Crabby Apples

There is a scene in the movie Bringing Up Baby in which a paleontologist named David (played by Carey Grant) is trying to explain to a socialite who has just turned his life upside down named Susan (played by Katherine Hepburn) that he likes her but needs her to go away and leave him alone. He says to her, "In moments of quiet I am strangely drawn toward you; but, well, there haven't been any quiet moments." That pretty much sums up my feelings toward the outdoors today. When the wind wasn't blowing it was absolutely gorgeous. But the wind was always blowing. Wind makes me cross. It makes insect macrophotography - or any of my outdoor photography, really - very difficult. Add in a bunch of extremely uncooperative bugs, and a lot of airborne pollen, and, well, like I said, I felt like a paleontologist whose world was just turned upside down. That is perhaps a bad analogy. Anyway, that was a long way of saying that the backyard made me grumpy today. I still love it, but it made me grumpy.

I went outside earlier than I planned today because I was looking out the window and noticed that the flowering crab apple tree was suddenly really attractive to birds. I saw several different species of birds in the tree, pecking at something. I assume they were eating last season's crab apples, because they are still on the tree. I mean, I don't think the eat flowers. Although those crab apples have been on the tree since last summer, so why they are suddenly eating them now, when they are all shrivelled up, I have no idea. Anyway, one of the birds was worth me going downstairs and putting the telephoto lens on the camera and going outside before breakfast.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Just kidding. Did I mention it was windy today? The bird is in there, just really blurry...

 This is a little better. When I was looking out the window I thought this was a goldfinch, but looking at the pictures I think it might be a warbler. What kind of warbler? I have no idea. There are about 75 billion* different warblers in my bird book, and 99%* of them look pretty much like this. And I am worse at bird identification than bug identification. Plus, I never got a really clear shot of the bird. Also, my bird book actually has 2 full pages of "confusing fall warblers." So... don't know what this bird is, but it is pretty, and it likes crab apples.

*slight exaggeration

 If you are trying to figure out what this bird is from these pictures, that is not a dark stripe on its head, it is a shadow from the tree.

So, while I was outside with my camera with the telephoto lens, I saw a cool bee/wasp. The telephoto lens is not good for taking pictures of bugs, especially bugs that keep flying from flower to flower. However, I made do.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

 The picture doesn't really show it, but when it was flying it looked red. Like a red blur, really.

Most of the insects I saw to today were bees or wasps:

 This one wouldn't let me get any closer.

 

 Did I mention how uncooperative the bugs were today?

 Found another one of these. Or it could be the same one from yesterday, it was on the same tree.

 I saw a LOT of winter fireflies.

 And the first assassin bug of the season. An immature one. I say that based on the undeveloped wings, not on any juvenile behavior on its part. Although it was very uncooperative.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Bowl and doily spider, I think.