Transition

Well, here it is:

 The last of the snow in my yard (unless it snows tomorrow night. Which it might. But I don't think it will). The only reason this blob of snow is still here is because it is from one of the snow piles created by shoveling the driveway. It's not like this was just regular snow cover. And perhaps by the end of tomorrow it will be gone.

Make way for more of this!

 Creeping myrtle

This is what grows in my rock garden. Next to the foundation of the house is a warm microclimate, so that is where the first blooms always appear. It's always a happy day when I find the first ones.

What I had a really hard time finding today was bugs. Specifically, insects. I barely found any on my bug walk. I found arachnids and crustaceans (more on that later), but I had a hard time finding any insects until after my bug walk, when I was still outside, helping my husband do some yard work in a rather lackadaisical way (which means I wasn't all that helpful, partly because I kept getting distracted by bugs). However, I did find a bug, and I think it was actually a bug, too, not just an insect - a Hemiptera. I am not 100% sure, though, because it was really small, and moved around too much, so I never got a close enough look to see if it had the right mouth parts. But I think it was a true bug.

So, Backyard Bug of the Day:

It looks immature to me, like its wings are not fully developed.

So, about those crustaceans...

 I finally looked these up - they are sow bugs. They are not insects, which I already knew, as they have too many legs, and according to my bug book, they are "terrestrial crustaceans." So, think land lobsters. Minus the claws. And probably a lot of other differences, but also, they must have other similarities. Anyway, these were under The Cricket's board, and there were a LOT of them there. These are only a few of what were under there today. There are always a couple of them there, but today there were probably at least twenty. (The Cricket was not there, by the way).

I found this one on a tree - another sow bug, but a different color. This one fell victim to the weather - it was crazy windy today, and after I took this picture a gust of wind blew it right off the tree.

I suspect that wind was why I had trouble finding bugs today. All those little fly-like things I have been seeing so many of were probably hiding somewhere out of the wind, and during my bug walk I saw only one of them. And one wasp-ish thing that flew by. And one winter firefly:

 It definitely looks like it is hiding out from the wind.

 Later, during the cleaning of the garden shed, I happened to notice that the trunk of another tree had a lot of winter fireflies on it. There's these two...

... and these two. There were at least six or seven of them that I could see. And then, suddenly they were gone.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Chickadee

Once again I found quite a few species of spiders. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 The red critter I am sure you know is a mite. The mysterious figure behind the sheet of silk is Rain Gauge Spider. It's still under that tent, and I am guessing no longer alive, but one of its legs is sticking out through the silk wall now. It's hard to tell from this angle, but it's the dot on the lower area.

 Only one jumping spider today.

 Tiny spider in the grass

 Even tinier spider on a tree.

 This is a zoomed-in shot. It was a fast mover, so I didn't get any good, close shots.

Different tree, so I assume a different spider, but you never know. It wasn't that far away, so I suppose it is possible that it's the same spider. But probably not.