Walking on Water

I went for a walk today on a paved bike path along a river. There was an area where there was a marsh on one side of the trail, and a pond on the other, and the water from the pond was draining into the marsh by crossing the trail. What that means is that the trail was flooded, and the grassy area on either side was wet and soggy, and there was no way to continue on the trail without crossing water, or mud, or both. We tried to contrive a bridge in one spot, but ultimately I ended up with wet shoes and socks, which was terribly unpleasant, but there was something I wanted to see further along the trail, so I didn't want to be turned back before my goal. So... I ended up with wet feet, uncomfortable, but I saw a nice view, and am looking forward to a day in the spring when I can ride my bike there. There is a whiff of irony in what happened to me on this walk when I think about what I saw on my bug walk today. I thought that today would be a great day to find bugs in my backyard, because it was sunny, and it has been warmish the last 2 days (50s yesterday and overnight, albeit rainy, and upper 40s while I was on my bug walk), and because I saw things flying around through the windows before I went out, but I was wrong. The winter firefly I have been seeing for the last several weeks wasn't even there anymore. I found very little, and it was mostly what I have been finding all along. But here are some pictures anyway, because I did see two interesting little–very little–things:

 There were a few springtails on a tiny puddle on a rock, which is nothing new...

 They were doing that thing they do where they are floating around on the surface of the water, and they clump together for a second and then shove away from each other. It's hard to photograph, but fun to watch.

Here's the new thing. In one of their little shoving matches, one of the springtails got knocked onto its side, exposing to my eye for the first time its springs.

 That V-shaped thing there is usually tucked up underneath the springtail's body, and that is what lets it spring. It uses that as a sort of lever to jump; if you picture in your mind what would happen if this springtail was not on its side here, that tail was tucked under it, and then it extended it the way it is in this picture... Boing!

 Here's the other very little, interesting thing.

 A mite, also on the surface of the water. And this is where my little wet-shoes incident comes into play. While I have to either find a way around the water or get wet, all of these tiny creatures–the springtails and the mite–just walk right on top of it with no trouble at all. Let's hear it for surface tension.

 Next to a springtail to give you a sense of size (which only works if you know how tiny the springtail is. Let me just say that I could not see the mite with the unaided eye).

 They had a bit of an interaction, but I don't know what it was all about.

I went to the candy striped leaf hoppers' favorite tree to see if there were any out today, given the weather conditions, and I found a couple, one of which allowed me (sort of) to get a picture:

 In case you are wondering, I am working on getting calendars done, and I know I am waaaaay too late on this project this year, because if you want one, you're going to miss the first couple of weeks of 2019, but I have just not had the time to work on it–it's a very time-consuming process! I am hoping to get them done tomorrow...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Whenever I empty the rain gauge I check underneath to see if there are any spiders under there (or insects) because in past winters it has been a popular sheltering spot. Lately I have not found any, but there was one there today: