Sound and Silence

Today I accidentally squished a small caterpillar on my neck. I realize that this was much worse for the caterpillar than it was for me, but it was still pretty unpleasant for me.

Some weirdness among the animals in the backyard today: There was a squabble between three bluejays among the trees where I was standing at one point. Normally bluejays are pretty rudely squawkish, but these three were silent as they chased each other among the branches. It was eerie.

Also eerie was the howling/barking/caterwauling/whatever-that-noise-was that came from the woods both this afternoon and this evening. My guess - and I have nothing to back this up - is that a coyote has had babies in there somewhere, and they aren't all getting along, either with each other or some other animal. That part of the woods has a thick understory, so even in the afternoon I couldn't see what was going on - and I wasn't about to delve to far into the woods to investigate.

Today the robins were much less tolerant of my presence in front of the house than they were yesterday. When I appeared the mother (I assume) was sitting in a tree, and she made her distress cry. Then the male came flying over and the two of them set about squawking. The funny thing about all of this histrionic hullabaloo is that I only know what all of this means because I looked it up, and because I know that the nest is there on the porch. I don't really see how this behavior would be effective with most humans, especially if they don't know there's a nest nearby. In fact, knowing what their behavior means would actually alert me to the presence of a nearby nest if I didn't know one was there - it happened last year. There was an area down by the street last summer that I couldn't walk by without a pair of robins setting up a ruckus. I couldn't see the nest, because it was hidden by leaves, and I wasn't about to upset them further by poking around to find it (I spotted it in the fall when the leaves fell), but I knew it was there because of the way they were acting.

I found this on the floor of the porch:

I also took a quick peek into the nest, and it is definite that there are only two babies in there. I don't know if the third just didn't hatch, or if something happened to it.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a leaf beetle. I know that sounds terribly generic, and it is - there are thousands of species of leaf beetles, according to one website where I looked for information about this insect. Only one of my field guides included this, and it was on a page with a bunch of other leaf beetles, but they all had more specific names - elm leaf beetle, waterlily leaf beetle, long-horned leaf beetle, ten-spotted leaf beetle. This one was just Leaf Beetle. It eats goldenrod leaves. It's scientific name is Ophraella conferta, but even looking that up on the internet didn't give me any new information (though one site classified it as being confident, whatever that means when you are talking about beetles). I want to know why its elytra don't cover its abdomen, and if this is a female about to lay eggs. No such luck finding that information. But, I know it's confident.

Backyard Bug Behavior:

 When I spotted this beetle hanging from under a leaf I assumed it was in the clutches of a spider or assassin bug, because I see that sometimes.

 Naturally I had a look, wanting to see the supposed spider, and found out that that was not the case.

Random Bugs:

 Another weevil. If I was truly organized and scientifically minded, I would be keeping track of the species I find...

 Caterpillar on a tree trunk - it's a backyard meme.

 This one is doomed - it seems to have a parasite egg on it.

 Yesterday's BBotD was still on its same tree, but in a different crevice.

 I know, blurry, but this is the only shot I got! Tiny katydid, I think.

I have almost as many spiders today as I do Random Bugs. Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 I can still see you.

 I think this is a jumping spider. A less fuzzy jumping spider.

 And a really tiny jumping spider. I should be keeping track of jumping spider species, too...

 Here's the above picture zoomed in.

 And here's that spider after it jumped somewhere else.

 I rarely get a glimpse of this side of this species of spider because they often build a web that is parallel to the ground and then hang out on the underside of it. So this was a nice opportunity.

 It's such a beautiful spider.

 Building a web...

 

Chirp

I pride myself on being an attentive observer of the natural world around me, but apparently I am not.

Backyard Birds of the Day (Or that should be Front Porch Birds of the Day):

Here I have been tiptoeing around, trying not to disturb the mother robin on her nest, and I realized today that they babies hatched days ago. I've been waiting for sounds of babies, and feeding behavior, but all I have seen - including early this afternoon - is the mother bird on the nest, so I assumed that the eggs had not hatched. I was expecting them to hatch between Tuesday and Thursday of this week. From the looks of things, probably over the weekend. I was clued in when I came back from a walk and the mother was not on the nest (as she had been when I left an hour previous), but in a nearby tree, and wasn't annoyed with me for being within thirty feet of her. She barely even reacted when I walked right by her to put the garbage can away (If she had still been sitting on the nest I would have walked all the way around the house to avoid disturbing her, but I figured if she wasn't there, I wasn't going to lug the can all that way). So, I went in the house, and then went out the front door onto the porch, where I have not set foot in almost two weeks, and snapped a shot - in order to minimize disruption I don't even get up on the stool so I can see into the nest, I just hold up the camera.  Surprise! Baby birds! I am a little dismayed that there appear to be only two of them in there - there were three eggs. But I am happy to see the fuzzy, little things - even if I wish I had seen them a few days ago when they were new!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I almost didn't even check this out, it looked so much like it was just part of the tree, and even when I did do a double take, and really give it a close look, I almost just poked it to prove to myself it wasn't anything but a weird part of the bark. I didn't poke it, though. I just looked much closer...

 A caterpillar. The way it is hiding its head really added to the "I'm not a caterpillar, I am an abnormality in the bark" effect.

Caterpillar Close-ups!

 This is some good camouflage - it has a spike on its back that looks like a thorn.

Backyard Bug Behavior:

 Ants dragging a caterpillar back to their nest. I was sorry to not have seen this caterpillar alive. It's rather striking.

 If you look around the central subjects of the picture, you can see remains of other dead bugs around. I wonder if these were former meals of the ants, and they discarded the exoskeletons.

 I very rarely get this kind of view of a caterpillar.

 Ants may be very strong for their size, but they just don't seem to be very good at transporting things. Very disorganized, ineffective communication, poor spatial awareness. They waste a lot of energy trying to drag things through spaces where they won't fit. If you ever need help moving into a new home, don't ask ants to help you. They'll spend half the day trying to get your sofa through the door the wide way.

 In the upper left, that gray, curved thing is another dead bug. In the upper right is the ants' hole. Unfortunately, I had to go inside and get ready to go out, so I was unable to watch this unfold to the end.

Random Bugs:

Male velvet ant (I think), which is actually a wasp.

 This could be the previous owner of the discarded exoskeleton I found last week.

 I didn't see the bug when I took the picture.

 I think this is some species of tiger moth. It was on the back porch when we got home this evening. It was surprising, because for some reason bugs are not as attracted to the back porch light as they are to the front porch light, but there were quite a lot of bugs there tonight. Mostly gnats, but also a couple of cool moths.

This is one of those moths that just looks like a drab, grayish brown when you first look at it, and is revealed to be more interesting if you give it a closer look.

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 I didn't notice when I took the picture that there appear to be insect eggs on this leaf.

Is that a mosquito you've caught? See, this is why people should like spiders!

Tussles

Too many pictures, no time for chit chat. Pictures are better than words anyway, right? And supposedly they are each worth a thousand words, so today's blog is practically a novel.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Hover fly. Looks very much like a bee, I know, but that's not a stinger on the end.

 Woolly eggs on a blade of grass

Backyard Bug Behavior

 I spotted these tiny bugs running around on a leaf, and at first I thought they were ants, really small ants, but there was something about the way they moved that just didn't look ant-like.

 Then they started tussling with each other, and that definitely didn't look ant-like. Not that ants don't tussle, they do get feisty with each other sometimes, and I don't know a whole lot about ant interactions, but something told me that these were not ants, so I took a closer look. (I figured this all out before I took any pictures, obviously. By the time I got close enough to focus it was clear these were not ants. I didn't just figure it out when I got to this shot of them wrasslin').

 There was some pretty intense wrestling going on.

 Usually at least 3 bugs, but I think there were sometimes more (several of the bugs on this leaf skedaddled when I got close with the camera. It was much more crowded before).

 This picture shows what all the fuss was probably about (this is a different leaf, nearby, with more of the same bugs).

 Everyone wants to pass on their own DNA.

Random Bugs:

 Larvae, larvae everywhere...

 Typical butterfly encounter. I saw a lot of these today. In fact, just a lot of butterflies in general, which is nice.

 Never seen these before... Some kind of aphid.

 New blog feature: Caterpillar Close-ups.

 I noticed this caterpillar in a flower pot...

 It was trying and failing to climb the walls to get out. I thought I would be helpful, and tip it out...

 ... and it thought I was being unhelpful and grabbed onto one of the holes on the bottom.

 Still more larvae...

 I know this is a terrible shot, because the bug is out of focus, but it's the only one I got before the bug hopped away.

 I don't have a favorite bug, but if I did, the six spotted tiger beetle would be a candidate, for looks and personality.

Definitely not for cooperation, though.

 Caterpillar Close-up!

 Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 It's not unusual for me to see a jumping spider with some sort of prey in its grip.

 What surprised me when I zoomed in this picture, though, is that what it has caught is another jumping spider.