Flying Low

I haven't been finding a lot of different kinds of bugs lately, or a lot of bugs at all, most day, and I have been wondering why there are not more of them. But then it occurred to me that maybe this is normal for this time of year, so I checked last year's blog posts from around this time, and I was definitely seeing a lot more different kinds of bugs this time last year. That doesn't answer the question of why I am not seeing more bugs now, but it does make it clear that it is not my imagination.

Still, all of that bee activity on the flowering crab apples paid off:

After pollination, the fruit begins to develop.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Carpenter bee, male. The males don't have stingers, but they patrol the area around their nest with an impressive belligerence.

 

 I saw it chase away several other insects.

 

The need for vigilance is particularly strong in this particular area of the backyard, where this year there is an abundance of cinquefoil flowers. This is currently the one part of the backyard that is teeming with insect life. There are bees and flies all over; it makes me think of sci-fi movies that take place in cities where people have flying cars–in fact, I wonder if this is what it will be like when people get flying cars (which I think are a terrible idea), with everyone flying willy nilly all over the place. If you are afraid of bees, this would be pretty unnerving, I think. I tried to take a picture of this flying mayhem, which takes place a few inches above the ground, but it didn't work. Photographing swarms is tricky. The cinquefoil flowers are small, low, and mostly attract very small bees. 

 

 

 I spotted a bee fly, too.

And on another type of flower (multiflora rose):

As for Other Bugs:

A weevil.

Other than that, I saw one beetle, and one crane fly. And that's it for bugs in the backyard today.

But I did see a Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 I almost stepped on it.

Snake...
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 I've seen the same snake three times in three days (or is it 4 times in 4 days?), and by now I don't think that I can make it Backyard Reptile of the Day. I have figured out where it likes to hang out, so hopefully I won't almost step on it again.