New Habitats

When we bought the land next to our original property last summer, one of the many advantages that occurred to me of having a nice expanse of woods was that I would be able to find more bugs. I didn't even know at the time (having bought the property without ever actually examining it) that there were several different small bodies of water included in it: streams, small ponds, and a bit of a swampy bit. When I found out about those, naturally I thought about the possibilities of different kinds of bugs than are currently to be seen in my backyard: water bugs. We didn't really start exploring our woods until the fall, when it was getting chilly and not prime season for insects, so up until now I haven't seen much in the way of water bugs–just springtails, and they are not precisely water bugs, not to mention I find them in my original backyard. I have been looking forward to spring and summer, though, for the chance to see more aquatic insects.

Well, Sunday was the first day of meteorological spring. And though that is a meaningless designation to the wild world, today I found one of those things I was hoping to see in the spring. Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Water strider. Oddly, I actually have seen these in my backyard before, on a puddle once. They definitely felt out of place. Here on the stream is a place I think they were much more as home. Sorry for the low quality picture, it was taken on zoom on my phone while I was perched precariously on the edge of a rock trying not to fall into the water or drop my phone.

I saw a lot of stoneflies, winter fireflies, and winter crane flies today, but didn't get usable pictures of any of them. I found one tree that had at least a dozen stoneflies racing up the trunk.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I didn't have time for a bug walk today, in part because I chose to go for a walk in the woods instead, and while I was sitting on the back porch steps putting on my sneakers, this spider ran past at the foot of the steps. I felt a little bit like it was reproaching me for deciding not to do a bug walk. And yet I didn't do one. Sorry spider.

Snowless

Oops, I forgot I did a bug walk today, and almost didn't remember to write this blog!

Not that there is much to write about. Except to say that it feels churlish to complain about pleasant weather, but I don't think we got any snow at all in February, which is usually our snowiest month. I wanted more snow this winter. Just a normal amount, nothing crazy. And today as I was walking around outside in a t-shirt, I couldn't help thinking that while 10 to 20 degrees above normal is nice in February, what if that pattern holds until July?

I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because I didn't see anything noteworthy. Actually, I didn't see many insects at all. I do think it was interesting that this stonefly was in the same spot where I saw it yesterday:

 And I found a woolly bear caterpillar in the street. I moved it onto the curb, which seemed like a safer place for it.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Spider in the leaf litter

 This one was dangling from a thread when I spotted it.

This mite was about a tenth the size of the one I saw yesterday, not that you can tell from the picture.

Early Bee

What do I always say is the law of nature? If there is something to eat, there will be something to eat it. Well, it's still February, but there are flowers blooming:

 Close to the concrete foundation of the sunny side of the house is a warm microclimate, and that is where the first of the creeping myrtle flowers bloom. It's pretty early for this, but today was almost 60ºF–this isn't a normal winter.

And since flowers are blooming... Along came Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Okay, I know it's really hard to see...

A sweat bee. I saw this when I went out to get the mail, so this picture was taken with my cellphone, which I had in my pocket, not my real camera. I know I am breaking my rule about only choosing something as BBotD if I have a good picture of it, but I don't often see bees in February, so for this extenuating circumstance, and because I was so happy to see it... well, here it is.

 And it's in here somewhere, too.

For the warmth and sunniness of the day there were surprisingly few bugs out, but here are today's Other Bugs:

 Stonefly, looks like a gravid female, perhaps?

 There were lots of flies around.

 Today there were more candy striped leaf hoppers:

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Jumping spider

Velvet mite

What Do Bugs Want?

In one week it will be spring. Meteorological spring, anyway. And the world is waking up:

 These daffodils have been sheltered under the leaf litter all winter, and are quite advanced.

 The trees, of course, have had their buds all ready to burst forth since the fall. It's not quite time for the bursting, though.

I thought, being sunny and in the 50s, that today there would be a plethora of bugs out enjoying the spring-like weather. But I was wrong. It seems that after all these years of studying the bugs in my backyard, I still don't understand them, and why they do what they do, and when they can be expected to do it. So, here's what I found...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Plant bug of some kind

And these:

On such a mild, sunny day I expected the candy striped leaf hoppers' favorite tree to be replete with hoppers, but I was mistaken. I found only a few.

I saw only a couple of snow fleas, too. After my bug walk I went off into the woods to work on a new trail, and I did see more bugs there: a few stoneflies, several ants, and a spider. But I didn't see any winter fireflies basking in the spring-like winter sunshine. Puzzling...

Blooming in Winter

I didn't intend to do a bug walk today, but so many other things happened today that threw off what I intended, that I ended up outside with my camera, looking for bugs. Two things in particular led to my serendipitous walk: the power went out, so, lacking electricity I was unable to do a lot of the other things I needed to do, and, when I went outside to get the mail I saw this:

 Snowdrop in bloom. It is a wonderful thing to be walking around outside in February and see a flower blooming. I thought that the freeze last week might do them in before they could bloom, but only one flower seems to have been damaged by the chill. This is the only one blooming, though... so far.

The snowdrops are right next to the stone steps that lead from the street to the front door, and so I was down at eye level with the lower stairs when I took pictures of the flower. The steps have some leaves on them, blown there by the wind. You may recall in the autumn my exhortations to people to leave their leaves so that insects that shelter in the leaf litter for the winter will have that shelter available. Well, looking at the leaves there I wondered if anything was sheltered there, and so I brushed some aside and found Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Caterpillar, curled up in the leaves for the winter. It didn't move; it was probably too cold (in the sun, but just barely into the 40s). I took my pictures and covered it up again.

I have also frequently mentioned that the area down by the street is a warmer microclimate for my yard, being between the dark asphalt and an outcrop of bedrock. There is also quite a bit of leaf litter there, and today I saw a fair number of tiny things crawling around among the leaves. I didn't get a good look at most of them, because it is easy to hide from curious eyes in the leaf litter. But I did get a little bit of cooperation from this creature:

 I thought it was a beetle at first, because it has a beetlish face...

 But on closer inspection it looks more like a Hemiptera of some kind.

 The snowfleas were out in abundance on the rocks in front.

And there were a lot of flies around, too. Many of them were basking in the sunshine on the front of the house:

 But they were in other places, too, where there was sunshine and a place to glory in it.

 A few winter ants were around.

 And some gnats.

I looked for, and didn't find, candy striped leaf hoppers on their favorite tree. I looked for some a couple of days ago, too, when it was close to 50ºF, but in vain.

I generally don't bring my camera with me when I go for walks in the woods, but a couple of days ago, on a day I guess I should have done a bug walk, I saw a lot of bugs, and took pictures of them with my phone, which are never anywhere near as good. Then I forgot I took them and so I didn't blog that night. Anyway, one thing I saw was a tree with quite a few winter fireflies on it. Today, though it was not as warm, the sunshine was enough to bring the fireflies out on the same tree:

 Again, taken with my phone, so not good, but if you look carefully you can see a few winter fireflies.

A bit of insect artwork

January Snows Bring February Flower Buds

Today in the backyard:

 Snowdrops...

 Snow fleas...

 And snow. The last remnants of our snow from about two and a half weeks ago. I can't believe there's any still around. This is a small pile left in the cul-de-sac by the snowplow. Given that today I think we hit 50ºF, it's surprising it hasn't all melted.

Also, winter ants:

 This one was on the favorite tree of the candy striped leaf hoppers.

 This candy striped leaf hopper was on a different tree, of the same species. (I did see one on the favorite tree).

 A tiny caterpillar is turning into a tiny moth inside this pupal case. Actually, for all I know it has already changed, and will wait for spring to emerge, or it is still fully caterpillar and will wait until spring to change. All I know is, that's a pupal case, about an eight of an inch long, made by two pieces of a leaf that the caterpillar cut out and stuck together, and then attached to a tree trunk for the winter.

 A few more springtails were around today.

 And one fly, which I was a little surprised to find, given that it was not a sunny day, so it could not bask in the apricity.

 Winter crane fly or midge, I am not sure.

I was NOT happy to see this:

 But this is why I wear my tick-repellent pants for my bug walk every time, even in February.

 I don't appreciate this arachnid...

But I do have one for Arachnid Appreciation:
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Not a cooperative spider.

Wintery Moths

Hello again. Yes, it's been a while. It's been cold, and I haven't seen any bugs interesting enough for me to post about them. Actually, I haven't seen many bugs lately at all, even on days in the 40s, or sunny days. Today as I was headed off into the woods to do some work I saw a mite crawling up a tree trunk, which was rather unexpected, so I put down my tools and went back into the house to get my camera, but by the time I got back to the tree the mite was out of sight. It was small–after all, it was a mite–but it was moving fast. Being bright red and moving is what made it visible to me in the first place, but I think it was going fast enough that in the time it took for me to go get the camera and get back to the tree, it crawled up too high for me to see it.

So, if I didn't get the picture of the mite, what am I posting about? I didn't do a bug walk after that, I put the camera back in the house and went back to my work. The only other insect I saw in the afternoon was a stonefly, and I've posted enough pictures of those lately. But then, in the early evening, as it was getting dark, my husband and I headed off for a walk in the woods. It got darker by the second, it seemed, but we had flashlights, so it didn't matter that night had fallen by the time we got back. And in the light of the flashlight I saw that there were insects active in the woods: moths. One of them landed right at my feet: Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I am cautiously naming this Backyard Bug of the Day, because I don't think this is a winter moth, based on the markings and other features of it; winter moth is an invasive species and I don't like making invasive species BBotD. So, on the assumption that this is a different species of moth, let's let it have that designation. However, the temperature had dropped into the 30s by the time we went on our walk, I think, so it was a bit surprising to see so many moths flitting about the dark woods.

Now, I am going to break a rule of the blog and post a picture from yesterday, just because I forgot to post it yesterday, being out of the habit of daily blogging now.

The bluebirds were back:

 I know you still can't see the blue, but at least you can see the bird in this picture. Actually, did I even blog about seeing the bluebirds a couple of weeks ago? I can't remember now. Anyway, here's the thing about bluebirds: you don't see them much in the winter, and they do migrate to an extent, but this area is part of their year-round territory–they'll stick around as long as they can stay warm, and find things to eat. Well, it has been a pretty mild winter so far, by Connecticut standards, and as you know from my other posts this month there are still bugs around for these insectivorious birds to eat so... we've met their criteria, and here they are. Well, here one is, but there were at least two that day. It made me very happy to see them.