Snagged

Today did not live up to the buggy expectations that were created by a) yesterday's bugginess, b) the warm, sunny weather, and c) the fact that when I was sitting outside on the front porch steps putting on my shoes to go for a walk to run some errands (so I guess I was really walking some errands, not running them), a wasp flew past me and landed in the rock garden. I had to unlock the door and go inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back outside, the wasp was gone. It had, however, raised my expectations of being able to find a lot of bugs in the backyard today. I guess that was foolish. Anyway, the most interesting thing I found in the backyard was mammalian, not insectile.

 There is a very big tree in my backyard that is obviously very, very old, and embedded in this tree is some barbed wire. It sticks out of the tree in two spots, obviously having once been attached to the tree, but now engulfed in it. The two ends stick out, the rest of the barbed wire having been cut away before we bought the land almost twenty years ago. Today I noticed a few strands of what appear to be animal hair stuck to the barbed wire. Some kind of animal must have brushed against it while climbing over the stone wall that abuts the tree, and a few hairs got stuck on the barbs. I am no expert on animal hair, so I don't know what it was (coyote?), but I did feel like an intrepid tracker just for noticing it.

Ironically, I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because everything I saw (and there wasn't much) has already been seen so far this year. But I have a few interesting pictures for you, mostly of winter fireflies.

You know that tree I have mentioned, that seems to be a haven for winter fireflies? Well, today was definitely winter firefly weather (though nothing at all like winter), and they were out in droves:

There are others just outside the scope of this picture, but how many can you find here?

Here's a close-up of one of the groupings in the picture above.

It seemed like candy-striped leaf hopper weather, so I was on the lookout for those.

 I saw a few. They were not inclined to pose for pictures.

 Another stonefly. Or the same one, still hanging around.

 

 There were a lot of flies around today.

 And one of yesterday's BBotDs made another appearance.

 Western conifer seed bug (I think, it was pretty high up the wall, so I didn't get a good look).

Aaaaaand... it was tick weather. I hate when I find ticks on my lawn furniture. It seems like a personal invasion of space.

 

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I thought it seemed like snake weather today, so I looked for snakes when I went out to get the mail, but I didn't see any. However, when I left to go run my errands...
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 This one seems thinner than the others I have seen, but it's hard to judge when you see just one. I had to take this with my iPod, because I had put the camera back in the house after not getting a picture of the wasp, and I didn't feel like going back in to get it again.

I came back from my walk almost an hour later, and the snake was all curled up on the hillside.

 This one was definitely not aggressive. It didn't move at all when I was taking these pictures.