How the Wild Works

As I write this, at about 12:30 in the morning, it is 61ºF and raining outside. If this was a normal December, we would be getting some respectable snow coverage right now, but this is not a normal December. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. We need rain, well, precipitation, anyway, and I don't have a problem with not being cold. I have come to realize over the last few years that I actually like winter, even if I complain about it at times, but I don't need a lot of it to satisfy my seasonal requirements. If we get to the end of January with all rain and no snow, I will be whining about it. But all I am saying is that this is kind of weird.

I know I said yesterday that I was probably done with blogging for the year, but the caveat was that I would if I found anything worth blogging about. I have a very low threshold for what is worth blogging about. So, though I didn't see a lot of bugs today, and the ones I did see were the same-old, same-old, I am blogging anyway. You'll only find out why if you are not afraid of spiders, though.

As for bugs... and anything else in the wild world, I have come to realize that the way nature works is basically if there is something to eat, something will be there to eat it. So, there are a few leaves left, which means there are a few leaf hoppers left. There is obviously something out there for the winter crane flies and the springtails, who love this damp weather, so they are here to eat it. There are fewer bugs this time of year not just because it's usually cold, but because there's less to eat - there are not many leaves left. But if you dug around in the leaf litter, you'd probably find a bunch of things there that like to eat dead leaves. So, there are still a few bugs around, and that means there are still things around that eat them. And that means there are still spiders.

No Backyard Bug of the Day today, but here's some pictures:

 Finally! A leaf hopper! All these days in the 60s I haven't seen them. The high in the afternoon today was only in the 50s, I think, but here's a hopper. This is the one mountain laurel we planted that survived, and since mountain laurels don't lose their leaves in winter, this plant has been where I find hoppers now.

 There is a vine in various places in the yard that still has its leaves, too. Most of them are changing color now, but some are still green. Here's a couple of springtails on that vine.

 Springtails were EVERYWHERE today.

So, about the spiders. Before we get to the actual spiders, which I will place at the end as usual, I would like to point out that days like today, kind of foggy and misty, are great for finding spiderwebs, because the tiny droplets of water make them stand out. A few different kinds of webs today:

 I don't even know for sure if this is a spider web, or if some other silk-producing critter made this. It's on a brick in the arbor, kind of a mat of silk.

Now for the spiders that were on those webs - Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 From the first web above.

 From the second web above, the orb weaver web.

I don't have a picture for the third one (if I did, I wouldn't be unsure if it was a spider web, would I?).