A Brief Opportunity

My bug walk today only lasted a few minutes before it started to rain, so I didn't get a chance to see how many bugs might have come out for the balmy weather. Mostly, there were springtails. They were everywhere. So very many of them:

 The front walk was covered in them.

And they were in their usual place, on the puddle on the rock in the backyard:

 Note the tiny ones. Or mites, whatever those are.

 There were some on a leaf on the water on the rock.

 Ant

Plant bug

Tomorrow there is supposed to be snow again, so there will probably not be a bug walk as the temperature is going to drop between twenty and thirty degrees(F).

Flit

I couldn't do a bug walk today because it was raining, but since the temperature was quite mild, it was, interestingly, a good night for attracting insects to the porch light.

Not all of them were things I was glad to see, however.

 Winter moths. They are an invasive species. I realized that they were "in season" earlier in the evening when we were out in the car and they kept flitting across the road in the light of the headlights. I figured that I would be seeing them at the porch light, and there they were.

I am not choosing a Backyard Bug of the Day today because other than the winter moths, which I am not going to choose because of their harmfulness to the trees, I think the other insects I saw have all been BBotD this year. But here are the Other Bugs:

 Caddisfly

 Winter crane fly

Springtail

Eight-Legged Snow Hiker

Another walk in the (slightly less) snowy woods, another spider spotted walking about. And it was colder today, barely above freezing. The spider didn't care:

Sorry, it's another cellphone picture.

I didn't do a bug walk today; I figured it was too cold, and by the time I got back from my walk after seeing the spider I was out of time. But given that there was a spider walking around in the woods, I would guess there were insects out and about, too.

Winter Bugs

You want some winter bugs? How about today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Snow flea. Which is not a flea, but a species of springtail. I always forget how small these are when I am looking for them for the first time each year, and they are harder to see than I expect because they are so tiny.

 I saw a few of these springtails, too.

And a few other bugs, including some flies. This one, obviously, sitting on snow. The air temperature was around 40ºF, but still, this is sitting on snow.

I saw a few winter crane flies flying around, too. Bugs all die in the winter? No way.

Itsy, Bitsy, Chilly Spider

I went for a walk in the woods today, and everything is still covered in snow, except the snow is a few days old now, and it's been above freezing for a couple of days, so things are starting to poke out of the blanket. I found the ferns poking up out of the snow to be charming, so I stopped to take a picture of one, and I found something interesting.

This is the point where the arachnophobes should just check out, because there is nothing here you want to see. Except the spider I am about to show you is teeny tiny, and couldn't ever hurt you.

 Look at the frond on the lower left, and see what is dangling from it...

 I apologize for the terrible photos, these are cellphone pictures.

It was alive and active; while I was looking at it, it dropped from the plant and started walking on the snow.

It's winter, there's snow everywhere, and spiders are alive and well!

Snow Bugs

Yesterday we had our first real snow, the kind you have to actually shovel off of the driveway and cancels school. Today the temperature was just a few degrees above freezing, so I didn't do a bug walk, but when I went outside to get the mail:

Springtail, but not a snow flea, which is a different species of springtail. There were several of them on the snow along the side of the porch steps. It may be winter, it may be freezing (or near), there may be six inches of snow on the ground, but there are still insects out there, alive and well.

The Attractions of Dead Plants

I'm tired, and I have a lot of stuff to do, so let's just get on with the pictures, shall we?

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Bristletail, with bonus springtail photobomber. The springtails were everywhere today.

 I found two bristletails on a rock.

The candy striped leaf hoppers' favorite tree was a popular insect hangout today, and not just for candy striped leaf hoppers:

 Fly and ants

 Springtail

 Candy striped leaf hoppers

Springtails were everywheeeeeere...

 Caterpillar

 Plant bug

 MORE springtails

The mums continue to attract a variety of insects, even wilted as they are:

 Midge

 Fly

 Springtail, of course.

Ant

The moth from yesterday was still hanging around on the same flower.

 Tree louse

 Winter crane fly

I keep forgetting to mention it, but I have heard crickets every day this week. A lot of them on Monday (though not anywhere near as many as in the warmer months), and two yesterday, and one today. Some insects show great determination.