The Return of a Caterpillar

I don't have a good intro today.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 There is a thicket in my backyard that was full of birds when I approached it, and though I didn't get a good look at most of them, I think it was a variety of different species of birds. There are lots of plants with berries on them this time of year. I don't know what kind of bird this is, but given the time of year I suppose it could be a migrating warbler?

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a new one for me. Some kind of Hemiptera.

I had a hard time getting decent pictures today, and there weren't a lot of bugs around. That one particular clump of asters had a lot of insects on it again, and what was interesting is that there were very few bumblebees. It was mostly sweat bees and this flower fly:

 Sweat bee

 

 

 Bumblebee and thread-waisted wasp. The bumblebees today were really lethargic, too, even though it wasn't much cooler than it has been the last couple of days. The sun went away early in the day, though.

There were two brown hooded owlet caterpillars on adjacent goldenrod plants in a spot in my backyard, and I thought of them as the big one and the small one. The big one was gone today, probably gone off to pupate, and the small one, which is not small anymore, is still there:

Bug spotting test:

 I think this is a kind of stinkbug.

A lot of bugs today were just really uncooperative:

 Small milkweed bug

But this one was very complacent:

A couple of woolly bears:

 The infested woolly bear on the side of the house disappeared a few days ago, and then this showed up today. I think it is the same one, but I can't be sure. It looks like it has one larva near its head, and I can see one pupa... I don't know if the others eclosed, or do they fall off?

 Earwig

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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The rock garden's resident orb weaver built a new web today.