I Am Not a Bug

The process of doing science is probably more complicated than I like to pretend it is, but it's based on making observations, and experimentation, and drawing conclusions from the data collected during the experiments. I basically skip right from the observations to the conclusions, because I am not really into collecting data - and not a scientist - but here's the conclusion I have drawn about bugs and weather: Bugs don't like it when it's cold and rainy. If you wanted to be really bad at science, I could say that I don't like it when it is cold and rainy, and then you would conclude that therefore I am a bug (I forget what they call that kind of logic. Well, besides bad).  I am not a bug. I don't have six legs, or an exoskeleton, or three body segments (well, I have a head, and an abdomen and thorax, but those last two are one segment, aren't they? I didn't take biology on that kind of level...). Anyway, I obviously have a great deal of experience on the subject of what kind of weather bugs like, even though I am not one, because I have been observing them on a daily basis for a few years now, but I'll distill it down to two days' worth of observations for you: Monday was warm and sunny, and there were lots of bugs around the backyard. Today was cold and rainy, and there were very few bugs to be found. Hmmm... Wait, that might not be true, if you count ants as individual bugs, and are counting individual specimens as opposed to species... No, I'm right, there were a lot more bugs - both species and individual specimens - around on Monday when it was springtime. Even counting the ants I saw today individually, there were not as many bugs to be seen today, which was almost 20 degrees colder, and just plain yucky.

What's my point... Oh, that I didn't see a lot of bugs today, and I am grumpy because we've gone back to being cold. But I am not a bug.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I don't know what this is. I tried looking it up, but all I gathered is that it might be a springtail. It is bigger than the other springtails I have seen, though.

Here's the same picture, but zoomed in. I assume this thing has eyes, but I don't see them.

In spite of our chilly setback, there are more signs that the plant world is coming back to life:

 What I love about this crocus - aside from the fact that it is beautiful, and, well, it exists in my backyard - is that it is growing right through that leaf. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but both the flower and the leaves are poking through holes in the leaf. I don't know if it made the holes, or just found convenient holes as it grew up underneath the leaf, but it grew right through it.

 I am kind of irked that something ate my yellow crocuses.

 Pussywillow buds

 Possibly the first leaf to unfurl? I think this is an invasive vine, but whatever. I need to see some leaves.

Daffodils soon...

As for the rest of today's bugs... There aren't many:

And that's it.

Except for spiders. The spider turnout was pretty good - and I didn't even see any jumping spiders today (they definitely prefer warmer, sunnier days). Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 Really small spider

 A spider with the springtail-ish thing that was Backyard Bug of the Day. Quite a small spider, but not as small as the first one.

 Here's that same one again.

 This spider didn't want to be seen - it kept moving to the other side of the branch, and flattening itself out so I wouldn't see it. But of course I did.

 It kind of reminds me of an octopus when it lies flat like that.

 The relative lengths of its legs fascinates me. Those front legs are so long!

Beautiful