Hatchlings

I really need the weather to clear up. It's making my photography very difficult for it to be so dark and windy all the time.

You know what else makes photography difficult? Having about one second to stand on a box and take a picture with your iPod before the parents of these little babies decide to divebomb your head:

 The babies have hatched on the front porch!

 I can't tell if there are four of them in there or not. The mother did spend a good portion of the day still sitting on the nest.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

 Sharpshooter

It's a pity that this was Backyard Bug of the Day one day last month...

 Because I got a MUCH better picture of this clearwing hummingbird moth today. It was sitting on this plant in kind of a stupor. (It's a funny name, and a funny insect. It's named after a bird, it looks like a bee... and it's a moth).

 It didn't like it when I got too close and moved, which caused it to fall and get tangled in the plant. I helped it out, and it sat on my hand for a minute before flying away. It flew kind of slowly, and then landed on another plant for a few seconds before it started to feed on some creeping myrtle flowers:

The dominant bug in the backyard today (and lately) was the stilt-legged bug. They were everywhere:

 

 A bit of a tussle

 These two got on m much better.

 Cranefly. And that brown blur on the right of the picture...

 ... is an assassin bug.

 There were a lot of these flies around today, too, and for the last few days. They do not like to have their picture taken.

 The fleur du jour for the bumblebees is the wisteria. I could hear them buzzing around the arbor as I approached. Sadly, the flowers are mostly about eight feet off the ground, and my eye level is only about five feet off the ground.

Tent caterpillars are social insects...

 ... so they went out to eat together.

Sawfly (I think) larva on the side of the house.

In the last week or so I think I have seen over a dozen spider species, though I have not counted them (or even gotten pictures of most of them). Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I think this is a new one for me in my backyard.