I hate to say it, but I dread writing my blog now. Not the writing part (of which there is never much), but the picture uploading part (which makes up most of the blog). Over the time I have been doing this blog it has become progressively worse trying to upload pictures. It is the biggest reason I don't blog every day now. I just don't want to do it. And since I don't want to write the blog, I don't go out looking for bugs most days. I didn't intend to go out today, either, but (skipping the story of why), I did, and I enjoyed it. I found myself wondering why I don't do it anymore, and then remembered that I hate uploading pictures. So... here I am, about to torture myself with a few hours of frustration. Yay. [Note: 4 hours. It took 4 hours to get the pictures uploaded. And there aren't even that many of them]. I hope you enjoy what I have for you. I was pretty amazed at how many bugs I found today, in not even a full-backyard bug walk, in the evening. But I enjoyed looking for them.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Tortoise beetle
Other Bugs:
Moth and a couple of snow fleas
This caterpillar was on the branch of a tree, but as soon as I touched the branch to steady it so I could take a picture, the caterpillar rapidly rappelled to the ground and hid in the grass.
I was trying to take a picture of a dandelion...
This moth doesn't exactly blend in with the dame rocket flowers, but it does manage to be not-very-noticeable, unless you happen to be really looking for insects among the flowers.
Grasshopper nymph. As a bonus, you can just barely see a weevil that was right next to the grasshopper nymph, but didn't want to have its picture taken. Although, for that matter, neither did the nymph, which is why I didn't get a closer shot than this.
Another weevil, one who was marginally more cooperative. It's a horrible shot, I know, but I am posting it because the weevil was so pretty, and you get a glimpse of that.
Planthoppers. They had some ant attendants, but the ants scurried out of the way when I got close.
I wish I could have gotten closer to this, but the breeze tossed this leaf around too much, and so this is as close as I could get to this fly's amazing eyes.
Moth
From my woods walk, taken with my phone:
A couple of frogs in the stream, which received a reprieve in the form of about a month's worth of rain over the three day weekend, forestalling it drying-up for a little while longer. One of these frogs was on the bank until I came along and scared it into jumping into the water, a prodigious leap. I got to see it swim, too, which I rarely get to see. I often see frogs jump into the water, but they always seem to disappear immediately.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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The reason I took my camera out is because I found a snake on my woods walk, right at the beginning of the walk, and it just sat there complacently while my husband and I took pictures of it with our cellphones. It was on an old fallen tree, startlingly high off the ground. When we finished our walk (during which I several times wished I had brought my camera), I went inside to get my camera and then went back out to see if the snake was still there. It was not, but I looked around to see if it was still around, and found it on the stone wall, on the opposite side of the path from the fallen tree. It remained complacent as I took pictures, so here is Backyard Reptile of the Day:
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The snake on the tree trunk, between three and four feet off the ground. Garter snake.
Actually, I am not 100% sure this is the same snake.
It doesn't have much in the way of dark scales by its mouth, like a garter snake has, but it also does not have a white dot in front of its eye, like a ribbon snake. It does have a little bit of black near its mouth, so I am going with garter snake.
Close-up of scales and the pattern on its belly. This is where I should probably mention that I took these shots with a zoom lens, not the macro lens–I did not get this close to the snake.
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