The View From the Window

Today I spent a long time than usual staring out the bedroom window after I got up, because it was a beautiful view, and because I was not in the mood to do anything else. I love seeing how the world changes every day in the spring, and I love seeing all the green out there now. While I was looking out I something fluttered into view–a butterfly. At first, because it was in my peripheral vision and I was not looking right at it, I thought it was a cabbage white; they are always flitting around the backyard lately. But when it settled on a dandelion I looked more keenly at it and saw that it was NOT a cabbage white. I asked the butterfly, through the window pane and from about 30 feet away, "What are the chances you will still be there if I go get my camera and go outside?" The butterfly didn't answer, but I was pretty sure I knew the answer–no chance at all. However, being, at heart, an optimist, if a cynical one, I rushed down to try to get a picture. The butterfly was not on the flower where I had seen it, which was no surprise, but it was still in the vicinity, and it landed on a dandelion right in front of me–and STAYED for a few pictures!

And that is how I found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly. Probably recently eclosed; late summer generations overwinter as chrysalides.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Mother robin. Only the mother sits on the eggs, she has a brood patch, which is a bare patch of skin on her belly that helps her body heat keep the eggs warm. I have been very careful not to get close to the front porch for the last few days, but I can see her there from parts of the yard (and took this picture with a zoom lens).

Other Bugs:

I have started to get back in the habit of bringing my camera outside with me when I go out to get the mail, and that is when I found this beetle.

The first two bugs of the day, the butterfly and beetle above, were not from my bug walk; the rest of these were:

 Male velvet ant (which is actually a species of wasp; only the male has wings, and the female looks a lot like an ant).

 I didn't see the bug when I took this picture.

 Female cranefly

 Ant on violet

I haven't seen as many spring azure butterflies around this year as the last couple of years, and they have all been in a hurry, but today one was almost cooperative:

 I took the pictures of the robin with my zoom lens, and since I had it on the camera I used it to take pictures of the bees on a flowering crab apple whose flowers were too high up for the macro lens:

The tent caterpillars still don't seem to be interested in eating, but they must have all eaten something for there to be so much frass in their tent.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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