I was going to write about how much I am like Godzilla, but I procrastinated too long, and it's late, and I'm tired, and I just realized that I took a ton of pictures today that I now have to go through. It didn't seem like so many at the time I was taking them, but I did go for a very long walk today. So... here's my pictures, in the order I took them, without any coherent mental thread. Just imagine what it's like to walk through the woods and see all of these things–there's no rhyme or reason, just things you find when you walk in the woods...
I don't even have a Backyard Bug of the Day chosen yet–I guess I'll decide that as I go along, too.
On my way in from getting the mail (with my camera in hand) I saw several big ants on the front walk, gathered around a dead ant. They all scattered (except the dead ant) when I tried to take their picture.
Dandelion full of ants
I didn't notice the insect when I was taking this picture of a wild strawberry blossom. Do you see it?
This stinkbug is just playing dead.
Assassin bug nymph with prey
Twice stabbed lady beetle
While pulling up invasive garlic mustard I came across this pair of craneflies. I didn't pull up this plant; I will pull it up tomorrow, assuming the craneflies aren't still there:
That spike there is her ovipositor. If you look at yesterday's blog (or was it the day before?) I have a picture of a cranefly depositing eggs in the ground. She uses that spike to pierce the ground in order to lay her eggs.
Owl pellet. You can see the tiny bones of whatever the owl had eaten.
I think this is a bluebird feather.
Leaf-footed bug
Butterfly
Another butterfly. This might be the same species that was one of yesterday's BBofDs. I still don't know what it is. This one was obviously more cooperative, although you might not think so if you saw all of the process pictures of getting this shot.
I'll try to restrain myself on frog photos today:
Mayfly doing a solo mating dance. This does not appear to be a female with eggs, although it could be a female for all I know. There were two of them in slightly different areas of the stream, both dancing alone. I only got photos of one. They're not great, but they are miraculous:
Okay, I lied about showing restrain on frog photos:
There's a bug in this one, too. Can you find it?
Ah, springtime!
Click beetle
Backyard Bug of the Day!
Click beetle. It looked more purple in person. I am almost out of bugs for today, good thing I finally found one worthy of being BBotD. Strange to have click beetles as BBotD two days in a row, but here we are. This click beetle and the one above were about a foot apart, on different plants, and they are different species. I know you can't tell from pictures very well, but this one was a bit bigger.
Turkey tail mushrooms
Bumblebee. My blog posts lately have not been indicative of the number of bumblebees I have been seeing, which is a lot.
I saw ants all over the place today, multiple species.
Dogwood
You know what? This is Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2!
I forgot about this one. Stilt bug. It's really hard to get a good picture of these, so since this is a good picture I have to make it Backyard Bug of the Day. I usually see these on two particular plants every year: daffodils in the spring, and asters in the fall. I see them other places as well, but I can usually count on seeing them on those flowers. But my daffodils were a bust this year, so this is the first one I have seen this year.
And now... Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3!
This is only the second time I have seen this species of bumblebee. See the orange stripe on its back? I don't remember what it's called, but it's certainly a rare sighting in my backyard.
Tulip tree
Bleeding heart
Ant on flowering crab apple
Today was our first hot day of the year, 80ºF. It was sunny when I started my walk, and overcast with forbidding clouds at the end. I thought maybe we'd get a thunderstorm, but alas, no rain for the salamanders.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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