A Warm Welcome

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

I think the backyard missed me yesterday, and today it showed how happy it was that I was back.

See how happy it looks?

 This picture was taken from the cupola at the top of my house, at dusk. There are two bunnies in the picture. So now you know what my yard looks like. Well, a tiny part of it, anyway. Soon there will be tons of goldenrod blooming here.

Flowers blooming:

What is significant about these flowers is that there are three different kinds blooming all at the same time, and they are all things I actually planted on purpose. This particular garden bed is the only one I plant things in for real, as in, not just strewing wildflower seeds, and it is mostly a mess of weeds, but there are actually a few successes here. So, we've got balloon flowers, astilbe, and some sort of pinks, all in a row.

Backyard Bug of the Day is one I have seen many times before, but I have mostly seen it like this:

 That is, inside my house, like it was last night, as seen in this picture (it was after midnight, so it still counts for today). I have also often seen them on my porch when the light is on.

But today I also saw it in the wild!

It is called a green lacewing, by the way.

It didn't want me to get too close.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

I am not sure if this is a new bud or not. There are some tiny bugs on it, if you look closely.

Something funny:

Apparently slugs don't get caught in spider webs. I'll bet it annoys the spider to have the slime trail right across its web!

Special rare treat today: Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

As usual I found this toad by almost running it over with the lawn mower. That is almost always when toads appear.  It hopped past, and for a second I thought it was a dried leaf the mower kicked up, but I looked again, and saw that it was a lovely toad.

It is impossible NOT to wonder how this happened:

Big mushroom, upside down on a rock.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

To make up for yesterday I've got a whole slew of Bonus Bugs for you today:

Some aphids...

Some beetles...

A moth in the wild:

And some skippers...

 Two sharing a flower...

And then three sharing a flower. That didn't last long.

Green wasp. I have been calling this a bee, but from my bug book I now think it is a wasp. To be honest, I don't really know the difference.

 By the way, the butterfly did not eclose, so I am hoping for tomorrow. It would appear that the internet was WRONG about how long it would take for the butterfly to come out. The only other possibility is that something went wrong and it's not going to, which would be awful. Actually, that's not true, there is one more possibility, but I don't think it is likely at this time of the year - it is possible that the butterfly would stay in the chrysalis all through the winter and eclose in the spring. But for a caterpillar that chrysalized in July that seems unlikely.

Now I have to warn any arachnophobes to go no further, because the pictures that are coming up will freak you out.
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 Okay, are you gone? Then, on with Arachnid Appreciation!

First, we start with this:

 I've been seeing a fairly large, tattered web in a particular spot for the last several days, but wasn't able to tell if it was shreds of an old web, or an active one; some species of spiders make a new one every day (or night, as we will soon see). Today the web was looking better than usual, which meant there is still a spider involved, though it was still torn. This bug was in it. It was still alive, but no spider was there trying to kill it. However, it's not for nothing that I have been studying the bugs in my backyard for the last three summers, so I knew where to find the spider...

 Some species of spider make themselves a little tent out of leaves at the edge of their web, and they will hide in their tent - whether to avoid being seen by prey, or by other predators I don't know. Maybe some of both. Anyway, I found this one (though it was in a very awkward location), sitting and watching the web. Later on it appeared that the bug caught in the web was dead, but all afternoon I saw no sign that the spider was going to do anything about it.

However, I know more things about these spiders, and that included the fact that they build a new web every night after it gets dark. So, around 10:30 I went outside with a flashlight and found...

 It was eating something, but I couldn't tell if it was that same bug. It was in the same location, anyway.

 I assume when it was done with the bug it was going to build a new web, but I had some work to do, and didn't want to sit outside with the mosquitoes, waiting to see if it would happen. But another thing I know about these spiders (and this is some species of orb weaver, but I am not sure which kind) is that they will build a web in the same spot for weeks, so I will have other chances (I hope), to check it out.