Aw, Nuts!

I wasn't going to do a bug walk today. The cold has returned (low 40s, but come on, that's normal for December, which makes it cold, even if it's above freezing), it was heavily overcast, and occasionally raining, so I figured there was no point in going outside to look for bugs, because I didn't think I would find any. But then during a lull in the rain I decided that it was worth a try, so I went out with my camera, and didn't find any bugs. Well, I saw a gnat fly by. That was it. But I did find a spider (more on that later), and I did find something else that is interesting and made me happy.

Backyard Blooms of the Day:

 Female flower on the hazelnut bushes.

 Hazelnut bushes have two kinds of flowers, male and female. This is the female flower, which will develop into the hazelnut. And today, they bloomed.

 These are the male flowers. They disseminate the pollen. The way it is supposed to work is that the wind blows the pollen from the male flowers onto the female flowers on another bush nearby. I can't tell, but it doesn't look like the male flowers have bloomed yet. They might not when it's raining, because the pollen would just be washed away.

 The female flowers are tiny. That male flower bud (if that's what it's called) is about 2 inches long, maybe. The goal is not for the pollen from that male to reach that female, because what it wants is for its pollen to go to a different plant, and vice versa. Fortunately, I have 2 hazelnut bushes. Alas, there were 3 to start with, but the deer killed one of them within 24 hours of it being planted, which was several years ago. Last year was the first year the two remaining had flowers, but there were no nuts produced. Maybe this year...

Today is National Save A Spider Day! I didn't have an opportunity to save any spiders, but I did find one that looks like it needed saving at some point, and was, in fact saved. Arachnid Appreciation:
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Note that one of its legs is missing.