Playing Games

 I went for a morning walk today because I had somewhere to be in the afternoon and knew I would not want to go out walking afterward. I didn't get to walk in my woods yesterday, and I didn't want to miss two days in a row, so I set my alarm early to get out on the trail before getting anything else done today. I don't like mornings, but I do like morning walks. It's nice to see the woods in a different point of view, the different point of view being that the sunlight comes from a different direction in the morning, so different things are illuminated. Every walk in my woods is different, particularly this time of year when the woods are constantly changing. It was a gorgeous morning, and it was wonderful to have sunshine after about a week of gloom.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Spring azure butterfly on garlic mustard

Other Bugs:

Crane fly. I'm still seeing a lot of crane flies every day, several different species, but it's hard to get a picture of any of them.

Assassin Bugs:

Nymph

Adults:

I'm not sure if this crane fly was alive.

There were caddisflies doing their mating dance over the stream today, so of course I tried to get pictures of them in flight. The result of this exercise is a bit of a Where's Waldo kind of game... See if you can find the flying insects in these photos:

Okay, this one is not flying over the stream, but very close to the water...

Nice look at how long their antennae are.

Here's one crawling on the ground:

And since taking picture of flying insects is so fun and rewarding, I tried to get shots of some other kind of insect swarming over the water:

 

Firefly and stonefly:

I don't think this is a winter firefly, I think it's another species, and I was trying to see if I could see a light organ on it... and instead I got a picture of it... um... excreting... something. 

This little structure was built by a tiny caterpillar. From the fact that it appears to be attached to the leaf, I think it is pupating inside.

Stilt bug, and inside all that foam is a spittle bug. Or maybe several spittle bugs, that's a lot of spittle.

Sweat bee on king devil hawk weed

Hoverfly among king devil hawk weed

A pair of moth flies. This is the closest shot I got.

I love springtime..

False solomon's seal

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Snake of the Day:

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Small garter snake

The cloudy eye means it is going to shed its skin soon.

I didn't have much success getting a shot of its tongue...

Here's just the tip of it!

It got sick of me, and slithered away.