Forecasting

I'm not here to talk about bugs today; the temperature has not gone above 20ºF for the last five days. The bugs are all sleeping under the snow, or tucked up in the bark of a tree. I am here to talk about meteorology. Today the forecast said that there was a 48% chance of snow showers around 5:00 in the evening. It snowed all day (but we only had about an inch of accumulation from all that). Not the most accurate forecast, in spite of all the fancy technology they have these days. But last night I made my own forecast, based on this:

There are a lot of folkloric ways of predicting the weather, and my favorite, because it is extremely accurate, is that if there is a ring around the moon, there will be precipitation. Snow if it's cold, rain if it's above freezing. I don't think I have ever known this to not be true. So when I saw this in the wee small hours of the morning, I made my forecast: we'd be having snow. And I was right. I may not have been able to give a pinpoint forecast about timing and snow amounts, but then, neither were the meteorologists and their computers.

I went outside this evening after the snow stopped to shovel, not because it needed to be done then, and there was barely enough to shovel, but because I wanted a reason to be outside. Last year over Christmas break we went for a hike every day. This year I have not spent any more time outside than it takes to walk from the house to the car. I haven't even been going out to get the mail and the newspaper because my husband is on vacation and he has been getting them. Aside from our traditional Christmas hike, every time this week I have tried to get someone to go for a walk with me I have been rebuffed. I am not used to spending so much time inside, so shoveling snow in the moonlight was a beautiful interlude. But I have to say, I miss the bugs.

I probably won't have any reason to post tomorrow, so Happy New Year!

Winter Is On Its Way

Have you missed me? Or at least, have you missed the bugs in my backyard? I have been missing them. I haven't gone away, but I also haven't gone outside... much. It has been cold, and sometimes snowy, and there has been no point in looking for bugs. Even on sunny-ish days (and those have been scarce) I have not been seeing any sign of insects, and they're just not around when the high doesn't get out of the 20s. But today... it hit 50ºF! So, outside I went, camera in hand. It wasn't terribly buggy, but there were bugs around. It's kind of fascinating, really, that for bugs, seasons don't always seem to matter. Aside from life cycles that are very short for some insects, they don't seem to care much what season it is. Is it warm enough to be out and about? If so, they are out and about. Things that I think everyone associates with summer, and assumes go away in the winter, were out and about in my backyard today. But first...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this has been Backyard Bug of the Day already this year, but that's the kind of rule I am going to ignore because it's December, a couple of days away from the solstice, and it's been really cold. So to find this bug, which is some kind of Hemiptera, was a cool thing to happen.

 It was not at all surprising to find this bug, a winter firefly. The only thing surprising is that I didn't find more of them; I saw only two.

 I did see several flies, though, which is one of those bugs that I think are more associated with summer, but I have seen pretty much every sunny, not-freezing day this month.

 There were a couple of different species around.

And this one sneaked into the house, and into my cup, and I was very annoyed.

Ants are another insect that are mostly associated with summer, but I have found occasionally in the winter. I know, it's a terrible picture, but I am just recording that it was out there.

I was looking for something in particular when I went outside today. There is still a little bit of snow on the ground, and I was looking for snow fleas. Snow fleas are not fleas, they are actually a species of springtail, and they can sometimes be found jumping around on snow on warmer winter days. I have only ever seen them on tree trunks in my backyard, so I was hoping to find some on the snow.

I did find a springtail on the snow, but it was a different species from the snow flea. This absolutely shows that insects are not just summer creatures.

No spiders today, which was sort of disappointing, if not surprising.

Now, another shameless plug for my calendars and other items in My Zazzle Shop.

Natural Ornaments

It's the middle of December, it's cold, we've had some snow, and yet, there are still bugs around. I haven't done a bug walk in days, but I have been seeing flies when I go out on sunny days, and there have been winter moths on the front porch. But there is another way I get to see bugs in December: we buy a Christmas tree and bring it in the house, and whatever bugs were hiding out in the tree for the winter suddenly think it is summer, and start to move around. I am not saying we get a huge insect infestation every December, but I usually see a few confused insects. In today's case it was an arachnid, so I'll post the picture at the end of the blog.

In them meantime, as a buffer for the arachnophobes, here are the links for my calendars this year. This blog is almost a full time job in the high season for bugs, and I don't have ads on it because I know the algorithms would put a bunch of pesticide ads on my blog if I allowed them, and that would be contrary to the message of this blog, which is that bugs are amazing. So if you want to support the work of this blog, buying a calendar would be a way to do it, and it would also give you some lovely bug pictures to look at every day for a year. I have several different calendars this year:

This is my store link, which has more than the bug calendars in it: domedreamer shop, with my bug stuff in it

Here's the specific bug calendars: 

Intriguing Insects- This one is a general theme of insects, ranging from butterflies to crickets, etc.

Incredible Insects - Also general theme, this one includes my most exciting bug this year, the stick insect.

Caterpillars - Caterpillars only

Damselflies and Dragonflies - All Odonata–this is the first year I have had enough good pictures of dragonflies and damselflies to do a whole calendar of just those. I am glad, because I did not have enough good pictures of butterflies and moths to do a Lepidoptera calendar, so it was nice to have this to fill in.

And the last one is Spiders, so...
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Spiders! - I think you can guess what this one is all about. I had a really impressive number of spiders to choose from this year, which was awesome.

And now for Arachnid Appreciation... Actually, before I give you the picture, I'm going to mention that this reminds me of the folktale I found out about a couple of years ago about the Christmas Spider. There are a couple of versions of it, but the basic gist is that there were people who couldn't afford to decorate their tree, and spiders covered it with silk to make it beautiful. It sounds lovely, and how kind of the spiders! Anyway, look it up and read it... The spider I found today was actually on my computer when I spotted it, but I am sure that it came in on the tree; the Christmas tree is less than a foot away from my laptop, and the spider is a jumping spider, so it could easily have jumped to the computer from the tree. I put it back on the tree where it belongs.

Hanging Tight

This has been one of those December days when you can't help but think that if it was colder, we'd be getting a bit of snow right now. As it is, in the afternoon it was in the low 50s, and in the late evening it was in the high 50s, so it's rain. And rain kept me from doing a complete bug walk today. I have a few pictures, but no Backyard Bug of the Day.

 Contrary to my avowed intention to not post the same bugs over and over again, I am posting a picture of this winter firefly, literally the same bug I have posted over and over again. That is because this particular winter firefly has been sheltering in the same crevice in the bark of a tree for weeks, and I wanted to show that it is still there.

 Because it was wet and mild today, there were springtails out, but this is the only place I saw them. This is the most I have seen together in one place this year.

We went out for the evening, and came home to find not only a bunch of winter moths on the front porch, but also this caddisfly.

Mysterious Things

The lack of blogs lately is not entirely because I have not done bug walks. I have been doing bug walks, though not every day. I just have not been finding anything to take picture of, since I don't want to just post pictures of winter fireflies every day. And some days that's all I see.

Today I found something, and I don't know what it is, and I don't know if it has been there for a while and I have just not noticed it, or if it just got there in the last day or two. I don't think I can make it Backyard Bug of the Day, having so little idea of what it is, though looking at the pictures it does definitely seem insect related. When I saw it outside I thought it could just be something growing on the tree, like a fungus. But you can have a look for yourself:

It looks kind of cocoonish, or at least like some kind of pupa. But it also looks like a larva.

Long range forecasts are never very accurate, but there could be a snowstorm later in the week. I guess that would be the end of hearing crickets in the backyard. I heard one today, singing very faintly. Once the snow falls, everything under the leaf litter will be in their own little world.

Close to Home

I did a bug walk today, and it was a completely pointless exercise. Then why am I writing a blog today, you might ask? Because I did find some bugs today, but the only one I found "on" my bug walk was one that was about three feet from the back porch steps when I was heading back into the house, and everything else I found today was actually on either the front or back porch.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Large milkweed bug. Yes, I posted a picture of this yesterday, of this exact specimen, in fact, most likely. I found it on the picnic table, same as yesterday (I moved it to a rock for a better picture). But I was able to get a better picture today, and wanted to note that I think yesterday is the first time I have seen one this year. These have never been a common site in my backyard; last year or the year before is the first time I saw one here. Small milkweed bugs I've had for years, but the large ones are more recent. [Edit: I have a terrible memory for what I have seen at this point; this was Backyard Bug of the Day a couple of months ago. Ah, well, too late to change it now].

I did see a few ants and winter crane flies on my bug walk. But that's it. I didn't even see any flies (True flies I mean. Obviously, I just said I saw crane flies).

On the front porch this evening:

 Winter moth. There were a couple out there tonight. They are active in the late fall and early winter, and in the spring their caterpillars are evidently quite destructive; they are an invasive species.

On the back porch this evening:

 Another moth

Arachnid Appreciation:
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This spider was on the back screen door when I was on my way into the house after my pointless bug walk. Tiny and beautiful.

Owlish

The backyard was full of surprises today, starting with...

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Barred owl. I have seen these in my yard before, and heard them many times, but always at night. They make a variety of noises, including a hoot sequence (that many people say sounds like "Who cooks for you?"), and also a sound that is like the a-oogah sound of an old car horn. I have heard conversations between at least 4 of them in different trees in the backyard. I have not been able to see them during these conversations, though. And when I have seen them at night, it has always been a fleeting glimpse. This time, I was walking one of my wooded paths in broad daylight, and this swooped past me; I think it was in a tree close to where I was walking, and I startled it so it swooped away to another tree a little farther away. These pictures were not taken with my macro lens, but with my zoom; my husband was home and working in the backyard, so I had him go inside and get it while I kept an eye on the owl. This one did not say anything while I was watching it.

 The owl just sat there for quite a while, looking around...

 

 It looked kind of sleepy.

 The great thing about owls, compared to other birds: if you are behind an owl and want to take a picture of its face, you can still do that.

 It did not seem at all bothered by me and my husband standing there, about 30 feet away.

 This is the point where it is just about to regurgitate an owl pellet. I thought it was about to do something else that I didn't want to take a picture of, so I missed that bit.

 

 After it flew away (and to me it looked like it swooped down low farther away in the woods, so I think maybe it was after more prey), we went over to the tree where it had been to look for the pellet. I found this on a vine below: owl feather?

 

 I don't think we found the pellet I saw it regurgitate, because that one was pretty big, but we did find others. In case you don't know what an owl pellet is, owls eat their prey whole, and later regurgitate the undigestible parts, like the fur and bones.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Beetle. I don't know what kind of beetle this is, but it's one of my favorites, in spite of the fact that I only ever see them on the ground, which makes them hard to photograph. This one was crawling around in some moss.

 And hiding.

Today was a beautiful day, and I figured just from the forecast that I would go out to do a bug walk, but I wasn't sure I would find anything because lately even on some really nice days I haven't been able to find bugs. But as soon as I opened the front door to go out to get the newspaper, I found out that today was going to be a day of unexpected bug finds:

Small milkweed bug. I was really surprised to see this. I hardly saw any of these in my yard this year, even when there were milkweed plants for them to feed on.

 Later, I found this, a large milkweed bug. I know you can't tell the size difference from the pictures, but you can see the difference in the markings on their backs.

 Today the temperature was in the high 50s, and I found a few candy striped leaf hoppers on a mountain laurel, just about the only plant that still has leaves right now.

Beetle crawling around on a tree trunk:

 

Ants crawling around on another tree trunk:

 There were a few flies around today. This is the only one I got a picture of.

I also saw some small swarms of winter crane flies, and a couple of winter fireflies.

A couple of evenings recently I have been out in other places and had moths flit past me, and today I found one attracted to my porch light. That may not be especially notable; there is a moth called the winter moth. I don't know if that is what this is, but it could be.

Funny how many "winter" bugs there are: winter moth, winter firefly, winter crane fly... And here for so long I thought that bugs all died in the winter.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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A Buzz

Hi there. It's been a few days since I had anything to post. I didn't do a bug walk on most of those days, because of temperature or circumstances, but the last time I did one I didn't find anything, so there didn't seem to be much point on cold days. But this morning I spotted something on the side of the house that was quite a surprise.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I know I have featured bumblebees as Backyard Bug of the Day this year, but I was so happy to see a bee today that I don't care. Of course, a bee I am seeing this time of year is probably a bee that will soon be deceased, but it's the first bee I have seen in over a month, so I have to admire its survival skills.

After I saw the bee I didn't do my bug walk for a few hours (hoping it would be a little warmer, and it was), but I didn't see much. There were a LOT of flies around, and a few winter crane flies and winter fireflies, and...

 ... one dragonfly, basking on a rock. This is actually a small cliff in front of my house; with the low angle of the sun, the best place to catch some rays if you are a bug is to rest on a vertical surface.

I heard crickets today, too, for the first time in about a week, or maybe more, I don't remember when I last heard them. Most of the bugs I saw (and heard) today were in the front yard, near the bedrock outcropping there, probably because that is the warmest place in the yard. But I saw this one out the back door in the early evening, when I went out to see the sunset:

 Earwig. It moved quite sluggishly and then didn't seem to care that I was taking its picture. It's a little unusual for me to see an earwig out in the open; usually when I see them they are hiding somewhere on a plant.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Today was much less spidery than the yard has been lately. I only saw this one.

And for the arachnid I DON'T appreciate:

Not too cold for ticks, apparently.