A Brief Sojourn

The sun came out and the sky cleared up just long enough to lure me outside with my camera... and then a few minutes later the rain came pouring down. And I didn't even get a rainbow out of it. I didn't get to cover very much of the backyard looking for bugs, and after those first couple of minutes it was dark and windy again, so I don't have an impressive array for you.

I did find a couple of whimsical things:

 I don't know what kind of bird this is from. I made sure to take the picture from an angle where it would not show the slug inside.

 Robin's egg

 Sorry for this terrible picture. The iPod doesn't focus fast enough for the bird parents. It definitely looks like there are only three nestlings. I feel a little sad about that, and wonder what happened to the other egg, or the other young one. I would think that the place where the nest is is pretty well protected from predators, but maybe not.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Moth. Not in my book.

 Tent caterpillars all running around on their tent before the rain.

 I think this is either a wood louse or an aphid of some kind.

 Can you see where I was photobombed by a bee while taking a picture of the wisteria?

 A fly feeding on wisteria

A couple of caterpillars:

 This one was pretty tiny, I'd say between an eighth and a quarter inch long. I almost squished it on sight, thinking it was a gypsy moth, because while it doesn't look at all like one in this picture, in person, as small as it was, it just looked like a tiny, dark caterpillar. But I hesitated, and then it moved, and I could see from the way it moved that it was a looper of some kind, NOT a gypsy moth. I am glad I didn't just squish it on sight.

 If you have been paying attention to this blog you don't need me to tell you if this is a male or female crane fly...

If you have not been paying attention to this blog, I could just tell you that is not a stinger, it's an ovipositor.

But that might not help you either, if you have not been paying attention, so...

She uses it to lay eggs.

This is a rare find for me in a way; I see these assassin bugs in my backyard all of the time, but only as nymphs. I have only seen adults a couple of times over the last couple of years.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I think this is an orchard spider.