Murmuration

Today was very birdy in my backyard. It usually isn't so birdy; I hear birds, but I don't usually see a lot of different species in a single day. Today there were chickadees, robins (a flock of them), bluejays, the stupid woodpecker that keeps waking my up in the morning by pecking on the side out the house right on the outside of the wall where I am trying to sleep, and today for some reason was pecking on a tennis ball, something that I think might have been a warbler that was yellow and brown and was definitely a bird I have never seen before but disappeared before I could go in the house and change my camera lens to get a close shot of it, and a whole flock of something noisy. I am guessing it was either a flock of starlings or grackles. They provided my entertainment today because they zoomed in and out as a group. They all flew into a dead tree that is covered with vines, quickly ate whatever is growing on the vines, and zoomed out again. They did this a couple of times. They also gathered in a group of trees toward the back corner of the backyard, which made me curtail my bug walk for a while because I didn't want to walk under trees full of a lot of birds, if you know what I mean. A lot of stuff was dropping out of those trees, and though I could see that some of it was sticks, I am not sure about all of it. Not that being hit in the head with a stick would be great, but there were worse things a bird can drop on your head. They sat in those trees for a good half hour, chattering away, loudly. Every once in a while they would all go silent, but I knew they had not flown away, because when they fly away, you hear them, all of those wings beating together.

And then this happened:

 I missed getting a picture of the the beautiful moment when the chasing birds were in a circle formation, but this is pretty cool, too.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It is time for the March flies. I have been pretty confused by the March flies in past years, because I see them in the fall, and there are different insects that I have seen called March flies, but as it turns out, there are multiple species of March flies, some that emerge to mate in the spring, and some that emerge to mate in the fall. These are obviously fall March flies. This is a male, which you can tell by his huge eyes/head, which perhaps don't look huge to you, but they would if I had a picture of a female March fly to compare it to. Don't worry, within a few days I'm sure I will. Soon they will be everywhere. For today I found two.

Here's the only other bird I got a picture of, and it's a horrible picture, I know, but it gave me a chance to use my awesome, new zoom lens, so there's that.

Other Bugs:

 Katydid

 Looper caterpillar

 Fly

Another day with no bumblebees, but a LOT of sweat bees, from a variety of species. I only got pictures of a couple of them:

 

 

 There's a gnat on this last bit of goldenrod, too.

Interesting development with yesterday's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I checked up on the chrysalis from yesterday and it has changed; the colors have changed...

 ... and the wing area is much darker. I can think of two reasons that this might happen. 1) It was a brand new chrysalis yesterday, and had not quite achieved its color yet, or 2) It is getting ready to eclose. There may be other reasons, but those are the two I know of.

Ants and aphids:

 Fly, and...

 ... there's a couple of other insects on that flower...

 Lots of flies around today.

 Grasshoppers

 

 I think this is a gravid female.

 Tree cricket

Tree cricket and earwig

 Stinkbug nymph

 I've mentioned that stilt legged bugs are hard to photograph...

 ... and here's one of the reasons why.

 Four of them here.

 I dug up one of my "gardens" today, and I keep my camera handy when I am doing any kind of gardening. I found a LOT of tree crickets (one of the above) and earwigs (the one above) and this caterpillar.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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