The Bugs in the Backyard: Learning New Words

Sometimes my perception is off. I am trying to figure out how I took almost 300 pictures today, and yet I don't think I saw very many bugs in the backyard. I haven't actually gone through them all yet, and I am kind of running late at the moment, so I am just going to post them in the order in which they were taken, which works out pretty well because the Backyard Bug of the Day is the first bug I found today. But before I found a Backyard Bug, I found a Backyard Bird.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

A pileated woodpecker! This is the most exciting backyard find in a while - it is the first time I have ever seen one of these in my yard. In fact, I have only ever seen one once before, in New Hampshire. This is an impressively huge bird. Also, uncooperative. And this picture is weird because I took it through a window, at an angle, which distorts it. But I was so excited to see this bird that I don't care that this is the best of all the bad pictures I got of it. I hope it will be around again, although it would not be the first time I have had only a single sighting of a bird as it passed through.

Fun fact - spellcheck does not know the word pileated (which is okay, because I know how to spell it). And in case you are wondering, according to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, pileated means "having a crest covering the pileum." And according to the same source, a pileum is "the top of the head of a bird from the bill to the nape."

Backyard Bug of the Day:

It will not surprise you to hear that I don't know what kind of caterpillar this is. I am pretty sure it is one I have never seen before, though, which is why it is Backyard Bug of the Day instead of a certain other bug you'll be seeing soon. This picture gives a very good view of the prolegs, which is how we know it is a caterpillar and not some other kind of larva - by the number of prolegs it has. Caterpillars have 5 (or less, if it's a looper) pairs of prolegs, including the back ones. If it had more, it would be some other kind of larva, like a sawfly.

The caterpillar's translucence allows us to view the contents of its digestive system.

Random Bugs:

There were quite a few March flies hanging around on a raspberry vine.

Bee

Another bee

Honeysuckle borer. I know, you want to know why this beautiful, blue insect is not today's Backyard Bug of the Day, when I am such a fan of blue bugs. It is because the honeysuckle borer has been BBotD before - not this year, but in other years, and I see them every year, whereas that caterpillar is a backyard newbie. Previously unseen bugs take precedence over common ones even when the common one is gorgeous. Although I should point out that in real life it is not quite this blue, it just looks that way in the picture. Also, I don't think any of the pictures I took of it were all that good. But that color!

There was a nice selection of moths on the front porch when I got home this evening. I love how this one has a bit of pink on it - pink is not a common color among the insects in my backyard. It looks like the petal of a dogwood tree.

I think that posture is for attracting a mate.

Plume moth

Arachnid Appreciation:

On occasion I will find a couple of nice bugs near each other, and I have to decide which to photograph first in order to give myself the best chance of getting them both before one decides to skedaddle. Today I found three different species of spiders within a few inches of each other:

Spider #1

Spider #2 - That is the head of a dandelion after the seeds have gone that this jumping spider is sitting on, which will give you an idea of how small this spider is.