Bugs! In the Backyard!

I ate breakfast on the front porch today. It was warm (in the mid-40s at that point), and sunny, sunny, sunny, and beautiful, and wonderful, and springish... Sigh.

Of course, the reason I ate on the front porch instead of in the arbor where there's a picnic table, is because of this:

 Yes, this was the third day in a row that the temperature was above freezing, but it takes more than three days to melt two feet of snow.

But it was melting for sure today!

And I saw this as soon as I walked outside today to go get the newspaper:

 Here it is on the storm door...

Up close and personal.

Naturally I went for a bug walk. I had to wear snowshoes, but there is a benefit to having two feet of snow in the backyard, which is that there are a few areas of the yard that are more accessible because the brambles are squashed flat under all of that snow. So I walked around in areas where I don't normally walk. And by don't normally walk I mean that I have not been in those parts of my backyard literally in years (and I should tell you that I only use the word literally in its proper sense. So yes, as much time as I spend in my yard, there are parts of that bit-more-than-an acre that I have not set foot on for years).

In so doing, I found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I wasn't going to have a BBotD today, but... here it is. Winter firefly.

 Even after three years of observing insects and their relatives in my yard I still don't know all that much about them, and I don't know a lot about what to look for when and where, but I went out looking for this bug today, because I thought I might find it. It has been BBotD before, probably not that long ago (maybe December?), so maybe if you have read this blog for a while you are familiar with it. They are out in late winter/early spring (or on warmer days in midwinter, when they might emerge just for the day, and hang around near their wintering spot), because they spend the winter in the bark of trees (which is why I knew to look on tree trunks to find one). They are diurnal (active during the day) and therefore only have their bioluminescence during the earlier stages of their lives, not as adults.

But I found more bugs than this today!

 A couple of these flies on the picnic umbrella (which we never got around to bringing inside after last summer...)

 Another fly, sitting in the snow...

 The snow made it a bit lethargic. It was still alive, but kind of clumsy. It tumbled down the side of the drift when it decided tried to walk.

 I did not expect to see a hopper today.

 I did expect to see springtails! I found just a couple of these on a cedar tree where I often find them.

 And then I spotted this on a black birch...

And then noticed there were about a hundred of them near the base of the tree (and by base of the tree I mean the part closest to the bottom that was not covered in snow. Because the actual base of the tree was still about two feet down). Look one of the other kinds of springtails photobombed this shot.

And a few signs that we are really still waiting for spring...

I found another ladybug pupa.

 Lots of buds on the trees. This one is growing directly out of the trunk.

 I have never seen tree fungus look like this before - it looks like it is getting ready to release spores, or whatever it is that fungus do.

 Close up of the things I am guessing are the spore releasing thingies.

The ubiquitous seeds on snow.

I am not planning on doing bug walks every day this week, even though it is supposed to be warm all week, because the snow in the backyard is somewhat harder to walk on now that it is starting to thaw - just on the border of being slushy. And basically, I don't expect there to be anything out there other than what I saw today - there may be a few other bugs that were wintering in the bark of trees, but anything that was underground for the winter is still buried under the snow (I have been thinking about the cricket under the board, wondering how it's doing. Snow is a great insulator, so it may not be in diapause, but it sure can't go anywhere). Things that hatch, eclose, pupate, and so on in the spring will be waiting until it is warm for an extended period. So, there's not much point in slogging through the slush every day. But I am still me, so I will probably go out at least once.

Because I can't help myself.