Highs and Lows

Today in the backyard, most of the interesting things to be seen were either at or below the level of my ankles, or way overhead.
My attention was drawn skyward by a peculiar cry almost as soon as I walked out the door with my camera today. Of course, I had the macro lens on my camera, which is not ideal for a subject such as this:

 These two were joined by a third raptor, one that was also crying out as the three of them zoomed over the trees. Knowing next to nothing about raptors, not even what kind these were, I had to wonder if maybe they were youngsters learning to soar. I've never heard them make that noise, and the third one did seem like it was trying to catch up to the others.

I don't look up very much when I am doing my bug walk, because even if there is an interesting bug above me, chances are I won't be able to take a good picture of it. I can easily bend down to take pictures of bugs on the ground. I can't easily (or at all) elevate myself to a height where I can take pictures of insects high above me. I do try sometimes, and I can sometimes pull down a branch so it's at my level, but I generally don't even look up for bugs, even though I know there are some up there. I mean, stick bugs spend most of their lives high up in oak trees. But HIGH is the important factor in that scenario. Today, for some reason, I was looking up. Not everything I saw was a welcome sight:

 

 Can you see the gypsy moth caterpillars on the bright, new, spring leaves of this oak tree?

 

 It had some interesting galls, too.

 

 I did catch sight of a bumblebee snuggled up in a tree over my head. At least, I am assuming it is resting up there. For all I know it was prey to something that I could not see from below.

I spotted a fly and a lace bug up above, too.

But as I mentioned, a lot of the interesting things I saw today were low to the ground, too:

Like another lace bug, on bluets.

And then something I didn't get a good look at, because sometimes it's hard when things are flying and landing low:

 If I had been able to get a good picture of this it would be Backyard Bug of the Day, because I know it is something I have not seen before. It was big, and flying in circles around me. It landed a couple of times, and once I got this shot, and then if flew again, landed... and disappeared. It must have gone under the leaf litter. I wish I'd had a better look at it...

 Here's a magnification of that shot. Very hard to tell what it is.

There were a lot of things flying low to the ground today, mostly in the woods, and anywhere there was leaf litter. It was interesting just standing in one place, watching all of the busy insect activity skimming the ground around me. It's not the kind of thing I can take a picture of, so I recommend you go outside on a nice sunny day and stand around in the woods looking at the abundant life just above the ground.

And then there's this creature:

 I found this caterpillar lying like this in the grass. I assumed it was dead...

 ... so I moved it to a rock so I could see it better. It was very interesting to look at it this way–I don't often get this view of caterpillars. I was surprised to see that it has a few tufts of hair underneath (mostly toward the back end, if you can't see what I am seeing). Then it started moving, so I realized it was alive...

 

So I moved it back to the ground. Where it had company–can you see it?

 

An aphid crawled on it.

 

Without looking it up, I think this is a giant leopard moth caterpillar. I went back to check on it a few hours later, and it was still there, and its hairs were sort of twitching. My new hypothesis is that it was lying in the grass about to pupate. I am hoping that I did not disrupt that process by moving it. I'll see if it's still there tomorrow...

I noticed something REALLY tiny moving in the grass next to the caterpillar:

 

Springtail, probably a nymph from the size of it.

 

Finally! An insect at eye level!

Tiny moth on a tree trunk

And now, Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

Hopper nymph. The white fluff is a waxy extrusion, the purpose of which eludes me. These are also quite tiny, and illustrate an interesting point about going through life learning things. There are trees in my backyard right now sending out their seeds in wisps of fluff, and they're floating around, getting caught in spider webs, landing on my lunch when I eat outside, getting everywhere. Right now, if you see a bit of fluff in my backyard, it would be natural to assume it was one of these seed fluffs. But when I saw this tiny, cottony wisp on a tree, I looked closely at it because I didn't think it was a seed fluff (I have no idea what the real name is for such a thing), I thought it was a hopper nymph. Which, as you see, it was. Because I learned a couple of years ago that there are these hopper nymphs that exude this stuff, and having learned that, I knew what I was seeing. Now, I haven't learned what kind of hoppers they are, which is an admission that keeps me humble. Mostly what I have learned, really, is how much more I still have to learn, about insects, about life, and about everything.

They are pretty cool looking bugs.

Oh, and those pieces of fluff from the trees?

 You can see one on the right of this picture.

There were a few beetles on sentry duty today:

 

And a couple involved in other activities:

I went by an hour later and they were still there...

 

... and then several hours later I went by again and they were still there...

Once again I found a variety of species of spiders for Arachnid Appreciation:
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Six-spotted orb weaver with fly prey. They almost look like they are cuddling, but... they're not.