Welcome to My Backyard

You've heard the quote: "Do one thing every day that scares you." I think Eleanor Roosevelt was asking a lot with that one, but here I go: today's scary thing is starting a blog. If you're afraid of bugs, or spiders, or the other things that wander around in the backyard, then your scary thing can be reading this blog, because that's some of what I am going to be sharing with you.

Two years ago I started the Backyard Bug of the Day project, and I wish I could say that I had a profound purpose for doing it, but I didn't. What I had was a nice camera and a macro lens. That meant I could take nice close-up pictures of bugs. In other words, I started taking pictures of bugs every day, and posting them on the internet, just because I can. People were (mostly) really cool about it, so I kept doing it.

Up until now Backyard Bug of the Day has just been something (possibly) weird I do on facebook, but today I am going a bit more public with it, which is kind of scary because the internet is really not a very nice place. Hence the invocation of Eleanor Roosevelt. I meant to do this last year, but I am such a non-techie that I didn't get past the part about choosing a name. I meant to start at the beginning of spring, then the beginning of summer, then the beginning of a new year, then the beginning of spring again, and here I am, starting a blog on a random Tuesday. Well, there's not much going on today...

My facebook thing has been called Backyard Bug of the Day, and recently I added Backyard Bud of the Day (because it's spring!), but here, I am just going to share what's going on in my backyard. And front yard. And side yard. And sometimes in my house, because bugs get in there, too. There will be a lot of bugs, and spiders (yes, I know they are not bugs. In fact, most of the things we all call bugs are not bugs - there's only one part - Class? Order? Group? Something like that? - of the insect world that are classified as bugs. I am going to use the term REALLY loosely), but also birds, rabbits, deer, raccoons, maybe a bobcat if I am really lucky, flowers, fungi... Whatever I find interesting, I'll share.

A caveat: I am not an entomologist. Or a biologist. Or an arachnologist. Or an ornithologist. Or a biologist. Or any other kind of ologist, I am just a person with a backyard, an interest in nature, and a camera. So don't ask me to identify everything you see here. Also, I am an extremely amateur photographer, so, you'll just have to take what you get with that.

There's probably more I should say about all of this, maybe explain the rules I use in my BBotD project, but I think I'll just go over that another day. For now, here's today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

Not a very good view? How about this shot, then:

No? Well, here's your first lesson about taking pictures of bugs in the backyard: they don't always cooperate. This one was on a branch a little too high over my head for me to get a better shot at it.

Since it's our first day, how about a couple of Arachnid Appreciation pictures? (Steve, if you are reading this scroll past the next two now):

Now, Backyard Bud of the Day: Jack in the Pulpit

I think I'll close my first ever blog with a bit of backyard whimsy - muddy footprints on my back porch:

Thanks for reading. Welcome to my backyard.

Edit: I knew I was not going to get the hang of this so fast... There was one other picture I wanted to share. I don't normally take pictures of this particular kind of animal, but this one was soooooo tiny, it almost proves that baby versions of anything are cute:

Don't expect to see a lot of slugs here; they creep me out. Thus endeth (again) the post for today.