking at the night sky: it was quiet. Very, very quiet. I didn't hear crickets, katydids, or tree frogs, until finally tonight after I had been outside I heard a couple of peeps. It's July, it's hot, it's muggy, it's summer - why am I not hearing insects in the night?

Today I found creatures in a couple of branches of the animal kingdom other than insects.

Backyard Mammal of the Day:

 I think this is a meadow vole. I have been trying and trying to find out the difference between a shrew and a vole, and frankly, the internet has lived up to its sad reputation so that I can't be sure. I thought I had shrews in the backyard. However, this is the first time I have gotten a decent look at one of these shy creatures (amazingly it let me take a whole bunch of pictures of it. This is unprecedented!), so it is the first time I have been able to really compare what I saw (and photographed) to pictures online. And I am still confused about the vole/shrew thing, but I think this is a vole. Which is not to say that there are not shrews in the backyard, too.

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

I almost stepped on this toad. And what's that one its head? That's not just another toady "wart"...

 Zoomed in - it's a springtail.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Assassin bug nymph. This is not a great picture, but it shows the most wonderful thing about this bug, and that is the gorgeous color!

 I found another one, too, that I got a better picture of, but it does not look as blue.

Random Bugs:

 Some backyard flora - purple coneflower getting ready to bloom, but when I looked closely at the flower I saw...

 ... some kind of larva. It (or something) appears to have eaten quite a few of the spiky things in the middle of the flower.

 Hopper

 Rove beetle? Or some kind of beetle larva?

 Quite a lot of candy striped leaf hoppers around today.

 Red milkweed beetle. Very descriptively named.

 I think these are spittle bugs.

These two were still hanging around near each other on the same sapling.

 I think this is a ladybeetle larva - and an aphid. I am not sure what the scenario is here, but ladybeetle larva eat aphids. It's out of focus because it was so humid in the backyard this evening that the viewfinder of my camera kept fogging up.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I have seen this kind of spider behave in an interesting way a couple of times now. It kills an ant (I didn't see the killing this time, just what happens next) and then carries it away, dragging it by a bit of silk. I don't know where the spider is taking it, nor why it doesn't just eat it where it caught it.