It's Working!

 THIS IS THE POST FOR TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2020

Hey, the uploader is working! I can post a blog tonight! Unfortunately, I am now almost a month behind, because it's been almost a month since it stopped working. I am not sure what I am going to do about that. I didn't make placeholder posts every day for the last month. And wow is that a lot of catching up to do, particularly when it can take me three hours to do a post. We'll see what happens... [Edit: I just posted this and discovered that the "deadline" is no longer midnight Pacific time. I guess from now on I have to have this done by midnight my own time, which is going to be problematic].

The other unfortunate thing is that today on my bug walk I saw very few bugs. Mostly I saw arachnids. I don't even have a Backyard Bug of the Day, because I didn't see a bug that really qualified, much less get a picture of one. We're on day 3 of a heat wave (our fifth of the summer, and our 33rd day above 90ºF), and I have noticed that it's hard to find bugs when the temperature is in the 90s. But I will post the one insect I have decent pictures of, and then go on to the spiders.

If I ever get my recent pictures posted, they will be out of time order with these, so I'll mention that this praying mantis has been hanging around on this plant, upside down, for the last several days.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Jumping spider. I think it's actually a spiderling, a young spider. It was tiny.

It looks like it wants a hug, but I think that is meant to be an intimidating pose. I was not intimidated.

I found this spider feeding on a weevil on the screen door late last night. Interesting to find it there, because this is an orb weaver:

Another jumping spider

Six-spotted orb weaver

I think this is an orchard spider.

A strange omission today is the spined micrathena. I have been seeing them all over lately–when we go for our walks in the woods its a constant test to avoid walking face-first into one strung across the path. And I found an enormous orb web the other day, whose support threads went up at least twenty feet into a tree, but I was not able to find the spider.