May

 THIS IS THE BLOG POST FOR MONDAY, MAY 9, 2016
Due to internet problems AGAIN, even though I got the blog done on time, it would not post. So it is going to show up with the wrong date. Real blog post proceeds...

Now.

I was just outside, looking at the night sky in hopes of seeing the Aurora Borealis, as it was predicted to happen tonight as far south as New Jersey. It's a pleasant night out, all things considered - it's 50ºF, which was cold all last week as a daytime high, but it's nice for nighttime. I didn't see an Aurora, and I noticed after I was out there for a while that I also wasn't hearing anything. I haven't gone deaf. I could hear the cars on the highway, and the breeze in the trees; when I say I didn't hear anything I mean I didn't hear any peepers, or any insect sounds. It was weirdly quiet for what feels almost like a summer night.

Today felt like a summer way. It was warm and sunny, I mowed the lawn, the leaves are coming out on the trees, and I had a swarm of gnats following me around the backyard. I experienced "The Magic Hour" for the first time this year. The Magic Hour isn't really an hour, it's really only a few minutes, and it happens in the evening when the sun is going down but not so far that it's beginning to feel dark. The light filtered through the greenery of summer on a particular path in my backyard, and you feel like fairies are going to emerge at any moment. It feels like magic, and it is one of my favorite things in the world. It only happens in the summer, because there have to be leaves (and sunshine).

 It's not full summer yet, so it will get more magical in a few weeks, but it made me happy to see all the green and sunshine.

 The first live toad I have seen this year! I found it by almost running over it with the lawnmower, which is how I tend to find most toads in my backyard.

 It is also how I find most of the crickets - the ground kind, anyway.

Apropos of nothing, here is a picture of a feather:

Actually, it does have a purpose. I find feathers on the ground all the time, but this feather I saw fall to earth. I had never seen that happen before. Obviously it does, because birds lose feathers all the time, and I find them, but having seen this one float down to the grass it occurred to me how funny it is that I had never seen it happen before. I believe it came from the sparrow who was building a nest in the birdhouse nearby where this fell. So what is my point? Go outside and look around; you may see something you have never seen before.

A favorite sign of spring - robins' egg shells from hatched nestlings

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I believe this is a Mayfly, a perfect find for a beautiful day in May!

 It didn't appear to have perfect control over its wings.

 Mayflies famously only live for a very short time of their adult, or imago stage. They spend most of their lives as larvae, up to four years for some species*, and then a day or so as an adult. They don't even have functional mouth parts, because they don't eat during the imago stage.

*According to Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America

This shot is out of focus (yes, I know, you noticed), but it's the only one I got that shows how the insect can flex its body up. I have no idea why it does that.

Speaking of May, I had a look at the Canada Mayflowers today, and I only saw one with a flower stalk and buds. The rest of them have the leaf, but no sign that there will be flowers. I don't know if they are late developing, or if something about this winter/spring has made them not flower this year, like the peach trees.

I suppose I ought to tell you a bit more about how my day went before I proceed with the rest of the bugs I found today. You may recall the dramatic Circle of Life type event with which I concluded yesterday's blog post. I wanted to see how that turned out, what with the cold overnight, so I was up at about 5:30 this morning to go out in the backyard to see how that had progressed. I checked up on that situation again about an hour later, and ended up spending quite a bit of time walking around the backyard in the time just after dawn, looking around and occasionally checking up on the drama. I went back inside around 8, checked one last time at nine, and then went back to sleep for a while. During the time I was in the backyard for that, I found quite a lot of bugs, which surprised me. Then in the afternoon, when I went outside to get the mail, I found the Backyard Bug of the Day on the porch. And in the late afternoon I mowed the lawn. So I never really did a bug walk, per say, I just spent a lot of time outside with my camera, and I have rather a lot to show for it. I will show you what happened with the snake and the toad at the end of the blog - it's not gross like yesterday, but it is still a snake, so I'll put it where it will not freak out anyone afraid of snakes.

So, basically in the order I saw them today, during my outdoor activities, Random Bugs:

 I am suddenly wondering something I have never thought about before: do ants sleep at night, or do they just keep working?

 I think this is a milkweed bug nymph (small milkweed bug). I have never seen one this small before.

 Cranefly, female.

 Check out that ovipositor!

 Fly

 Larva on a dandelion

 Ant

 Really tiny caterpillar - about an eighth of an inch, I would guess. You can tell it is a caterpillar, as opposed to the larva of some other insect, by the 5 pairs of prolegs.

 Springtail

 Wasp? Or fly?

 Tumbling flower beetle

 Another beetle - so tiny.

I was taking a picture of this mushroom and was photobombed by this rove beetle. A rare, lucky shot of it with its wings fully extended.

 Assassin bug

 Weevil

 Another weevil

 Rare glimpse of a weevil's wings. Usually they just drop to the ground and play dead instead of flying away when I am trying to take their picture.

 Another rove beetle

 

 The swarm of caterpillars on the rock is gone, but there are a few still hanging out on the egg mass, and it looks like there are still some emerging.

I saw a lot more bugs than I got pictures of today (especially bumblebees. No pictures, but they were bumbling around the backyard), and what I think is really a sign that we're heading into summer is that a lot of the bugs I saw today were ones I have not seen so far this year. There was a great variety of insects in the backyard.

I saw more spiders than I got pictures of, too, but here's the ones I got. Arachnid Appreciation:
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And now, the conclusion of The Snake Swallows a Toad:
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 As I mentioned above, I went outside at about 5:30 this morning to see what had happened overnight. The snake had made some progress, but the toad was still sticking out of its mouth. It actually looks like the toad is smiling,which is oddly sad.

 And I think this is about an hour later? Maybe an hour and a half.

 Later still... I didn't spend a lot of time actively watching this process, more looking and then wandering off around the yard, and coming back again, but in all the times I was watching, I never saw the muscle contractions that were pulling the toad into the snake's mouth.

 This is about 9:00. I don't know what the temperature was at this point, but it wasn't terribly cold. I first saw the snake sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 last night, and most of the frog was already inside the snake. I don't know what time it all finished, since I went inside shortly after 9:00 in the morning, and didn't go out again until about 2:00 in the afternoon, at which point there was no sign of the snake. But this process took well over 12 hours. I don't know if that is normal, or if it took a longer time because at least part of it happened overnight when it was cold.

 I am basically afraid of snakes, but when the snake has a toad in its mouth and cannot bite me, and is reluctant to move at all, apparently most of my fear goes away and I can get within inches of it to take pictures of it with a macro lens.

So long, toad.