A Walk At Dusk

Finally, a beautiful spring day! Well, half of a beautiful spring day. It rained in the morning (8th day in a row - every day in May), and was terribly gloomy but then! Then the sun came out, the sky was blue, and I was smiling. Unfortunately, I was not at home, and by the time I got back to my backyard it was evening and the sun was heading downward. However, I did manage to get a bug walk before it got dark, and even though I didn't find a lot of bugs, I found a few.

I also found something else interesting, an occurrence I have never witnessed before, that I am going to post at the end of the blog. If you are afraid of snakes, don't go there. If you are squeamish, don't go there. If the sight of blood makes you woozy, don't go there. Because I found my first toad of the year, but a snake found it first. So it will be after the one arachnid picture I have for today, with a buffer in between, and this is your warning that what is at the end of this post is fascinating, but gross.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It took a double take, and then a long hard stare, and then the bug actually moving before I was sure this was a bug and not a part of these opening leaves. Granted, it was getting pretty dark by then, but still, this bug did a very convincing leaf impression, even though you might think it strange, given its color. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

 Note the proboscis. I don't know what species this is, but it is a Hemiptera.

 

Elsewhere in the Backyard:

 Many of the tiny caterpillars have dispersed, but it appears that they continue to hatch from the egg mass.

 Another weevil

 Zoomed-in shot showing the eye, and the amazing textures of the insect.

 Ant

Unappreciable Arachnid:

 Why do I keep posting pictures of ticks when I hate them? Because I want to make sure people know what they look like.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Mite

Okay, those of you who are afraid of snakes, leave now.
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Those of you who get queasy at the sight of blood, this is the end of the blog for today for you.
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Still here?

I found a snake in the backyard this evening. I have never seen a snake in the evening. I have only ever seen snakes on sunny, warm afternoons, because usually when I see a snake it is basking in the sun for warmth, being cold-blooded and needing an external source of heat to run its metabolism. So I was kind of surprised to catch sight of this snake next to the garden in the evening as the sun was going down and a chill was beginning to creep into the air. I actually thought it was dead, and though I could see its head in the grass to the left (not visible in this shot), it looked mushed up and bloody. I didn't really want to look at it, though I was curious as to what could have happened to it.

I tried to lift the snake with a stick - a LONG stick, and it moved. So I knew it was alive. It didn't slither away, though, and when I looked at its head I realized why (besides the fact that it was getting cold, which is not weather that leads to fast-moving snakes):

 That arch in its body was its reaction to me trying to move it with a stick. I think that snakes are vulnerable while trying to swallow prey, and can't really flee.

So, it was not that the snake's head was smooshed and bloody. It was in the process of swallowing a toad. This is the first time in my life that I have ever seen a snake in the process of swallowing its prey, other than on tv or other media.

 

 I went back a little later to see how it was progressing, and it had, well, progressed. In this shot you can really see how widely its mouth is opened.

 Here is how it reacted to me using a stick to move some of the leaf litter so I could see the rest of its body. I am sure you are waiting for me to tell you what kind of snake this is. I have no idea. It sort of looks like a ribbon snake (though I could be wrong about what a ribbon snake is), but it is thicker than that, I think. It was somewhere between one and two feet long, probably closer to two.

 Still later. It was completely dark by this time, about an hour and a half after I first spotted it, I think, and the temperature was down into the high 40s. For some reason the snake had turned around to face the other direction at this point.

 I am curious if it ever managed to swallow the whole thing, and whether it did or not, is it still in the same spot, given that it is cold out now, and snakes don't move much when it's cold. But I don't feel like going out there at this time of night to find out. I'll sure check tomorrow, though - but it will probably be long gone by the time I get out there.