The Spice of Life

I have a bit of variety to share with you today, not of insects, but of outdoor life.
How about we start with Backyard Fungus of the Day:

Morel mushroom, or false morel, I can't tell the difference. I don't know much about mushrooms. I found this on my walk in the woods today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Grapevine epimenis moth. I thought it was a butterfly, but it's a moth. Its caterpillars eat grapevines. This is a new one for me, I think.

Forget about bird feeders, if you want birds, plant a flowering tree. The crabapple tree has been very popular, and today I found another Backyard Bird of the Day:

Baltimore oriole. It's hard to say what attracted it to the tree, because I looked up what they eat, and it includes insects (including wasps), flowers, and nectar, all of which it can find in this tree right now.

There are still lots of insects attracted to the flowering crabapple:

Other Birds:

 

 Here's the turkey on her nest. I didn't want to get any closer to get a better picture. I know she's very hard to see, but peer into that dark area, and you can see the pattern of her feathers.

Either a downy or a hairy woodpecker. I have more or less given up trying to tell them apart.

I really didn't find a lot of insects today. It was strange. Other Bugs:

Crane fly. Female. Ovipositing.

I didn't get a good picture of her ovipositor, but here's zoomed in look at it. She uses that to pierce the ground and lay her eggs in the dirt.

There was one thin rivulet of sap flowing down the tree today, and two sap beetles:

The female had her face in the sap, feeding, while the male made a genetic contribution to the propagation of the species.

Eventually the male got hungry.

Backyard Unpleasant Plant of the Day:

Poison ivy. It's red in the spring. I currently have a rash from it on my ankle. Today our walk in the woods kind of turned into a Spot-the-Poison-Ivy-By-The-Path expedition. There is a lot of it.

I still have never seen a tortoise in my backyard, so it's another snake for Backyard Reptile of the Day:

 Garter snake. As usual, I found it by almost stepping on it and scaring it, so it dashed off, startling me. That's how I almost always find snakes. It didn't go far, though, and was pretty calm about me taking pictures of it.