A Nice Day

Today I saw four (or was it five?) species of butterflies, one of the baby birds that fledged from my front porch yesterday, and a new species of insect. It was a nice enough day that I ate my lunch outside, although the winds were fierce and howling. There are new flowers in bloom, and I saw so many bugs today. I won't even bother to complain about how incredibly uncooperative they all were (for instance, I only photographed ONE of those butterflies).

The baby bird was sitting in a tree outside my kitchen window. I spotted it because I saw one of the parents fly to it to give it food. Even once they have flown from the nest, the parents will look after them for a while (at least, that is the case with some birds, including robins). Backyard Bird of the Day:

 As juveniles, robins have a mottled chest instead of the solid orange they'll have as adults.

I've already told you I saw something new, so as you can guess, that is what is Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I looked it up in a couple of insect guides, and what it looks like is an alderfly. But the books also say that adult alderflies hang out next to water, so it would not make sense to find one in my backyard. But if it's not an alderfly, it certainly must be of the order Neuroptera, and related to the alderfly.

Other Bugs:

 Ant on clover

 I found this caterpillar dangling from a leaf, and since it was climbing up its thread, I waited until it climbed all the way up, so I could get a better picture of it:

 Six-spotted tiger beetle

 Pearl crescent butterfly

 These flies are numerous in my backyard at the moment.

 Tiny beetle, about the size of a pin head.

 Tortoise beetle

 These beetles are quite numerous, too.

I can't tell if more white marked tussock moth caterpillars have hatched, or if they've gotten bigger, and that makes it look like there are more of them:

 They must be eating the egg mass, because they have to be eating something to be growing.

 

After not seeing any caterpillars for ages (except gypsy moths), now I am suddenly seeing more of them:

 Looper climbing a tree

 Extremely uncooperative moth

And speaking of uncooperative...

 Thick headed fly, I think? It never landed.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Mating spiders...

 That might be the moment the male passed his packet of genetic information to the female. It looks like the sac might be there, that yellowish blob.

I almost walked into this:

 Climbing up a thread...

 Made it to the branch!

 A gravid female, perhaps?