Bumbling

Today's Bug Walk was different from yesterday's in three ways:
1) It was colder.
2) It was sunnier.
3) There were lots of bumblebees in the rock garden.

I believe that #3 is attributable to #2.

Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures of bees.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 The bees were very active. It's quite charming to stand there and listen to all of them buzzing.

 Sometimes they would crawl around on the ground under the plants.

 Doing a little grooming.

 I envy those photographers who get perfect, in-focus pictures of bees in flight.

 I get a lot of awkward poses.

 The other thing the bees were doing was settling on rocks for a while. I suspect that they were doing this to warm themselves; it was 46ºF outside, and the rocks were probably nice and warm.

 All curled up like a bee ball.

I didn't find a lot of other bugs, which did not surprise me.

A couple of click beetles:

 Playing dead so I will go away.

An ant. There were a few around today, but not as many as there have been on warmer days.

 This would be frightening if it wasn't so small.

It may be too chilly for most of the bugs, but the plants just keep making their springtime progress:

 This crab apple tree is still the favorite.

 Pussy willows

 The other crab apple tree. It leafs later, with a different color leaves. Springtime leaves are every bit as colorful as autumn leaves.

 The first dandelions of spring!

 The forsythia is in full bloom now.

 Pollen culprit at the moment - black birch, I think.

Spurge, I think.

After not finding any spiders yesterday, I found a few today. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 These are hard to photograph because I usually see scurrying in the grass, and though they may stop, when I get close with the camera they generally hide under the grass. This one stopped in a convenient location for me.

 And this one was in an area with mud and moss, so nowhere to hide.

 Instead it chose what I think was a threat posture.

The package bin is currently full of spiders. I think there's one in this picture. Meaning, I know there's at least one.