Seasons End When They Want To

In 48 minutes (from the moment I am writing this) it will be November, which means the start of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. I have participated every year for the last ten years, and I am participating again this year. The last couple of years have been a little extra challenging because I have been writing this daily blog, which takes up quite a bit of time, and a fair amount of my writing creativity. I may not seem to say much most of the time here, but I still have to figure out what to say. The first year I wrote the blog I didn't think it would be a problem, because I didn't think I would still be finding bugs in November. I thought that I would not even be looking for bugs, because it would be too cold to find any, so my bug hunting time AND my blogging time (which takes a lot of time even when I don't have much to say, because loading the pictures takes forever) would be left for noveling. I quickly discovered that that would not be the case; I think I had to blog every day of the month. So now I go into it knowing that I am going to have to do my novel writing in addition to my bug blogging. Still, I don't usually hope for cold weather, but if there are a couple of days too cold to hunt for bugs... no, I am not going to wish for that, because I know how cold it has to be to not have any bugs around!

Having said that, I don't have much for you today, in part because I didn't have a lot of time to look for bugs because we went out for most of the day, and in part because it was pretty chilly this morning when I went out to look for about 20 minutes. But there were a few around, which I knew as soon as I walked outside and heard that the crickets were still singing.

Which brings me to Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I thought this might be a red-headed cricket, because I know there is such an insect, but I looked it up, and it doesn't look like this. And this one is not in my books, so... I don't know what it is. But it is a cricket, and it has a red head.

I did two bug walks today, one in the morning when it was sunny and cold, and one in the evening as it was getting dark, so dark that I was using the light on my camera as a flashlight instead of a flash in order to find bugs. On neither walk did I find much, but there were quite a few tree crickets around:

 I saw this one in the morning...

... and again in the evening.

Along with a couple others:

 

 

 In the morning there was one candy striped leaf hopper on a morning glory leaf...

 ... and quite a few flies around, though I only got a picture of one.

 I found one March fly

 And whatever this this is that was on the rain gauge yesterday, it was still there today.

 In the evening most of the insects I found were on catalpa leaves, including one of the tree crickets above, and a few other bugs:

Tiny wasp?

I found a few whiteflies on the catalpa.

 

 And a weevil.

Crane fly

Today was another day with a lot of spiders for Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This might be a new species of spider for me–found on its web on a catalpa tree.

 Another one of these little lovelies from yesterday, found on a catalpa leaf.

 

After the Tempest

Yesterday was an unexpected day off–it rained all day, so I couldn't go out with my camera. It was unexpected not because there was no rain in the forecast, but because I never really believe it is going to rain all day when that is the forecast. But it did, and then last night we had a ferocious storm as tropical storm Phillipe (or its remnants, anyway) passed by. We had 3 inches of rain, bringing our total for the last week to 7.5 inches, which is almost two months worth. One report I read said it was the second most powerful late October storm we've ever had (the most powerful being Superstorm Sandy, 5 years ago on the same date). My husband had an unexpected day off  today as school was cancelled because of trees and power lines down in the town where he works, but I was back out with my camera today, because this day-after-the-storm was bright and mostly sunny (and windy. And kind of cold).

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Springtail. I am still not seeing numbers of these, just one the other day, and one today (both on the rain gauge stand, so it could be the same one, though I don't think so, because I think their colors were different), but maybe there will be more soon, if it continues to be wet out.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Sawfly or wasp, not sure which

Other Bugs:

 A few March flies were to be seen today, mostly basking on leaves.

I spotted some eggs on the garden shed...

... that were up too high for me to get a close look, but here they are magnified. I think they are stinkbug eggs, and it looks like they've hatched.

I'm not sure what these are; they look like aphids, but are awfully big to be aphids. They could be nymphs of some kind of bug.

The candy striped leaf hoppers were basking in the sun all over the place:

 These two blend in pretty well with the galls on this leaf.

 Another leaf hopper, on a tree

There were a lot of flies around today:

 This leaf hopper is missing one of its elytra.

 Springtail

 Leaf bug

 Dragonfly

 Ants

 Looper caterpillar spotted on my husband's shoulder. We had been clearing away a tree that had fallen, and I suspect that this caterpillar had been on the tree.

The only bee I saw today–the morning glories were battered by the storm, and there weren't any new blooms today. This one was resting in a partially closed-up blossom.

There were a LOT of spiders in the backyard today, most of them tiny ones, and few of them cooperative. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Just kidding... Actually, this is a good shot of the spots on the six-spotted orb weaver.

 Six-spotted orb weaver

 I found this tiny spider–it must be a spiderling, it's so small–on the rain gauge.

 It's adorable, whatever it is.

Also on the rain gauge, or rather under it, which is a popular place for spiders and crickets, I have found.

Lingering

Sometimes when I am finished with my bug walk I find myself looking for excuses to just stay outside. I guess I don't really need an excuse, I can do what I want, and what I often want to do lately is just linger out there. It it a delight to the senses, the beautiful things to see, the pleasant weather, the sounds of birds and crickets... I love it out there. My bug walks lately take longer and longer, and it's not because I am finding a lot of bugs, as you know, or even that I am trying so hard to find them. I just like walking the trails. I like the crunch of the leaves, or the soft caress of walking on moss or grass. I don't really like to sit, because none of our outdoor furniture is very comfortable, but I love ambling around. Part of me is dreading the winter because it will be cold, and another part of me is looking forward to walking my paths in the snow. But I am definitely going to miss these beautiful afternoons that cajole me into spending every minute that I can outdoors.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Jumping bristletail

 I found two of them, although I am not sure if this is the same. The texture is different, and it doesn't have the long tail bristles.

The morning glories were in full glory today:

And since it was sunny and warm, the bees were back, lots of them, of many species.

 There was also this one candy striped leaf hopper on one of the buds.

 Here it is cleaning off its back with one of its legs.

 This bee and this gnat spent the whole afternoon in there, and were still there when evening set in.

 

The vast majority of the insect action I saw today was around the morning glories, but there were a few bugs elsewhere:

 Grasshopper basking on the side of the house

 Leaf hoppers basking on leaves. There are three on each of these leaves, and two on the one in the back.

 I don't know what this is all about. That small, black ant appears to be clamped onto the leg of the big ant, which was just walking around normally like it didn't have a smaller ant hanging off of one of its legs.

Fly

 I was surprised to see that it was predatory. This is on the morning glory vine, but I think that was just a place to land, it was obviously not attracted by the plant itself. Note the background is not green, but autumn colors. Sigh...

I found a few rove beetles today, and they were all unusually cooperative:

 This one was so cooperative that I thought it was dead. I prodded it, though, and it scooted away, so it was alive.

 None of them did my favorite rove beetle thing, which is to open up their wings and then fold them back up again by pushing them under their elytra with their back ends.

 

 

 I only got bad pictures of these little flies, but I am posting them anyway in part because I want to mention something curious about them. There is a dead branch sticking up from the ground next to one of the woodsy paths in my backyard, and it has been there for a couple of years. Almost every time I have seen these particular flies, it has been on that dead branch. There is one tree where I spotted one once, and a dead tree where I saw them several times in the spring, but over the years, this particular dead branch, which rarely has any bugs on it, has been the place I have most commonly seen these flies.

 They do this complicated signaling thing with their wings that I love to watch. These two had a bit of an altercation. Today there were about 5 or so of them on the branch, which is the most I have ever seen at once. Usually it's just one or two.

Through most of my bug walk I didn't see a lot of March flies, just a couple here and there resting on leaves, but I came upon one spot on a path in the woods where they were swarming. There were two swarms there, and none anywhere else in the backyard:

  They would take a break from swarming to rest on the leaves. I can spot nine in this picture. There was a bit of squabbling on that big leaf in the middle.

Before we get to the arachnid, Backyard Reptile of the Day:
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 Once again I almost stepped on the snake before I saw it. And again I found it by the sound it made slithering against the leaves. I am not sure what kind of snake this is; whether its a garter snake, a ribbon snake (I am still not clear on the difference between those), or something else, because it was certainly the biggest snake of either of those kinds I have ever seen, if it is one of those. It was right on the borderline of being a big enough snake for me to be afraid of it.

 It also didn't seem that afraid of me, and being afraid of me is one of the most admirable qualities of snakes, I have always felt. "It's more afraid of you than you are of it" has always been a comforting idea for me.

I got the feeling that it was slithering away not because I was scary, but because it had somewhere else it wanted to be. It kept tasting the air in that direction, so I wonder if it smelled prey.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Bowl and doily spider with a small web on the morning glory vines