Picnic

I ate my lunch outside today, and as is my habit when I am going to be sitting outside for a while, I brought my camera outside with me, just in case I saw something worth photographing, and that is how I got a picture of the Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tiny beetle on the picnic table.

 

 It made a few short flights around the table, and as often is the case with beetles, it took a while for the wings to get pulled back under the elytra.

Other bugs:

 Midge on the garden shed

 Birch catkin bug

Today the winter fireflies were everywhere:

 I looked under the rotting log for bugs, and all I found was these eggs. I haven't noticed these before, and though I may have just missed seeing them, if not then that means there is something that just recently laid these, and I can't help wondering what it could be. There's not much out and about lately, particularly not anything big enough that these would seem to be their eggs. They look pretty big for insect eggs, but there are definitely some big insect eggs in the world...

... like these katydid eggs. I saw these last fall on a tree branch, and have kind of been looking for them on and off since, but could never remember which branch they were on. Today I found them. Still waiting for spring...

There were a few random ants wandering around on tree trunks:

This is possibly (probably) the same species of wasp that I saw yesterday, and in the same general area. I couldn't get closer than this today, though, because just off to the left of this picture was a pissed off snake that I didn't want to get closer to, especially not while looking through my camera at something else.

I kept a lookout for these today:

It seemed like the right kind of day to find candy-striped leaf hoppers (65ºF or so), so I looked in places I thought I would find them, and finally did.

Two of them, in fact.

I found two different species today for Arachnid Appreciation:
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I have a new hypothesis about the snakes that I am now seeing every day on the hillside out front: that there is a snake's winter den somewhere around there, and I am not just seeing the same two snakes over and over, but I am seeing different snakes as they emerge from the den and wander off elsewhere. I am pretty sure that even though I have only ever seen two at once that there are at least 3, because one of them appears to be bigger than the other two.

This one was quite aggressive today...

I saw it resting on the hillside, as you see here, and it seemed pretty mellow so I tried to get close for a picture...

... and it pulled back like this, ready to strike at me if I didn't back off. Which I did...

... more or less. Lest you think my description of this sounds mild, I would like to point out that it did this very fast, and very suddenly, and scared the bejeebers out of me.

I general, the snakes the last couple of days gave the impression that if I wanted to pick one up, which is something I have never in my life wanted to do, and never will, I could probably have done quite easily.