We watched the movie I.Q. last night; it is a romantic comedy about physics. There are several characters who spent most of the movie arguing about whether or not time exists. That got me to thinking about time today (I do believe it exists, by the way), but in a different way than the characters in the movie. I was thinking about what I would call Nature's Time. Actually, it wasn't just the movie that got me thinking, it was also an article I read last night about the earthquake in Nepal, and that scientists think that the earthquake may have lowered the height of the Himalayas, by up to a meter in some places. Changes in geography usually take a really long time - the carving of a canyon, the building of a mountain, they take eons, but some geologic processes happen in seconds - a volcano erupts, a landslide collapses a hillside, or an earthquake changes the height of the tallest mountain in the world. Nature's Time would be like geologic time, a measure of how long a natural process takes. Obviously nothing that I am observing in my backyard takes eons (though winter always seems to last for one), but for the most part processes are pretty slow. And yet, sometimes things seem to happen suddenly. If you've ever grown zucchini, you know what I am talking about.
Well, here's what happened in my backyard that made me think about the sometimes suddenness of Nature's Time. Yesterday was a hot, sunny day, and I spent quite some time in the backyard, and I was hot, because this time of year there's not much shade. I noticed specifically that the only really shady area of the yard is under the two crab apple trees, because they were the only trees fully leafed out. Many if not most of the other trees at least had leaves that were developing and unfurling, but they were still not leafy enough to create true shade. Then I walked outside today, and was immediately struck by how shady the backyard was (at least in the areas that are tree filled). Overnight it seems like the trees have leafed out.
Trees! With leaves!
Okay, one last shot of the flowering crab apple in flower. The flowers have changed from white to pink.
I have a strange and beautiful bug for Backyard Bug of the Day:
Lace bug
Side view. Pretty weird.
I went looking for the blob of tent caterpillars today, and couldn't find them. It's hard to believe, because you'd think they would be hard to miss, but I wasn't able to spot them anywhere. Of course, they could be too high in the tree today for me to see. Still no visible tent, either.
Here's the spot where they were yesterday when I saw them:
Lots of leftovers from moulting, and it looks like a couple of the caterpillars didn't make it for some reason.
I did find a caterpillar today... Sigh... This has just not been a good couple of weeks for caterpillars. I am pretty sure that one was still alive.
Backyard Bird of the Day:
Rose breasted grossbeak
Canada mayflower
Wood anemone
Ferns
A few oddments:
My husband was digging up some bushes to plant new ones, and found this. I think it is a chrysalis for a butterfly or moth. I put it in the butterfly cage to see what comes out of it.
Either some of the ladybug eggs have hatched already, or something ate them.
Sap?
This is a strange thing - it looks like a bunch of random bug parts roped together. I am pretty sure that blue/green thing is the leg of a six spotted tiger beetle. I know there are bugs, or larvae, anyway, that camouflage themselves by sticking the remains of their prey bugs on their backs, and so they look like walking piles of detritus, but this doesn't seem to be stuck to a bug, it's just stuck to a branch.
When you see the Random Bugs for today you are going to think I had quite a successful day of bug hunting in the backyard, but it was actually not so great. In the end I found a decent number of bugs, but I was outside looking for them for HOURS. It took me a long time to find anything at all. It's just that as I was almost done with the whole thing, I found some bugs.
Random Bugs:
Click beetle
Weevil and ant
Bee
No idea. It looks like it's moulting.
Aphids. My recent observations have led me to conclude that in nature, when something appears, something else will appear to eat it. So, today all the trees have leaves, and voila, there are aphids there to dine on them.
I don't know what this is, but the fact that the aphid is massive by comparison should tell you how tiny it is.
Even zoomed in, it's hard to tell: is this a see-through bug, or just an exoskeleton? If it's an exoskeleton, did it moult, or did someone eat it and leave the shell of the bug behind?
Peek-a-boo, beetle!
Arachnid Appreciation:
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Is this the arachnid equivalent of a college student's apartment with empty pizza boxes all over the place?
I think this spider is covered with pollen (which wasn't as bad as predicted, but there were some itchy eyes.
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