Easy Pickings

I am feeling kind of stressed out, and don't feel like writing tonight, so I'll just sum up the day: it was nice out, there were bugs, and one or more snakes. And I heard my first red-winged blackbird of spring, on this last day of meteorological winter. Now, let's look at pictures.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It's nice when I can walk out the back door with my camera and find a bug right away. This one was on the back porch. I saw it before I was even all the way out the door. Western conifer seed bug.

Other Bugs:

 Fly, basking in the sun.

 I think this might be some kind of rove beetle.

 I think this was a sort of defensive posture.

 I didn't get any good pictures of it, or it would be Backyard Bug of the Day. It wanted very much to hide from me in the leaf litter.

The winter firefly tree is still covered with winter fireflies:

There were lots of other trees that had winter fireflies on them, but most had only one or two.

 Like this one. I like it when they are walking around, because their heads are visible. When they are resting on the trees them mostly have their heads pulled under their pronotum, the shield-like thing with the pink lines on it.

 I found another stone fly, and finally was able to take a picture of one on something other than my lawn furniture.

There were more snow fleas on that rock today:

 And they were bunched together more; the other day they were all spread out, doing their own things.

Worst Arachnid:

 Yet another tick. I have been wondering if my tick-repellent pants are still working, and when I found this tick it was on my pants, just a few inches from the bottom, and I saw it fling itself off. So, I guess the pants are still working.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I love the way this spider flattens itself out against the tree to "hide."

 It also scurries sideways around the tree to get away from danger (aka me).

Snake of the Day:
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I don't know if I saw one or more snakes today; it was there, it was gone, it was there again... Anyway, at one point I went out there and saw it in this interesting pose. It was like that when I got there, this was not a response to me. I wonder what it was all about, what was it looking at... or for...

I finally got a view of what it looks like underneath.

And then I may have gotten too close, it turned away and slithered off. It slithered right down into a hole in the ground. I know, I should have taken a picture of that, but I was too busy watching it go.