Backyard News

I happened to be looking out the window this morning just after dawn, and saw a rabbit sitting just outside the gate of the vegetable garden. It was plotting, I know it was...

A strange thing has happened the last few days when I have gone outside for my bug walk. Three days in a row, shortly after I have stepped outside, a bee has come over to me and buzzed around my head - mostly my face - for about ten seconds before flying away. It's unnerving. I have no idea why they do this, and unlike a fly or a gnat I am not about to swat at a bee, so I have to just stand there. Obviously at that close I can not only hear the buzz, but feel the breeze from the wings. Bees, if you are trying to tell me something, I am not understanding your message.

In a further attempt to try to convince you to plant milkweed, here's a picture of milkweed buds:

 See? It's pretty even before it blooms.

Let's see, what else was going on in the backyard today...

The chipmunks were acting really weird:

 Let me explain what constitutes weird behavior in a chipmunk - they came near me. Normal behavior for a chipmunk is to lurk in hiding until I come within ten feet of it, then let out a high-pitched squeak of alarm, and dart away somewhere, usually startling me. Today three different chipmunks walked close to me, not in any hurry (though behaving rather furtively). This one did finally squeak and scurry under this rock when I walked within five feet of it, but then it came out again while I was still standing there. Very odd. But cute, and you don't usually get good chipmunk pictures with a macro lens.

In other wildlife news, there are cardinals nesting in the backyard. Their nest location isn't quite as inconvenient as the robins' nest on the porch was, but it is right over one of the new bushes we planted, so I guess that bush is not going to get watered for a couple of weeks, because the mother flies away when you get close. I hope it rains a couple of times in the next couple of weeks. It was supposed to rain today, but we only got about twelve drops so that doesn't really count. It was crazy windy, though.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is my fourth year of doing Backyard Bug of the Day. In the first two years I was able pretty consistently to find a new bug every day. In the third year I was able to find new things pretty frequently. This year not so much. But today's BBotD I think is something new.

 That proboscis screams Hemiptera (not literally), and the lack of wings suggests nymph. It is possible that whatever this is, I have seen it before in its adult form, but I don't know what that adult form is (my books don't bother much with nymphs), and as a different form it still counts as something new. So, Huzzah for finding new things!

Random Bugs:

 Yesterday's Backyard Bug of the Day - bright orange underneath

 One of those currently ubiquitous larvae. This one definitely looks blue.

 Assassin bug

 Long legged fly

 Dried leaf?

 Nope. Moth.

 I should know what this is, but I can't remember...

 I posted a picture of this moth last week - twice, actually, I think. Lately I've noticed moths of this kind frequently on one of the crab apple trees, usually in the exact same spot on the trunk. Today there were three of them on the trunk at once, in different spots.

 Hopper nymph

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 Speaking of finding new things, this spider is a new one for me. So pretty! And so small!