Please Use Other Door

I am trying very hard to come up with something interesting or inspiring to say about my backyard today, but I am coming up pretty blank. It was hot. We need rain. There were very few bugs to be found (I wonder if the lack of rain is an issue? Hmmm...). I only took about 100 pictures. That is nothing for me - most days this week it was more like 400.

Once again the most interesting things in the backyard today was something I didn't see - we came home in the early evening, just before it got dark, and there were sirens coming from the highway down the hill (about a half mile away). The young coyotes in the woods (if that is what they are) joined in howling with the siren. I don't know if it bothered them, or if it was something that they felt they needed to respond to. Or maybe they just liked the sound of it and wanted to sing along.

So, apparently I am still not allowed to use my front door:

 This is one of the parent robins telling me, "NO! YOU STAY INSIDE THERE! AND SHUT THE DOOR!"

While both parents were busy saying the same thing to every little bird that came by, I sneaked out and snapped a quick shot. These two are pretty imperturbable. There was a lot of racket going on, with the parents scolding all the other birds, and they just slept on.

Today the air was full of floating fuzz:

Here's a bit that landed.

Speaking of things you hear in the great outdoors:

This squirrel sat on that branch for at least ten minutes (it was still there when I walked away from that part of the yard) gnawing on something. I was a good thirty feet away and could hear it. Beneath the tree another squirrel was digging through the dry leaves on the ground, looking for something. I sometimes see squirrels sneaking around so silently, I have said that they put the fur in furtive. At other times they make such a racket, not just vocally, but going about their normal activities.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I don't know what this is, maybe another leaf beetle? My reading said that there were some that look like globs of mud, which is what this looked like at first glance. I am not in the mood to go digging through the books for something that is probably not in there, though. It might not even be a beetle, though. It has a little bit of a hopper look to it, too.

 What an adorable face!

Random Bugs:

 Tiny bee on big flower - clematis.

 A couple of forest tent caterpillars marching up a tree.

 This larva looks unwell...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Same spider as yesterday, same spot. Still beautiful.