It's Not All Roses

Another day that was too cold for bugs, and rainy, but I did a bug walk anyway. And I didn't find any bugs. Well, again I saw some gnats and midges flying, but that's it. But I do have a Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Not a good picture, but I was pleased to come home this evening and find a moth on the porch, so here it is.

Backyard Blooms of the Day:

 Maple tree. If I told you to think of a flower, I am guessing that the image you'd get in your head would be something daisyish, or a rose, or something pretty and showy. But not all flowers are so prepossessing - remember the hazelnuts from yesterday. Sure cherry trees and magnolia trees have gorgeous blooms, but a lot of trees have flowers that are so small and non-conforming to our ideas of flowers that I don't think that we really even notice that they HAVE flowers. I don't think that I ever realized that trees like oaks and maples have blooms until I got a macro lens and started looking at the smaller details of things. At least, I hope I am not the only person who was so obtuse. But if it has fruits - or nuts, or produces seeds of any kind, those begin with flowers.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 There are spiders that build webs in the same place every day or night for an extended time, and it's not at all surprising to be able to see the same spider every night for a week or more and know you are seeing the same spider. But for non-web-builders, spiders that roam, the idea that I could walk out into the backyard and find the exact same spider two days in a row seems crazy. And yet, I think this is the exact same spider I saw yesterday on this chair - note the missing leg.

It was not alone on the chair today; I found this spider there, too (yes, it's the same chair, this part just doesn't have paint on it because I ran out of paint when I was painting it). I think they are both crab spiders, but they are either different species or different sexes of the same species, because their shape and colors are different. Also size - you can't tell from the pictures, but this one is smaller. Also fuzzier. I am thinking different species.