Ah, first blog of 2017! We've had a lot of cold weather, and then over the weekend, adding up two snowstorms we got a little over a foot of snow, but it's warmed up the last two days, and most of that is gone. So, with temperatures in the low 50s, and having spotted a crane fly on my porch when I went out to get the mail, I decided to do a bug walk today. Mostly I found what I expected - a few small swarms of crane flies that I did not photograph, a winter firefly that I did - and a couple of things I did not expect.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Rove beetle. I prodded a rotting log and found this inside.
The aforementioned winter firefly, basking on a tree trunk as they are wont to do on warm winter days.
I was surprised to find an ant crawling on another tree trunk.
The only surprising thing about finding this springtail gliding on a tiny puddle is that there were not more of them.
As I said, we had around a foot of snow a few days ago, but between the rain last night, and a couple of days of warmth, most of it was gone today, except for about an inch in some of the shaded areas of the backyard. There was plenty to see on the snow, though:
Obviously there were animals (voles?) tunneling under all that snow...
... and in the ground, too.
There were many animal footprints in that thin remaining layer, all of which must have been made today.
I found this cocoon on a tree branch - waiting for spring, just like me.
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