Spring Singing

There have been a lot of birds singing in the backyard lately, and I like to pretend that they are singing out of joy for the coming of springtime, even though I know they are probably just claiming territory and trying to find a mate. After all, spring has been very slow in coming, so where's the joy in that? I am not one of those people who can identify birds from their songs, but there are a few that I can be general about (like I know there was a woodpecker calling today, but I don't know what kind). There were quite a variety of birds singing today, and my favorite had to be this one:

 Actually, it wasn't really singing, it was calling, but it's a cool sound, and whenever I hear it I immediately look up to find the hawk. I don't know what kind of hawk this was, but it was doing a fun kind of swoopy thing. And later I saw it again, circling with another hawk. They looked a bit like one was chasing the other.

The macro lens is not the best for pictures of flying birds.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Case bearing leaf beetle larva. Crawling around with its home made of its own feces.

 This is the most active case bearing leaf beetle larva I have ever seen. Usually they are just stuck tight to a leaf, and all I can see is the case. Sometimes I have caught a glimpse of their head or legs sticking out. A couple of times I have seen them slowly creeping along a leaf. This one was making some good speed across a rock, and this is the most I have ever seen of the head, legs and body of one of these.

The ants appear to be doing some spring cleaning in the rock garden:

 This is the third one I have seen this week there carrying dead bugs. This one has a dried up caterpillar.

 Candy striped leaf hopper

I was thinking today that maybe when it come to arthropods, I might prefer spiders to insects. They have so much more personality. And right now I am able to find a lot more spiders than insects, so I could be biased. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This jumping spider was sending out silk threads on the wind, which is something spiders do to be able to move from one place to another. They send out a thread to get caught up somewhere else, and then they can follow it. I didn't get to see this one actually go anywhere.