Abuzz

I only had a couple of minutes to do a bug walk today, and since it is generally a good guideline that if you want to find bugs, you should look in/on flowers, I decided to check out the blooming crocuses. So far I have not any much luck finding insects on the crocuses, but hey, I had to do something, so that's where I looked. And it paid off!

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 A bee! The first bee of the year! I found it curled up in a crocus–I thought it was dead, but it was just in a stupor. I don't know if that is because it was cold (it was only in the 40s at that point, I think) or if it was drunk on nectar (I don't even know if that can happen with crocuses). I poked it to see if it was a live, and in crawled out of the flower into the next one over, so yes, it was alive. It crawled back and forth among that clump of flowers a few times, and then curled up in the bottom of one of them again.

 I was annoyed to notice that something has chomped some of the crocuses almost down to the stems.

 So covered in pollen!

And there were other bugs in the crocuses, too:

 I didn't get a good look at this; I was dressed up because we were going out, and so I didn't want to kneel down on the ground to get a closer look. It looks a bit like an aphid, though.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

I almost walked right into this caterpillar as it was descending from a tree on a thread.