Deja Vu

I hate that I so often start this blog talking about the weather, but... the weather is part of the backyard, how can I not mention it, especially since it has some bearing on what I am going to find out there? I don't know. Today was cold, colder than it was supposed to be, and last night was cold, and, well, the bug population of the backyard wasn't terribly interested in being out in it. Weirdly, today's bug walk was almost the same as yesterday's in some ways, but with fewer bugs. I can almost tell from the moment I walk out the back door whether or not I am going to find a lot of bugs now based on what I can hear. If I hear a lot of crickets and katydids, I'll find a good number of bugs... If not, I won't. Today I did not hear a lot of crickets and katydids–but I did hear some, so it's not winter yet!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Some kind of wasp or sawfly (which is a kind of wasp). Frankly, the entire order of Hymenoptera is just too confusing.

Everything else I saw today was like a replay of the last couple of days:

 Tiny moth on a tree trunk.

 Assassin bug nymph on the exact same leaf where I saw it yesterday.

Crickets on tree trunks where I saw them yesterday:

 

 Lace bug on the same leaf where I saw it yesterday.

 Cricket in the rock garden

 Grasshopper in the rock garden

 Striped garden caterpillar on the same goldenrod plant where I see one (or two) every few days.

 Ladybeetle

 Stinkbug on autumn joy sedum