Lingering

Sometimes when I am finished with my bug walk I find myself looking for excuses to just stay outside. I guess I don't really need an excuse, I can do what I want, and what I often want to do lately is just linger out there. It it a delight to the senses, the beautiful things to see, the pleasant weather, the sounds of birds and crickets... I love it out there. My bug walks lately take longer and longer, and it's not because I am finding a lot of bugs, as you know, or even that I am trying so hard to find them. I just like walking the trails. I like the crunch of the leaves, or the soft caress of walking on moss or grass. I don't really like to sit, because none of our outdoor furniture is very comfortable, but I love ambling around. Part of me is dreading the winter because it will be cold, and another part of me is looking forward to walking my paths in the snow. But I am definitely going to miss these beautiful afternoons that cajole me into spending every minute that I can outdoors.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Jumping bristletail

 I found two of them, although I am not sure if this is the same. The texture is different, and it doesn't have the long tail bristles.

The morning glories were in full glory today:

And since it was sunny and warm, the bees were back, lots of them, of many species.

 There was also this one candy striped leaf hopper on one of the buds.

 Here it is cleaning off its back with one of its legs.

 This bee and this gnat spent the whole afternoon in there, and were still there when evening set in.

 

The vast majority of the insect action I saw today was around the morning glories, but there were a few bugs elsewhere:

 Grasshopper basking on the side of the house

 Leaf hoppers basking on leaves. There are three on each of these leaves, and two on the one in the back.

 I don't know what this is all about. That small, black ant appears to be clamped onto the leg of the big ant, which was just walking around normally like it didn't have a smaller ant hanging off of one of its legs.

Fly

 I was surprised to see that it was predatory. This is on the morning glory vine, but I think that was just a place to land, it was obviously not attracted by the plant itself. Note the background is not green, but autumn colors. Sigh...

I found a few rove beetles today, and they were all unusually cooperative:

 This one was so cooperative that I thought it was dead. I prodded it, though, and it scooted away, so it was alive.

 None of them did my favorite rove beetle thing, which is to open up their wings and then fold them back up again by pushing them under their elytra with their back ends.

 

 

 I only got bad pictures of these little flies, but I am posting them anyway in part because I want to mention something curious about them. There is a dead branch sticking up from the ground next to one of the woodsy paths in my backyard, and it has been there for a couple of years. Almost every time I have seen these particular flies, it has been on that dead branch. There is one tree where I spotted one once, and a dead tree where I saw them several times in the spring, but over the years, this particular dead branch, which rarely has any bugs on it, has been the place I have most commonly seen these flies.

 They do this complicated signaling thing with their wings that I love to watch. These two had a bit of an altercation. Today there were about 5 or so of them on the branch, which is the most I have ever seen at once. Usually it's just one or two.

Through most of my bug walk I didn't see a lot of March flies, just a couple here and there resting on leaves, but I came upon one spot on a path in the woods where they were swarming. There were two swarms there, and none anywhere else in the backyard:

  They would take a break from swarming to rest on the leaves. I can spot nine in this picture. There was a bit of squabbling on that big leaf in the middle.

Before we get to the arachnid, Backyard Reptile of the Day:
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 Once again I almost stepped on the snake before I saw it. And again I found it by the sound it made slithering against the leaves. I am not sure what kind of snake this is; whether its a garter snake, a ribbon snake (I am still not clear on the difference between those), or something else, because it was certainly the biggest snake of either of those kinds I have ever seen, if it is one of those. It was right on the borderline of being a big enough snake for me to be afraid of it.

 It also didn't seem that afraid of me, and being afraid of me is one of the most admirable qualities of snakes, I have always felt. "It's more afraid of you than you are of it" has always been a comforting idea for me.

I got the feeling that it was slithering away not because I was scary, but because it had somewhere else it wanted to be. It kept tasting the air in that direction, so I wonder if it smelled prey.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Bowl and doily spider with a small web on the morning glory vines