The Poetry of Nature

I was looking out the window today and I saw a leaf fall from a tree. There are some leaves that hang on through the winter and don't fall until spring, and this was one of them. This is obviously not the first time in my life that I have seen a leaf fall from a tree, but I think this is the first time I have ever actually seen the moment when the leaf let go of the tree and started to fall. It fell from really high up, and as I watched it twirling, drifting toward the ground, it occurred to me that I was going to be able to watch this leaf's entire journey from branch to ground. I was thinking all kind of poetical thoughts about nature when the leaf got stuck on a branch on the way down. So much for poetry. But then the wind nudged it off, and I though, yes, I AM going to be able to see it fall all the way... and before I even finished that thought it got stuck on another branch. Well, by this time I was determined that I was going to watch the entire process of this leaf on its way to the ground, so I waited, and watched, and sure enough, the wind nudged it off again, and it went down... down... down... and caught on another branch. Then the wind blew it UP, and it landed on a thorn bush. Well, once a leaf lands in a thorn bush that can be it, because leaves get impaled by the thorns, but again before I could think of giving up on it, the wind lifted it off the thorn bush, and it fell down... and landed behind a tree, so that I did not see the last part of its descent.

I hate poetry.

Anyway, here's the daily weather report:

 And no, even though one leaf hopper means it was 60ºF, two leaf hoppers does not mean it was 120ºF. That's not how it works. It wasn't sunny all day, either, in spite of the appearance of leaf hoppers. It alternated between sunny and dark, dramatic clouds (sometimes with torrential rain). There were some sun showers, too, but no rainbows.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 There have been a lot of little moths flying around the backyard lately, and what they do is flit past my face so that I see them, and then I watch to see where they land. They either disappear or they land way up in a tree so that I can't get a picture of them. But this one landed in a convenient location, so I finally got a look at one.

 Look at those great eyes.

Speaking of moths, I sometimes see these things on trees - I think they are cocoons for some very small species of moth. This is the first time I have ever seen two right next to each other. I am trying to picture the very small caterpillars that made them, and wondering if they did this at the same time, or if one made its cocoon, and another came by later and decided RIGHT THERE was the best place to build one.

Random Bugs:

 Midge

 I have a rock garden in front of my house that is mostly covered with creeping myrtle. I remember that last year at the beginning of spring, when the creeping myrtle came into full bloom, the rock garden was full of bumblebees (and some other bees, but mostly bumblebees). I remember being surprised that there were bumblebees so early in the season, but hey, there were lots of flowers blooming there, so it made sense there were bees. Well, the creeping myrtle has been in full bloom for over a week now - I think the first blooms showed up in February, if not the first week of March - and I haven't seen any bees at all in the rock garden. Just yesterday I was thinking about that, and about the lack of bugs being attracted to the crocuses, and wondered if the weird, warm winter has thrown things off, if the plants and the bugs are out of sync. Because it is clearly warm enough for flowers - there are flowers blooming. It should be warm enough for the bugs then, right? Because if there's food, there's usually something to eat it. But maybe the bugs and the flowers are getting different cues. I don't know what's going on, but last night I looked back at last spring's blog posts to find out when that abundance of bees in the rock garden occurred. Well, it was the middle of April. A full month later than this. So the flowers are very early (I knew that), but I still don't know what that means for the bees. Until...

 ... today I saw a bumblebee in the rock garden. It was just one, but that's something.

 Leaves beginning to open up on the flowering crab apple tree.

Now, let's talk about an arachnid I don't appreciate. In  a normal summer, due to my bug hunting and other outdoor activities, I tend to get a lot of tick bites. Like, 6-10 per year. I try to be careful about it, but I don't like to wear bug repellent, and ticks, particularly deer ticks, are small. Even when I do tick checks, I sometimes miss them, I guess. Aside from wearing tick repellent, I do the other things, like shower after coming inside (not EVERY time I come inside, obviously). Actually, I think what happens is that other people DON'T do tick checks, bring them into the house, and they get on me that way. Anyway, two summers ago I read that taking garlic pills could prevent tick bites, so I tried that for a summer, and still got tick bites. But I was taking only half of the recommended dose. So last summer I tried taking the full recommended dose. And I didn't get bitten by ANY ticks last summer. Now, I did wear tick repellent pants during my bug walks for a good portion of the summer. But I didn't wear them for the whole summer, and I didn't wear them every time I went outside, just during my tick walks. And I knew there were ticks out there, because I saw them, and because my husband was bitten a couple of times. Also, on Thanksgiving and Christmas, which were both warm days, members of my family found ticks on them after going out for walks. So, I don't know - did the tick repellent pants do all the work, or did taking garlic pills keep me from getting bitten by ticks? I don't think I have enough data, and I was testing two variables at once, so there is no way to really reach a conclusion. I will keep taking the garlic pills. And after today, I am going to go back to wearing my tick repellent pants during bug walks, because I found this today when I came in the house:

 Evil creature. I found it crawling on my computer, but obviously it came in with me from outside. Did it choose not to bite because of the garlic pills? I don't know. But it's dead now. You know I am all about the live and let live for bugs and spiders, but the deal only extends to those that have no intention of hurting me. Ticks are out for blood, and they can kill you or make you extremely sick. So... death to all ticks.

This has been a very wordy blog today...

Now for the GOOD arachnids - Arachnid Appreciation:.
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 The recycling and trash bins have been very popular with spiders lately...

So adorable.