Awake

Every day when I go outside there is less and less snow on the ground, but it is taking a surprisingly long time for it to disappear. Yes, there was over a foot of it to begin with, but it's been about 2 weeks since the blizzard, and the temperature has been pretty far above freezing almost every day since. I shouldn't complain, because it's lovely, but... it's February. It's supposed to be colder than this.

It was warm enough that there was a chipmunk out and about today:

 

 Chipmunks don't hibernate, but they do sleep most of the winter, and only come out when the weather's mild, according to what I have read.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I didn't look this up, because I put my bug books away for the winter, and don't feel like going to the other room to get them, but I think this might be some kind of stone fly.

 Today was mostly a day for winter fireflies, however. I was out very early this morning, and saw one when the temperature was still only in the 30s. And when I went out in the afternoon, with the temperature in the mid 40s, they were everywhere:

 This one was behind a piece of bark that was curling away from the tree. Above it in this picture is the remains of a gypsy moth chrysalis, and below it to the right, the beige blob is one of two gypsy moth eggs cases in the same crevice. I am praying for a wet spring this year to kill off the coming onslaught of gypsy moth caterpillars.

The last couple of days as I have wandered around the backyard I have seen–and occasionally walked through–quite a a few spider threads. And today I finally spotted a spider, so let's have a bit of Arachnid Appreciation!
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 A very small jumping spider