Spring Emerges

I go for a walk in the woods every day now, no matter what the weather. Over the last month or so the changes in the woods as springtime has progressed have been startling. It looks different every day, with more and more leaves in the canopy, different flowers blooming, and ferns everywhere, providing a green understory as well as canopy. It even sounds different–the birds are singing and calling, and we have heard bullfrogs a couple of times. We have never heard bullfrogs in our backyard before. It's strangely exciting.

The frogs I saw today in the woods, though, were definitely not bullfrogs. They are a species I have seen in my backyard many times, but until I looked them up tonight, I didn't know what they were. Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 This is a spring peeper. Hard to see. It blends in really well with the leaf litter. There were two of them we spotted hopping from leaf to leaf. They are impressive hoppers. This picture was taken with my phone, sorry for the haziness.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This may be a Fire Colored Beetle, species Pedilus lugubris.

 Less than a second after this photo was taken there was a brief face-to-face meeting between the beetle and the ant. Neither had much of a reaction, but the ant walked away.

Other Bugs:

 

 I think that is a female weevil on the right, and the other two are males vying for her consent to propagate the species with her.

 The same sort of thing was going on with some wasps, but with a lot more wasps involved, and a great deal of wrestling:

 This is the part of the yard that has swarms of insects going for the cinquefoil flowers, but today they were swarming a bit higher (which was a bit unnerving to be in the midst of), and it was clear that they were fighting over mates. I can't tell how many there are here...

 It's hard to see, but that's a female with a male on her back, and another potential suitor departing the scene on the right.

 I think there are two males here, with the one female.

 There was a great deal of feistiness.

Six-spotted tiger beetle:

 Standing up on its back legs?

 Beetle

 Carpenter bee on bleeding heart:

I saw this bee fly on my walk. Photo taken with my phone.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Reptile Sighting of the Day:
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It's the same garter snake I see every day now. I thought it was not in its usual spot, but then I spotted its tail and part of its body under the leaf litter. This picture was taken after it slithered out because I was too close.