Year to Year

I've been harrumphing about the lack of bugs lately, so out of curiosity I checked out my blog from last year around this time. It's practically identical. In fact, one year ago today I posted almost this exact same thing:

 An ant carrying something much bigger than itself. In this case it was a bit of plant stem, I think. Last year it was a dried up dead caterpillar.

And a year ago I posted a picture of a bee that looked very much like this, today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

I did not post a Backyard Bird of the Day last year, but here's one for today:

 Either a hairy woodpecker or a downy woodpecker. I always get them confused. It doesn't even always help to look them up.

Other Bugs:

 Fly

 Gnat

There are a lot of insects that blend in really well on tree trunks. And there are some that don't:

 

There were many things to be found on tree trunks today:

I've been noticing winter fireflies on the ground lately, too. I think they lay their eggs there, and their offspring live in the ground until they pupate.

Rock covered with snow fleas

There's been a thing circulating around on social media (and I have helped to circulate it) urging people to wait to rake up the leaf litter in their yards and gardens until the temperature is consistently above 50ºF, to avoid killing all of the little things that have spent the winter in the leaf litter. I think that includes this bee, which may have just emerged.

 

 Velvet ant, one of the most uncooperative bugs in the world. It's not even an ant, it is a wasp, but the female doesn't fly, and looks a lot like an ant (which makes sense, because they are in the same genus. Edit: Wait, no, the same Order. Why did I say genus? That was wrong. They are of the bees, wasps, and ants are from the Order Hymenoptera). This is a male. I find them so aggravating I am not even going to magnify the picture so you can see it better. If the velvet ants want to be shown properly on this blog, they can just pose nicely for me once.

Today my perambulations about the backyard were more of a spider walk than a bug walk. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 When I went outside for my bug walk I spent a couple of minutes standing on the back porch just enjoying the beautiful day. Then I saw something crawling around in the grass about twenty feet away, and went to investigate. This was it.

Bowl and doily spider

It had caught a gnat

 Bowl and doily spider

 Remember that tiny spider I saw on a tree yesterday? Today I found one on a different tree.

 Something else that does not blend in well on a tree trunk. Mite. I think this is a velvet mite

 The ants walked right by with no reaction from the spider.