When Opportunity Knocks

I was sure that today I would have to rely on the porch light to find a Backyard Bug of the Day. It rained almost all day. But then, late afternoon, it slowed, and then stopped, and eventually the sun came out and all was beautiful.

I did my bug walk during the part where the rain had stopped but it was still cloudy, wet, and gloomy. I didn't know it was going to turn into such a beautiful evening, and wanted to get my pictures before it started raining again.

And then at first, all I could find was rain. (Is it still called rain after it has landed?)

But I finally found a bug, so here's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Cute, little caterpillar, kind of bluish. No idea what kind. Definitely a caterpillar, not another kind of larva, because it has 5 pairs of prolegs.

I did find another interesting bug:

 Some day if I get better pictures of this I will make it Backyard Bug of the Day, but for now I just want to post pictures in case that never happens, because I want to show it. I wasn't sure if this was a bug, or a lump of dirt, or what. But it's definitely a bug, some sort of beetle, I guess. It's got a bit of iridescence to it.

When I tried to stead the leaf to get closer, it did that thing a lot of beetles do when they want you to leave them alone, and pretended to be dead and fell off the leaf. It got caught on the stem. Seriously, in this picture I can't even tell what I'm looking at. I really hope I find another one of these some day.

I got some cool Backyard Bug Behavior today, too:

An aphid (I think) laying eggs.

The Backyard Bud of the Day:

I am pretty sure this plant is called bedstraw. No, I don't know if it's called that because people used to use it to fill mattresses.

The saddest Daily Dandelion ever:

Random flowers:

Sorry, I know I have been posting a lot of these, but they are so pretty, I get obsessed with them every year.

Now this is something I don't see in the backyard too often:

Adult deer, yes. Tiny fawns, no. Little bugger was too fast for me to focus.

And finally, Arachnid Appreciation. A pretty good one for those of you afraid of spiders, because you can barely see it:
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I'll bet this spider doesn't like rainy days.

Eh, I'm giving up on trying to end these things well.