Back to Normal

I've been looking forward to today for over a week. For the last 10 days, actually. And what was so exciting about today? The long-range weather forecast. Today was the day we were finally going to get out of the 30s, back to "normal" temperatures for the time of year, and, from my perspective, back to the kind of weather that would make it more likely that I would find bugs in my backyard today. You know, every once in a while I think back to how my life used to be before I started doing this, and if you had told me ten years ago that some day I would be excited about the weather being nice enough to go outside and find bugs, I would have thought you were crazy. And yet, here I am, happy that the deep chill has ended temporarily so I can find insects.

It snowed yesterday. And the needle ice did not melt; the ground must still be cold, even though the air temperature reached the upper 40s:

The ice is quite muddy.

The insects did not disappoint me. There were not many (except for a few small swarms of winter crane flies, which I could not photograph because it was cloudy), but they were not the same bugs I have been seeing every day, those "winter" bugs.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Western conifer seed bug. Missing a leg on one side.

Stonefly

I found this empty cocoon/chrysalis. I can't tell how long it has been empty, but I love that it appears to have a flip-top (bottom?) opening.

There were other species of flies, but I didn't manage to get pictures of them.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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