Robins are commonly regarded as harbingers of spring, but they are not really the migrators that everyone thinks they are. Some of them do go south for the winter, but some of them stick around, if they can find food. During the buggier months of the year they are insectivorious, but in the winter they will eat fruit. I saw robins quite a few times over the winter, so the one I saw in front of my house today did not inspire me with thoughts of spring. I was interested, though, to see that it had something in its beak when it hopped out of my rock garden onto the front walk. I couldn't see it very well, but I assume it had found an insect. Underneath the creeping myrtle plants, the rock garden is teeming with insect life (albeit mostly dormant at the moment). I wonder if the robin caught something that was active, or if it found something that was still in its winter snooze.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Lady beetle. Today was sunny and mild, enough to draw this beetle out of its winter sheltering place.
There were even more candy striped leaf hoppers out today:
And quite a lot of winter fireflies:
Midge. Female; the males have huge, feathery antennae.
I found another community of snow fleas in a different part of the backyard, on another rock, which seems to be their favored hangout spots. Several years ago I used to find them on tree trunks, but now it's always rocks. Never snow, oddly...
It's interesting that this year I am finding so many snow fleas, when we've had very little snow.
These little things are still crawling around in that patch of moss.
Another kind of springtail.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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Spider crawling around in the leaf litter in the rock garden
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