All Hail Queen Moth

I think my reaction when I walked outside today was to say, "GAH!" Then I walked back inside just to see exactly how cold it was outside. 48ºF. I put on another layer of shirt, and debated whether or not to even bother with a bug walk, because I didn't think I would find any bugs (I know, I know, I can find bugs as long as the temperature is above freezing, as I know from my adventures in bug hunting over the winter, but still. It was cloudy, too). But I went out because... well, I'm still me, a pessimistic optimist.

And of course I found bugs. Not many of them, but I did find bugs. (I would like to say, however, that it did snow later in the evening. Just a little bit, and it didn't stick, but it was snow!)

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I was getting to the point where I was near the end of my bug walk, and all I had found was a comatose, or possibly dead, bee, when I decided to check out the garden shed, because sometimes when the weather is not great I find bugs there. At first glance it didn't look like there was anything, just a few bits of stuff stuck to the shed after the rain and high winds we've had (Really high winds. A tree blew over in the backyard last night). But then I spotted this. At first I thought it was a tiny piece of wood or a seed, or something like that, and it was small - about a quarter of an inch long, so it was hard to tell if it was anything more interesting, and I almost didn't bother to look closer. But when you only have a possibly dead bee as a Backyard Bug of the Day candidate, you look closer, so I looked through the camera. At first I still couldn't tell what it was, but eventually I realized it was a tiny moth.

 When I got closer, I realized it was an amazing tiny moth! A gold moth that looks like it is encrusted with amethysts, sapphires and rubies! A moth that could be a king or queen! An emperor or empress! A Pharoa!

 The colors of this thing are incredible.

Moral of the story: look closely.

Here's the bee:

 Here's the woebegone bee. Just as an aside, photographing things inside daffodils is a real challenge.

 Crane fly. First sightings of these this year. There was one on the shed, and this one on the house.

I spotted a couple more bugs after I went inside - I saw a bumblebee in the rock garden through the window (which kind of annoyed me, because when I was outside looking in the rock garden there was nary a one). And then I happened to look up and see this moth on a window.

 The picture is not upside down.

Now for the most exciting thing seen in the backyard today:

 Ignore the tennis balls that are keeping the deer netting up around my blueberry bush, and look at who is hiding behind the garden.

And away it goes! This is the second bobcat sighting in the yard this year.