Sunning Bugs

Today was a beautiful day in the backyard:

Just ask the candy striped leaf hoppers who came out to bask in the glorious, warm sunshine.

 There are four of them in this picture. And what I assume is a big puddle of honeydew.

The winter fireflies decided that this is their kind of weather, too, and so they came out for some basking as well:

And flies, too. Everyone thinks that flies all die in the winter, and the anti-bug people chortle with glee, but they're wrong, and there were a few flies out basking on the side of the house (though all these pictures are the same fly):

 I read something somewhere recently about flies blowing bubbles, and that no one knows why they do it, so I don't know why this fly is blowing a bubble, but I was pretty excited to see it happen after reading about it.

 The snow fleas were enjoying the spring-like weather, too, in spite of their name. Sorry I couldn't get a better; due to the angle of the sun and the problem with my knee I couldn't get closer than this.

 The caterpillar was back on the picnic table. I don't know for sure that this is the same one from yesterday, and I do know that the one yesterday had crawled off by later in the afternoon, but I did look for it when I went outside to do my bug walk today, and there it was.

 This lady beetle was found inside the house, crawling around on my dish after I ate lunch. I moved it outside. It will have to find somewhere else to shelter for the rest of the winter.