Dramatic Bug Action

Ah, what a great day for Backyard Bug hunting! Such a bonanza of bugs! Such drama and excitement!

Let's start with Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This was so tiny I wasn't even sure it was a bug at first, but I looked through the lens anyway, because I tend to do that for suspicious looking bumps on tree trunks.

 As it turns out, it was two bugs. I don't know if they were mating or if one bug was just standing on top of the other (which happens to be burrowing into the tree).

 Cute. I don't know what it is, but it's kind of beetleish.

Random bugs:

 You can't see them in this picture, but this wasp was surrounded by spiders. They were all pretty small, though, so I don't know if they would have gone for it if it had not flown away.

 I think this is the same kind of wasp that was BBotD a couple of days ago.

 It is a very clumsy insect, both walking and flying.

 When it crawled onto my shoe, and looked like it was going to crawl into my shoe, that is when my foot quickly evacuated from my shoe. So this picture was taken while I was standing on one foot.

 Rare daytime moth sighting.

 This is called a checkered beetle, even though it shouldn't be, because there is another bug that should be called checkered beetle.

I saw a lot more bugs than I got pictures of, especially wasps. Several different species, in fact.

Look! Leaves!!!

They're not fully opened, but I was so excited and surprised to see them this far today.

And speaking of surprised and excited, this made me gasp aloud:

 These are blooming next to the front walk, and I failed to notice that they were there until today when they were in full bloom. These are called bluets, or Quaker ladies.

The creeping myrtle is looking glorious, too.

The drama that I mentioned at the beginning of this post was among the spiders, of which I saw many today. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I spotted this handsome jumping spider on the post that holds the rain gauge.

 Then I saw two more spiders, quite a bit smaller, walking up the post. This one here crawled onto a vine that entwines the post.

 The other one you can see here in the clutches of the jumping spider. I actually saw the jumping spider run at it and grab it. I don't think I have ever seen that happen before. It happened really fast - too fast for me to get pictures, though in that split second before it happened I knew what was about to occur.

 Then I almost walked through the web of this spider, as it stretched across my path at about shin height, like a tripwire. It's not a terribly good picture, but it is interesting in that this is also a jumping spider, and since jumping spiders don't use webs to capture prey (as I had just witnessed), I have never seen one on a web before, and so have never seen the underside of a jumping spider. This thread was being used for transport from one side of the path to the other. Even spiders that don't hunt by making webs to catch prey produce silk, for things like this.

 Here's that spider once it got across the path. Note the grass giving the picture a green background! (The blue is the chaise).

 There was a little bit of drama with this spider, too. This is another jumping spider, and it jumped - onto my hand. I had a reaction that was probably milder than most folks would have if a spider jumped on their hand, but it was definitely a reaction. The spider then jumped back onto the side of the house, and then made several jumps down the side of the house and into the grass. This is the first time I have ever seen a jumping spider try to burrow into grass to hide.

Here's another jumping spider (they are all over the outside of the house lately), and it has caught something pretty substantial. I can't really tell what it is, but it sort of looks like a lacewing or a mayfly.