It's not just bugs and flowers I am looking for at this time of year. As much as I love being outside, finding new signs of life in the spring, I am aware that not everything in nature is completely safe, and so I keep my eyes open for certain hazards. Ticks, obviously, are something I look out for any time the temperature is above freezing. But there's one thing that kind of sneaks up on us in the spring that is hard to see at first, and can be extremely troublesome if you don't know it's there.
Poison ivy:
You all know, I am sure, that poison ivy has three leaves; "Leaves of three, let it be." Well, there are a lot of plants with three leaves. What you also need to know is that in the spring, the leaves are really small, really shiny, and red, like it's warning you not to touch it. I found these growing on a tree in a spot where we recently shifted the path, because a tree came down and we decided it would be easier to move the path than the tree. Spotting this on the tree, we then checked all around that area, because there's never just one plant, and found several more, some very close to the edge of the path. Definitely good to know that there's poison ivy there as we walk by there almost every day.
I wasn't going to do a bug walk today, but I happened to see a bug on a flower when I came home from an appointment, and since I brought the camera out to take a picture of that bug, I figured I might was well look around for more. I found a few, and then put the camera back in the house. We left for our woods walk a little while later, and on our way out I found an interesting bug and went back to the house for my camera, and then didn't want to go back to the house to leave it, so I brought it on my walk. Counting that first one I went back to get the camera for, I found both of today's Co-Bugs of the Day, two very different kinds of flies, on my walk.
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:
When I saw this on a sapling I wasn't even sure it was a bug. I thought it might be a bit of... I don't know what. Part of a plant, I guess. I poked it, and it didn't move, so I was pretty sure it was not a bug. But I decided to look at it through the macro lens anyway and saw these eyes looking back at me. Of course, as soon as I tried to get pictures, it moved. No problem at all when I poked it, but will it sit still for a picture? Suddenly not so willing.
Quite an interesting face.
Close-up look at the compound eye
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:
I think this might be a species of march fly. I spotted it on the trunk of a cedar tree, went back to the house hoping it would stay there while I was off getting the camera, took its picture, went for about an hour-long walk in the woods, came back, and took a couple more pictures of it because it was still in the same spot. If I am correct that this is a march fly (and I am not sure it is), my guess would be that it is a female because of the relatively small eyes.
Flies, or rather, Diptera, were the Order of the Day. Here's a couple feeding on dandelions; you can see the pollen stuck to their wings, which they probably delivered to other blooms. Bees are not the only pollinators.
I was surprised to come upon a cluster of snow-fleas on a tree trunk, mostly because I haven't seen any in a while, so I thought that the season for that was over:
I found what appears to be an egg mass, hatched, on a tree trunk, too. This is about half an inch long. I can't tell what that thing is poking out of the middle. It seems to be something trying to get in, rather than something trying to get out. Whatever hatched from those tiny holes must have been incredibly small indeed.
Having twice startled a mourning dove from the same tree, I realized today that I had probably stumbled upon a nest, and looked up to find this:
If I am out at the right time of day (and today I was), the sunlight catches on spider webs all over the place, with tiny spiders on them. Arachnid Appreciation:
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I think these two are the same species, one a dorsal view, the other ventral, not respectively:
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