I took my camera to the woods today, and I took a lot of pictures. I was looking for a moth that I saw several times last week (the species, not a specific specimen), which I didn't find, but I brought both of my lenses, macro and zoom, and found use for both. To make things easier for myself, because this is going to take forever, I am going to post things in the order that I took the pictures, rather than try to make a coherent post out of all of this. I've got insects, both terrestrial and aquatic, larvae, amphibian eggs, birds... so much to show you. So... off we go...
I actually started out with a normal bug walk today in my backyard, albeit an abbreviated one, and sadly, did not find many bugs, and most of them would not cooperate. So you won't see much from my regular backyard bug-wise. But things are blooming...
First violet of the season:
I don't know what this is, and I didn't plant it, but it's growing in my backyard.
The crab apple tree now has flower buds as well as leaves.
The rock garden is a veritable carpet of blooms, and for some reason the only insect I saw there was this bumblebee. It didn't like me taking its picture, and zoomed around me in angry circles until I left.
I found my first dandelion of the year, and then saw that there was an ant on it, and tried to get a picture of the ant. It was, as you can see, uncooperative, but looking at the picture on my computer I realized there is another insect there. Can you see it?
How about now?
What about now:
Okay, I'll make it easy for you:
Tiny leafhopper nymph
The forsythia have filled out nicely, lots of blooms, but no bugs taking advantage of all this.
Weevil on the side of the house
I found a tree with some weirdness on it. It looked like it was splattered on it, but maybe it was growing on it, I don't know, because I don't know what it is:
It looks like some kind of slime mold.
On the other side of the tree...
Backyard Bug of the Day:
I think this is either a fungus beetle or a sap beetle, but it's way too late at night for me to want to look it up. [Edit: I looked it up. Still don't know. There are many species of both sap beetles and fungus beetles, and I didn't find this exact one under either in my books]
I didn't realize it was not alone:
There's a springtail in the upper right of the picture.
At this point, I headed into the woods...
Twice-stabbed lady beetle. Always a sign of spring for me.
An annoying beetle playing dead because I tried to take its picture. It's worth noting that at this point I did not have my macro lens, because I had not initially intended to be taking bug pictures on this walk. But my husband had to go back to the house for something, so he brought out my macro lens. This picture was taken with my zoom lens.
The small pond is not in good shape. We had a hefty amount of rain a couple of weeks ago, but since then, nothing. That is bad news for...
... the salamander eggs. The egg masses appeared earlier this month, when there was plenty of water in the small pond. It has been dwindling since. Last year we had a lot of rain in March, so there was a lot of rain in the small pond when the salamanders laid their eggs in early April, but we had almost no rain in April, and the pond dried up before most of the eggs hatched. I am worried that the same thing is going to happen this year.
Meanwhile, the big pond is still pretty full, and covered with scum and what I think is a coating of tree pollen. And skating along the top is what I just remembered is supposed to be Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:
Water striders.
Notice the little larva floating on the surface of the water, which the water striders went right over. Also, you can see the film on top of the water.
There was an egg mass in the big pond, too. I should maybe mention at this point that I wore my boots on my walk today, and all of the pictures of the big pond were taken while I was standing in the pond, stepping carefully on the mucky bottom to make sure I didn't suddenly sink so deep that the water would go over the top of my boots. And I took all of these pictures with my zoom lens, because my husband had not come back with the macro yet. Anyway, I think these might be frogs instead of salamanders.
Also in the pond were a lot of little swimming things, like Backyard Aquatic Larva of the Day:
I just decided I am too tired to finish this, so I am going to bed. I will finish tomorrow. If you are seeing this message, come back tomorrow evening...
Okay, where were we... a, right, the big pond, surrounded by mosquito larvae...
And... that thing in the middle, which I can't identify. I don't know if it's some kind of larva, or if that is an adult aquatic insect, or other arthropod.
But there was something else swimming in the pond... Backyard Amphibians of the Day:
Tadpoles! I hope they eat all of the mosquito larvae. Obviously some of the frog eggs have already hatched.
A closer look at the other little creatures. No idea what it is, and if it's a larva, it would be hard to even look up. It could be a larval water beetle. I did see some pretty big water beetles, which are also welcome to eat all of the mosquito larvae that they please.
Magnified...
There were quite a lot of them. Right now the pond is a veritable soup of predators and prey, and some that fit both categories. I don't know who is who. They all have until the pond dries up to do what they can to survive.
It wasn't all bugs today. I saw a deer, and we saw some other animal that was small, dark, and furry, but too far away to be identified (and scurried off before I could take a picture). I didn't see any frogs, but I heard three different species. And I saw some birds:
And things are greening up, especially around the streams:
Skunk cabbage
False hellebore
Fly nestled among the leaves of the false hellebore
Sometimes lately I have seen stoneflies scurrying across the water of the stream.
It's mating season for winter fireflies:
Anyway, whatever they are I found several mating pairs.
Assassin bug nymph
Winter fireflies(?). I think they are feeding on sap from the hole in the tree.
Backyard Bird of the Day:
There is a huge nest high up in a tree that last year we thought might be a hawks' nest. We never saw them on it, but there was a period of time when every time we walked by that area there were always hawks around, and they would call out. Well, now we have actually seen them fly from the nest. Red tailed hawks. You can just barely see the hawk's head. So now we are going to have to avoid this trail for a while so as not to disturb them. Unfortunately, it seems we are going to have to give the tree a pretty wide berth–we don't even get close to it and they fly away.
From what I have read in a quick search for information that did not tell me what I needed to know (how long I have to avoid the area), both the male and female sit on the eggs, taking turns. I don't know which this is. It seems like quite a deep nest. Even with the zoom lens this is quite far away and far up the tree, not an easy shot.
Almost back to the house, only a few feet from the driveway, in fact, I found this stinkbug.
And thus endeth my tour of the big backyard for the day, just as it was getting dark.
An arachnid I don't appreciate:
There were spiders everywhere today, mostly tiny ones in webs on saplings, and scurrying among the leaf litter. Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Tiny spider on a rock in front of my house. I am not sure, but I ended up caught by its silk thread, and had to replace it on the rock:
No comments:
Post a Comment