Lens

 My macro lens is great for taking pictures of insects, but it has limitations. Specifically, you have to be able to get very close to the insect. That doesn't always work, because not all insects are willing to go along with that. Interestingly, there are some insects that you don't need a macro lens to photograph, because they are big enough that you don't need to get all that close. While other lenses won't focus on a subject if you get too close to it, they work fine for insects that are big enough that they fill the frame without extreme closeness. Another drawback to the macro lens is that there is no zoom, so you don't get to choose the distance. So if you want to take a picture of a big insect that doesn't like people to get close to it at all, the macro lens isn't your best choice. I know that from experience, particularly an experience last week when I brought my camera with the macro lens on it into the woods, and 3 TIMES missed out on opportunities to get a shot of a really cool insect because I could not get close enough to take the picture. But TODAY I went into the woods with my zoom lens on my camera, since I wasn't really looking for bugs today, but floods, and by chance I happened to see that elusive insect. So...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 American Pelecinid wasp. Female, which I can tell by the loooooooooong abdomen, which she uses to poke into the ground to lay her eggs on beetle larvae. It looks like a fearsome stinger, but it's not. She doesn't sting. The male is much smaller, and because it doesn't have this long abdomen, doesn't really look like the same insect.

I actually saw two of these today. I have seen them several times in the woods lately (including 3 on one day recently, as mentioned above), but they are an insect that I have rarely seen over the years that I have been doing this, and most of the time I don't get a picture at all. Usually I don't even get a shot off; they fly away before I can get close. But with the zoom lens I didn't have to get very close (and I still ultimately scared them both off).

Although I did a bug walk with my macro lens after my woods walk I don't really have a lot to show for it. So, here's what else I got today, with both lenses:

Frog in the stream, which was rushing today after the heavy rains last night from the remnants of Ida. It has a bubble stuck to its face which floated down the stream and bumped into the frog and then stuck to it.

Water strider

There is a patch of Japanese knotweed (which we are trying to eradicate, because it is invasive) in front of our yard, by the road, and today it was covered with bees. There had to be a couple hundred bees, wasps, and flies on the plants (but mostly bees). These flowers always attract a lot of pollinators, but I don't think I have ever seen so many bees together before. I am not afraid of bees, but I found it unnerving.

Cricket

Caterpillar–I am pretty sure it's an ailanthus webworm caterpillar

Dragonfly

Backyard Reptile of the Day:

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Yes, of course it's a snake. It's always a snake. It will probably always be a snake. Because there don't seem to be any other reptiles in my backyard. I am not expecting lizards, because there are none in Connecticut, or crocodiles (same reason), but a turtle or tortoise would be nice just once! But no, it's snakes, snakes, and more snakes. 

I think this is a juvenile eastern milk snake.