Lazy Blogger

I admit it, I have been slacking here. Yes, some of the days this week I didn't go outside looking for bugs because it was raining, but yesterday was fine, and I just didn't go out. I am sick–not terribly sick, I just have a cold with a nasty cough–but I just couldn't deal with going outside in the cold wind, and I knew that with the pressure in my sinuses it would be brutal if I had to do any bending to get pictures of bugs. I just wanted to lie on the couch and cough. No, that's not true, I didn't want to cough at all, but since I was going to be coughing, I would rather do it while lying down on the couch instead of outside in the wind. Then today was a gorgeous day, sunny and in the 60s, and I spent a good portion of the afternoon sleeping, and then went to a concert. It was a swing band concert, nice and loud so that I wasn't annoying anyone else in the audience when I coughed. I even did a little ill-advised swing dancing (breathing isn't so easy at the moment, but when I hear In the Mood, it puts me in the mood for cutting a rug. Or at least a linoleum floor in a community center). By the time I got home it was heading toward evening, and the backyard was shadowy as the sun was going down, but I went outside anyway, looking for bugs, because I felt guilty about my lack of fortitude, or perseverance, or something. Anyway, it's my own fault that I didn't find many bugs, because I really didn't go out at the best time (in my defense, before we went to the concert, I did check the rock garden, where the creeping myrtle is blooming, and if I had seen any bees I would have gone inside to get my camera. But all I saw was a sawfly and another wasp who were not interested in sitting still, and a bunch of flies who were also not interested in posing. So, off I went to the concert). I did find a few insects, but I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day, because I didn't find anything that noteworthy.

But I did find this:

 Leaves unfurling on the flowering crab apple tree. Oh, how my eyes hunger for the sight of a tree in full leaf! But this will satisfy me for the time being.

 And the first daffodils!

As for insects...

 When I first spotted this I thought I had found a good Backyard Bug of the Day, but then I realized what it was, an ichneumon wasp, and I featured one as BBotD just over a week ago, when I found one on the front porch. It's quite beautiful, though.

 

 A couple of fireflies. Both winter fireflies? I don't know. I will confess that though these were on the same tree, they were not close together, and I moved one so I could get this picture showing how different they were in size. I wouldn't normally displace an insect like that (and not just because it creates a good chance that the insect will just fly away), but I really wanted you to see this.

 I saw a lot of ants crawling on tree trunks. I love seeing ants on tree trunks; it's a reminder of how little I used to know about the lives on insects. I thought that ants were just ground dwellers, picnic and kitchen invaders. I didn't know that so many of them spend their time marching up and down trees, one by one, or two by two, or... (that will make no sense if you don't know that song...).

 And of course, this is the kind of day that candy striped leaf hoppers love, but I only found one.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Sorry for the horrendous picture, but here's a spider in a daffodil! Happy Spring!