Winter's Here

The tiny things flitting through the air on Tuesday were snowflakes, not bugs, so I didn't do a bug walk that day. I did actually give a cursory look around for bugs when I went outside to get the mail, but no luck. Then yesterday there was no snow (it didn't stick on Tuesday, anyway), but I think the high temperature was 30ºF, which is, of course, below freezing. So, again, I had a look around on my way to the mailbox, but no bugs. Today the temperature hit 40ºF (Still well below normal for this time of year). I have found that that is sort of a threshold for finding bugs (though I have found them at colder temps), so today I did a bug walk.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Winter crane fly. I saw a small swarm of these, but the lighting conditions were not right for photographing them. This one was by itself on the trunk of a tree.

Only one other bug, other than one that landed on my window in the morning:

 Fly.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I was surprised to spot this spider web today. I wondered if the spider was even alive, but when I accidentally bumped the web while trying to take pictures it poked that leg out, so it was alive and willing to fight.

Then when we went out in the evening, after the temperature was down in the low 30s again I spotted this on the front porch:

Interesting thing about it is that when we got back less than an hour later it was gone. So it was still active enough to move, probably looking for someplace a bit warmer. There's lots of leaf litter under the porch it could shelter in.