End of a Kind of Drought

The best way I can describe my backyard today is... November.

The most interesting thing that happened in my backyard today is something I did not get a picture of, because it happened after dark when I stepped out to see if it was raining. When I did that, I startled a deer. There is a time when stepping outside and seeing a deer, whether I startled it or not, would not have been especially noteworthy. But I have not seen any deer, nor evidence of any (like footprints or droppings) for about 3 years. And tonight, I finally saw one again. I didn't see it well, because it was dark, and I startled it to it ran off immediately, but there is no doubt of what I saw. Of course, that means we are going to have to cover the bushes in front of the front porch with deer netting come winter and snow. But it was nice all the same.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 A tiny leaf hopper. I see these flitting around all over the place lately, but they almost never sit still long enough to be photographed. This is as as close as I could get before it flitted away.

 A bit of magnification.

Again the number of leaf hoppers was down, but they were still the majority of the bugs I saw today.

 This exact leaf had 7 candy striped leaf hoppers on it two days ago, and today there was only one. Also, this branch had 5 leaves on it two days ago, and today there was only one.

I did find one leaf with a gathering on it.

 Different species of leaf hopper

 Ant

 I think this is a psyllid, also known as a plant louse.

 Still don't know what this is.

  A pair of flies. The big one, which I presume is the female, was pretty much dragging the other one around this leaf.

 I recently posted a photo of an assassin bug nymph that was photobombed by a mite. Well, this one was photobombed too... Not in this shot, but...

 Do you see it?

 

 Springtail

 Plant bug

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This flower crab spider is missing both front legs on one side. I think those are the legs it uses to grab prey, so I wonder how it's faring without them.

There are quite a number of six-spotted orb weavers around lately.