Snow Bugs

We had a little bit of snow yesterday, and after a lengthy deliberation, I decided that the warmer air of today was not going to be enough to finish off the snow on the driveway (it would have been nice to have more sun), so I went out to shovel the rest of the snow that we didn't bother to shovel last night. While I was out there the sun came out for a few minutes, and I happened to glance up at the house and saw something.

I should mention now that I am about to break with the usual protocol of this blog that involves putting the spiders at the end. Because a spider is what this post is all about. So, I'll put in a gap here, as I usually do, so that you can back out now without seeing the spider if you are that afraid of them. Or you can hurriedly scroll past it to the other things that will come after. I respect your arachnophobia if you have it, but what I saw on the side of the house was a spider:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 A rather small jumping spider. It was not interested in having its picture taken, so I didn't get any closer than this.

 A fly landed nearby, too. This fly was about 3 times the size of the spider. It flew away pretty quickly, but I wonder if the spider would have gone after it otherwise.

Since there was a spider and a fly about, I thought I go look for other things, even though the temperature was only about 41ºF. I figured I might at least find some snow fleas (which are not really fleas, but a species of springtail).

I didn't find any snow fleas, but...

 

 I did find a few springtails on the snow in various places in the backyard. Just solitary ones, not big groups like I have seen before.

 Such amazing little creatures...