Meh

It wasn't a glorious day in the backyard. It was greener than ever, and that was lovely, but it was a bit gloomy, and not very buggy. The lawn has very quickly gone from not-quite-ready-to-be-mowed to overgrown, and I won't have time to mow it until next week, when it will be so overgrown as to be a bear to mow. Most of the milkweed that has sprouted in the backyard is growing in the lawn areas, so I don't know whether to mow it down or what. I'd like to leave it, but... And I don't want to mow down the dandelions and violets, but the lawn is getting pretty ragged. I have encountered a tick on every bug walk this week, and on three of the four days I found those ticks crawling on me. It would appear that my tick-repellent pants are not so tick repellent anymore (I am in the process of getting new ones). 🐛 Huh. I just noticed that I can post emojis on this blog. Anyway, as I was saying, oh, never mind.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a spittle bug. Either that or a frog bug. Actually, I'm not even sure that's a thing.

Other Bugs:

 Beetles

 Apparently hanging upside down is a thing if you're a tent caterpillar, but it's not clear whether or not it's a good thing.

 The other, larger tent caterpillars have come out of their tent and are all piled up in a group.

Something is pupating inside this leaf.

This next thing I am going to show you is a little bit sad, and a little bit gross, so I am going to move it down the page a bit...
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I don't like to take sides in the predator vs. prey competition; everything out there is just trying to survive. But still it's sometimes sad to witness...

I saw these feathers on a branch, and it looked to me like they weren't just feathers that fell off...

And then on the ground there were a LOT of feathers.

 Obviously, a bird got eaten, probably by a bird of prey; they pull the feathers out before they eat their prey.

 Here's the kind of gross thing, or maybe not, it's kind of interesting, too. I have often found piles of feathers on the ground where a bird has been eaten. This is the first time I have found a beak. There's one less cardinal in the backyard. I hope it did not have a mate or young depending on it.