Peace and Droplets

One of the great things about winter is that no one does any yard work. That means that you can go outside on a Saturday and it will be quiet. No lawn mowers. No leaf blowers. Just quiet. And without those machine noises you can hear other things. Today I was hearing quiet, little noises that I thought could be many different things, little pitter-pat sounds in the leaf litter that could be insects, or so I thought. But it turned out to be the earliest drops of rain. Soon there were enough that it was clear what I was hearing. And then I had to go inside. So I didn't get to peruse much of the backyard today, but I did find a few things.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I know, this is a horrible picture. I just wanted to start by showing you where I first spotted this insect. That is my shoe. I had to take it off to take this picture. While it is possible to take a picture of a bug on my shoe while still wearing my shoe, it does make a difference where on the shoe the bug is. This one was on the side, and I am just not flexible enough to get that shot. So, I had to take off my shoe and stand there on the gravel driveway in my sock to get this. And the little critter wouldn't even sit still, so the picture is out of focus. Then it dropped onto the ground...

 ... and I managed to get a better shot. I think this is a stonefly.

It wasn't sunny today, but it was warm, and the oak tree favored by the winter fireflies was teeming with them. And a lot of them were active, too, crawling around instead of just sitting in crevices in the bark.

 A bit of a bug-finding test for you. I think there are 5 here.

I think there are 5 here, too.

I also found a couple of twice-stabbed lady beetles:

 And a birch catkin bug.

 I found this under the rotting log. the white blobs in the front and to the back of the shot are those insect eggs I found the other day. Only the other day I didn't notice the ones in the back, deeper in the crevice. I don't know if that is because they weren't there, or because I am not very observant.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 The only reason I saw this tiny spider is because I was taking that picture of the stonefly on the driveway, and I happened to see this moving. This is a tiny spider that I would never have seen otherwise. You can gauge the size of it from the fact that that is sand it is crawling on.

Picnic

I ate my lunch outside today, and as is my habit when I am going to be sitting outside for a while, I brought my camera outside with me, just in case I saw something worth photographing, and that is how I got a picture of the Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tiny beetle on the picnic table.

 

 It made a few short flights around the table, and as often is the case with beetles, it took a while for the wings to get pulled back under the elytra.

Other bugs:

 Midge on the garden shed

 Birch catkin bug

Today the winter fireflies were everywhere:

 I looked under the rotting log for bugs, and all I found was these eggs. I haven't noticed these before, and though I may have just missed seeing them, if not then that means there is something that just recently laid these, and I can't help wondering what it could be. There's not much out and about lately, particularly not anything big enough that these would seem to be their eggs. They look pretty big for insect eggs, but there are definitely some big insect eggs in the world...

... like these katydid eggs. I saw these last fall on a tree branch, and have kind of been looking for them on and off since, but could never remember which branch they were on. Today I found them. Still waiting for spring...

There were a few random ants wandering around on tree trunks:

This is possibly (probably) the same species of wasp that I saw yesterday, and in the same general area. I couldn't get closer than this today, though, because just off to the left of this picture was a pissed off snake that I didn't want to get closer to, especially not while looking through my camera at something else.

I kept a lookout for these today:

It seemed like the right kind of day to find candy-striped leaf hoppers (65ºF or so), so I looked in places I thought I would find them, and finally did.

Two of them, in fact.

I found two different species today for Arachnid Appreciation:
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I have a new hypothesis about the snakes that I am now seeing every day on the hillside out front: that there is a snake's winter den somewhere around there, and I am not just seeing the same two snakes over and over, but I am seeing different snakes as they emerge from the den and wander off elsewhere. I am pretty sure that even though I have only ever seen two at once that there are at least 3, because one of them appears to be bigger than the other two.

This one was quite aggressive today...

I saw it resting on the hillside, as you see here, and it seemed pretty mellow so I tried to get close for a picture...

... and it pulled back like this, ready to strike at me if I didn't back off. Which I did...

... more or less. Lest you think my description of this sounds mild, I would like to point out that it did this very fast, and very suddenly, and scared the bejeebers out of me.

I general, the snakes the last couple of days gave the impression that if I wanted to pick one up, which is something I have never in my life wanted to do, and never will, I could probably have done quite easily.

Sssssss...

I feel like I have failed you a bit today. It was a GORGEOUS spring day in February, topping 60ºF, and I had a limited time to do a bug walk today, and I squandered most of it taking pictures of a snake (more on that later). Then I had to cut it short to go inside and take a phone call (which turned out to be unpleasant, so I wish I had spent the 15 minutes outside looking for bugs). Then we went to the movies, and saw two movies, which was, perhaps, a waste of a gorgeous day, but it's what I did. I had hoped that there would be bugs on the porch when we got home, as I had left the porch light on, knowing it would be dark by the time the movies go out, but there wasn't so much as a gnat attracted to the light. Ah, well, I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Here's the exciting bit: Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I actually hoped to see a bee or wasp today, since it was so warm, but I didn't really expect to. And there it was, about a foot away from one of the snakes!

The other insects I found were something I expected to find. There is a particular oak tree in my backyard that is very popular with winter fireflies, and on the warmest winter days I will often see quite a few of them on this tree. I have been looking all winter with no success, but...

Today I spotted about a dozen or so. Can you find the three that are in this picture?

 These three are easier to spot.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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Jumping spider! What a pleasant surprise!

And, the snakes were back today! Of course I wondered if they would be, but in general, seeing a snake in my backyard is a rare thing. I don't see them two days in a row, in the same place. But there were two snakes today, on the same slope down in front of the house. One of them was in almost the same place it was yesterday:

 It is a short, but steep slope, and I do my bug walks in gardening clogs, which are tricky on a steep slope, so this is as close as I got to this one.

This one was near the bottom of the slope:

 The snake I took so many pictures of yesterday (which could be this same one) was very docile, and I was able to get very close to it without it caring at all, and the most it did was to turn its head as I moved around it to take pictures from different angles. This one was more aggressive, or maybe I should say curious. It moved toward me, and would move as I moved. Notably, it never fled into the leaf litter, to try to get away. It pulled back a tiny bit a few times, which made me a tiny bit concerned that it might strike if I got too close. I don't know what kind of snake it is, but it is not one of the two venomous species we have in this state, so I was not that afraid, but I was still cautious. A snake bite even from a non-venomous snake can give you a bacterial infection that would be nasty.

 There was a LOT of tongue flicking today.

 

 And a bit of slithering about, but no mad dash for escape. Curious, because my guess is that they are black racers, which are very shy snakes, and zip away immediately when you get near them. Or they brush their tails against the leaf litter to sound like rattlesnakes, which I can tell you is very effective and quite terrifying when they do this right at your feet, before you have seen them to know they are Not rattlesnakes. And maybe you're thinking I am silly to be worried about rattlesnakes, but we do have them in this state. Not in this area, supposedly, but that's not a very consoling thought in the moment that you hear the threatening sound. I know this from experience.

Okay, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures of this snake sticking its tongue out: