A Spring First

The exciting thing in the backyard today was a butterfly, the first butterfly of the season. I was thrilled to see it.

The bad news, blogwise, is that I didn't get anywhere near close enough to get a picture of it, so you don't get to see it. I think it was an American copper, but I didn't get a good enough look at it to be sure. It fed on the flowers in the rock garden, then flitted away to rest next to the driveway, and then it took off through a brambly area where I could not follow. Frankly, given how chilly it was today, I am surprised that it was so active. I almost didn't bother to even do a bug walk, because I thought it would be too cold to find anything.

Sigh.

There will be more butterflies, am sure, and hopefully they will be more cooperative. But it is a little disappointing that this first one got away.

 You can see why this would be enticing to butterflies, right? Although, I seldom see butterflies in the rock garden. Mostly bumblebees (but not today).

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Just kidding. I got a better picture than that.

 Not a lot better, though.

 This was not a cooperative wasp.

 It was tiny. And I think female - I think that is an ovipositor sticking out the back, not a sting.

 Random Bugs:

 Winter firefly

 Another little wasp that fluttered onto the ground in front of me...

 ... and then flew up onto a tree branch.

 No spiders today.

A Pest

I didn't do a bug walk today, per say, but I did spend a couple of hours in the backyard doing yard work, and I kept a lookout for bugs while I was working. I always bring my camera outside when I am doing yard work, in case I find something interesting.

I didn't find much.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Sawfly. I should be annoyed to see it on this particular bush, because last year the bush was badly damaged by sawfly larvae, but I still have to admit it's a pretty cool looking insect. However, definitely a pest.

Again one bumblebee was buzzing around the rock garden.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I found a couple of spiders while I was doing yard work. I saw some leaf litter spiders, I found one spider dangling in front of my face from a thread that was attached to my hair, and this one, which is the only one I got a picture of. A funnel web spider. Not a good picture, but funnel web spiders are shy, so it's hard to get pictures of them.

Leaf Lifting

This is something I find fascinating:

When plants come up under the leaf litter, they don't just push the leaves aside, they puncture right through them. It sort of makes sense here, where the leaves are piled and overlapping, so there would be some resistance when the plant pushes against them, but I have seen plants that came up in a spot where there was one leaf on top of them, and instead of the leaf being pushed up and away, the plant goes right through it. When you think of how little pressure is required to move a leaf, how do the plants do this?

This has been a pretty disappointing few days bug-wise. Today was about the same temperature as yesterday, or maybe a few degrees warmer, but cloudy with a few raindrops. It did not bring the bugs out.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 That tree trunk that is oozing sap has attracted a few things.

The ants are still there, but not as many as there were the other day.

 Springtail

 Gnat

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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All of the lawn chairs have spiders on them this week.

Where Is Everybody?

Well, this'll be quick.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Bumblebee in the rock garden. I didn't see this on my bug walk, I spotted it through the window a few hours later and went out to take its picture. Fortunately there are a lot of flowers blooming in the rock garden, so it stuck around long enough for me to get out there with my camera.

And that's it. Unless you count the bee in this flower:

 I didn't take a close-up because I think it's the same bee that was in there yesterday, and it appears to be either unconscious or dead. I don't know why a bee would die in a flower, but it looks like it did.

I don't know where all the bugs were today, but they were not in my backyard.

Fortunately there were spiders about, or my bug walk would have been a complete waste. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 As I was taking this picture of a spider on my chaise I contemplated how often I find spiders and insects on my lawn furniture. It does make me slightly less eager to spend time sitting outdoors on that furniture. I like to look at bugs and spiders; I don't want them crawling up my shorts.

I saw at least ten of what I have taken to calling leaf litter spiders:

 Here's one...

 ... and here's another...

... and here's another. I know, they all look like the same spider, but they are not. I saw them in different places in the backyard, and at one point, looking at the leaf litter at my feet I saw 6 within about 3 feet of each other. Most of them move too fast for me to get pictures of them. It does reinforce my belief that there are probably a lot of bugs hiding out in the leaf litter, because that food source would be a reason for so many spiders to be there.

Spring: Good and Evil

I am sure at some point in your life, probably when something bad had just happened to you and you just didn't want to hear it, someone has said something to you to the effect of, "We need bad things to happen so we can appreciate the good." I have never found that to be particularly helpful, and I was thinking about it today in relation to springtime.

Here's the good of springtime (well, some of it):

 Birds! Okay, there are always birds, and I don't even know if this is a migrating species or not, but there are more birds in the spring, and they are flirting, and building nests, and I spend more time outside so I can hear them singing more. Anyway, this is Backyard Bird of the Day, which I am pretty sure is a phoebe.

 Buds! Buds are wonderful.

 Green! After months of brown and gray, we get more and more green every day!

 Also, pink! It's subtle, but there is a lot of pink around in spring in places other than flowers. And leaves! New leaves in that gorgeous spring color!

Flowers! Yes, this is a poor picture of a flower, but I didn't take any other flower pictures today, so just go with it. Also, Bees!

And beautiful weather! And lengthening days! 

So, that's the good. Here's the bad:

A tick. Crawling up my leg, even though I put on my tick repellent pants today! I did not wait to see if it would bite me or not if it got the chance; when it got almost to my shirt I used a stick to remove it, and then it jumped off the stick and I lost it in the grass before I could kill it. It did not seem the least bit repelled by my tick repellent pants, I should say. I am pretty annoyed about that. Anyway, my point is, ticks are bad, and I don't need them to help me appreciate all of the good things about spring. Hmph.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I almost didn't see this; or rather, I saw it and almost thought it was just part of the bud on this plant. But it's not a bud, it's a bug. And this one really is a bug, as in a True Bug, from the order Hemiptera.

 I don't know specifically which bug it is, and my bug books are still put away for the winter, and I am too lazy to go get them, but hey, at least I know what order it's in!

 Zoomed-in version of the above picture, to see the great eyes, and a peek at the proboscis that is what makes it a true bug.

Quite handsome, eh?

Random Bugs:

 Bee in a daffodil. I think it's a sweat bee.

Beetle hiding in the grass

 Ant. A few days ago (last week?) there were a lot of these ants on this tree trunk, but today this was the only one I saw.

 There were plenty of ants elsewhere, though. A couple of months ago we (and by we, I mean my husband and a friend of his) had to cut down a tree that was dying, and very close to the house. Also, leaning in the direction of the house. However, today it became obvious that the tree wasn't completely dead because the sap began to flow from the stump.

 The sap attracted a lot of ants.

 It also attracted flies and gnats...

 ... and other things.

A lot of those little moths flying around today, and this one landed where I could just barely get its picture.

Oh, speaking of my insect repellent pants (we were earlier, remember?), I picked up something else:

 This is how Velcro was invented, you know.

Finally, after a spider drought for the last few days, lots of them were out today. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 It was a good day for spiders. Not such a good day for gnats. That this picture is in focus is a miracle - the wind was blowing the whole time I was trying to photograph this, and I must have just gotten lucky with this shot.

 I don't know what kind of spider this is, but I have come to think of it as the leaf litter spider.

I know, bad picture - I took a lot of pictures with my camera on the wrong setting today. The light was very changeable. Anyway, more proof that it was a bad day to be a gnat.

 Here's the above, zoomed-in.

 I found this charming jumping spider:

I know, totally out of focus, but I love this picture...

 It crawled around a bit on the branch, and then crawled up to the tip and stuck its back end up in the air.

I don't know how well you can see it in these pictures, but if you compare the... I don't know what they are, but they are sort of graspy things that stick out its back end. It was opening and closing them, and I think what it was doing was shooting silk threads out into the wind to catch on other branches.

You can just barely see in this picture and the next that it is grabbing at the threads.

 Another jumping spider. I am beginning to think that this one lives on our recycling bin.

 And this one lives on the bedroom window. Yup, a bad day for gnats.