Easy Pickings

I am feeling kind of stressed out, and don't feel like writing tonight, so I'll just sum up the day: it was nice out, there were bugs, and one or more snakes. And I heard my first red-winged blackbird of spring, on this last day of meteorological winter. Now, let's look at pictures.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It's nice when I can walk out the back door with my camera and find a bug right away. This one was on the back porch. I saw it before I was even all the way out the door. Western conifer seed bug.

Other Bugs:

 Fly, basking in the sun.

 I think this might be some kind of rove beetle.

 I think this was a sort of defensive posture.

 I didn't get any good pictures of it, or it would be Backyard Bug of the Day. It wanted very much to hide from me in the leaf litter.

The winter firefly tree is still covered with winter fireflies:

There were lots of other trees that had winter fireflies on them, but most had only one or two.

 Like this one. I like it when they are walking around, because their heads are visible. When they are resting on the trees them mostly have their heads pulled under their pronotum, the shield-like thing with the pink lines on it.

 I found another stone fly, and finally was able to take a picture of one on something other than my lawn furniture.

There were more snow fleas on that rock today:

 And they were bunched together more; the other day they were all spread out, doing their own things.

Worst Arachnid:

 Yet another tick. I have been wondering if my tick-repellent pants are still working, and when I found this tick it was on my pants, just a few inches from the bottom, and I saw it fling itself off. So, I guess the pants are still working.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I love the way this spider flattens itself out against the tree to "hide."

 It also scurries sideways around the tree to get away from danger (aka me).

Snake of the Day:
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I don't know if I saw one or more snakes today; it was there, it was gone, it was there again... Anyway, at one point I went out there and saw it in this interesting pose. It was like that when I got there, this was not a response to me. I wonder what it was all about, what was it looking at... or for...

I finally got a view of what it looks like underneath.

And then I may have gotten too close, it turned away and slithered off. It slithered right down into a hole in the ground. I know, I should have taken a picture of that, but I was too busy watching it go.

Snagged

Today did not live up to the buggy expectations that were created by a) yesterday's bugginess, b) the warm, sunny weather, and c) the fact that when I was sitting outside on the front porch steps putting on my shoes to go for a walk to run some errands (so I guess I was really walking some errands, not running them), a wasp flew past me and landed in the rock garden. I had to unlock the door and go inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back outside, the wasp was gone. It had, however, raised my expectations of being able to find a lot of bugs in the backyard today. I guess that was foolish. Anyway, the most interesting thing I found in the backyard was mammalian, not insectile.

 There is a very big tree in my backyard that is obviously very, very old, and embedded in this tree is some barbed wire. It sticks out of the tree in two spots, obviously having once been attached to the tree, but now engulfed in it. The two ends stick out, the rest of the barbed wire having been cut away before we bought the land almost twenty years ago. Today I noticed a few strands of what appear to be animal hair stuck to the barbed wire. Some kind of animal must have brushed against it while climbing over the stone wall that abuts the tree, and a few hairs got stuck on the barbs. I am no expert on animal hair, so I don't know what it was (coyote?), but I did feel like an intrepid tracker just for noticing it.

Ironically, I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because everything I saw (and there wasn't much) has already been seen so far this year. But I have a few interesting pictures for you, mostly of winter fireflies.

You know that tree I have mentioned, that seems to be a haven for winter fireflies? Well, today was definitely winter firefly weather (though nothing at all like winter), and they were out in droves:

There are others just outside the scope of this picture, but how many can you find here?

Here's a close-up of one of the groupings in the picture above.

It seemed like candy-striped leaf hopper weather, so I was on the lookout for those.

 I saw a few. They were not inclined to pose for pictures.

 Another stonefly. Or the same one, still hanging around.

 

 There were a lot of flies around today.

 And one of yesterday's BBotDs made another appearance.

 Western conifer seed bug (I think, it was pretty high up the wall, so I didn't get a good look).

Aaaaaand... it was tick weather. I hate when I find ticks on my lawn furniture. It seems like a personal invasion of space.

 

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I thought it seemed like snake weather today, so I looked for snakes when I went out to get the mail, but I didn't see any. However, when I left to go run my errands...
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 This one seems thinner than the others I have seen, but it's hard to judge when you see just one. I had to take this with my iPod, because I had put the camera back in the house after not getting a picture of the wasp, and I didn't feel like going back in to get it again.

I came back from my walk almost an hour later, and the snake was all curled up on the hillside.

 This one was definitely not aggressive. It didn't move at all when I was taking these pictures.

Spring Surprises, Even Though It's Not Spring Yet

If you are a user of Facebook, you probably know about Facebook memories, where Facebook will post a picture you took on that date in a previous year, to show you your memories. It is surprising, really, that my Facebook memory pictures are so rarely pictures of insects, because during certain times of year, at least, that is mainly what I post. I suspect that the algorithms that choose the photos look for human faces, and not bug faces. Occasionally Facebook chooses a bug, though. Today my Facebook memory picture was from two years ago, and it was a picture of a snow flea. "HA!" I thought, "THAT'S not going to happen again today. I don't think I even have snow fleas in my backyard anymore!"

Then I went outside to do my bug walk.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Snow flea! You probably saw that coming.

 They are much smaller than I remember, which may be why I had a hard time finding them this year, but I was looking, on tree trunks and snow, the places I thought to find them. Today I found them on a rock covered with lichen (the rock was covered with lichen, not the snow fleas. They may have been eating the lichen for all I know, which would mean they were full of lichen, but not covered with it).

As I am sure you know, because I have mentioned it a number of times, snow fleas are not fleas, they are a species of springtail. The can sometimes be found in huge numbers on snow on those warmer, sunny days when there is still snow on the ground (certainly not the case now). I have never seen them on snow in my yard; usually when I have seen them they have been on tree trunks.

 There were about a dozen on the rock, but I couldn't manage to get pictures of them all in a group; they are small, they were spread out, and they were in grooves of the rock.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 

 This might be some kind of aphid, or something related? I found it because I was looking at the moss just because it's pretty, and saw the glint of sunlight on a tiny wing.

I think this is the same thing? Found on the picnic table, which is not nearly so picturesque.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

 

 I couldn't believe it when I saw this. A caterpillar! It really feels like spring these days...

It's not spring yet, but it has been feeling like it for a while. We've had about twice the normal amount of precipitation for this month, and very little of it has been snow–we're actually a little below normal for snowfall this winter. What does that mean? It has been raining a lot. Because the temperature has been quite a bit above normal most of the month. I keep trying to remind myself that March can be pretty wintery (and snowy), but it's hard to believe it is going to be this year, since other than the severe cold snap to start out they year it has been warmer than normal most of the time. I mean, I have been seeing snakes in February! (I didn't see any today, but I did look for them). The first day of meteorological spring is in a couple of days (on March 1) and then astronomical spring later in March, but my backyard seems to think that spring is now:

Daffodil sprouts last week, crocus sprouts today...

This was a surprisingly buggy day, given that it wasn't that warm, or that sunny, and other days lately that were warmer and brighter have not had a lot of different kinds of bugs. And maybe I went overboard having 3 Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day, but how could I not? Other Bugs:

 Another stonefly (?).

And more springtails:

 This one was sailing around on a puddle of water formed by a joint in my upside-down lawn chair.

 Tiny wasp. The reason I found the snow fleas is because I saw this wasp on the rock and was trying to get a picture of it. It was not interested in staying still.

 There were a lot of winter fireflies around today. Here's just one.

I found a couple of twice-stabbed lady beetles, too:

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Tiny spider on lichen.

Same species, I think, on the same branch as the caterpillar. Of course, it was only there because I found it dangling from my arm and I put it on the branch.

I don't think I have ever seen those white markings, though.