Creepy Crawlies

Spring just arrived here, expected to end Tuesday. Ha! New England joke. Not very good. That said, up and down, wettest March, warmest April 8th ever, late frost in May that did for some of the seedlings in the garden. Snakes, frogs, and fireflies are about.

Bugs around - including this Whitespotted pine sawyer - the most common beetle to be confused with the Asian longhorned beetle which is decimating nearby towns. Also, this spider which I think is a Nursery web spider of some sort.

Spring/monsoon season

Spring in New England brings the usual wide swings of weather - perhaps more so this year - the record breaking rainfall, plus the record breaking heat (91 degrees in early April...). The winter migrators are arriving back. We have a breeding pair of Eastern Bluebirds in the yard (male on the left, female on the right), plus a Sharp Shinned Hawk (see dreadful video), who was trying to catch a tufted titmouse near the bird feeder.

Seen a lot more raptors this year, from the common Red Tailed Hawks to Turkey Vultures. The bats are back out as well.  

The woods have eyes

Despite the fact that our dog is the most submissive creature in the world, she clearly has a keen sense of something (hearing, smell, dog aura?). She barked in the house late last night, which is very rare for her. We went out onto the deck to be greeted with this:

Despite the fact that there was next to no light coming from the house, it was plenty to reflect in the demon eyes of the beast - they just sat there staring at us. I went up to the stone wall to see it slinking off, not particularly bothered by my presence. Yellow eyes would probably mean coyote as compared to fox - it was certainly dog like in its movements.

*Ok, this is a Photoshoped picture - no way my camera was picking anything up in the dark, but it was just like that. Promise.

Milk Snake and Ring-Necked Snake

This baby milk snake was out by the swing set. Glad I didn't weed wack (strim) him like I managed to with an eastern ribbon last week. With the ring-necked snake (also a constrictor) that I failed to get a picture of, this brings the number of different types snakes to five.


You may as well also see this video of a scientific experiment involving a garter snake and a Dunkin Donuts' straw.

Carolina Locust

When they fly away their wings really hum - surprisingly broad black wings with a yellow edge.

Meadowhawk Dragonflies

Male


Female

American Lady on mint flower

Spotted Salamander

Apologies for the lack of updates - no fantastic excuse that I'll bore you with. Maybe in the spirit of this post you can pretend I was growing a limb back...



Found 'neath the woodpile

You are not ready grasshopper

Northern Katydid: "eh?"

Long-legged Fly (Condylostylus sp.)

For such a small bug, really quite stunning...

Northern Water Snake

Very nice snake that looks like it was dropped by a bird onto the road. While non-venomous , it will bite humans, but unfortunately not this one, who was either very stunned or nearly dead. It was able to wrap its tail round me when I was rescuing it to take it to the wetlands at the bottom of the garden, but I have my doubts for its survival.

A Beetle

On my newly pressure washed deck

Short-Tailed Weasel (Stoat)

I don't know who was more surprised - Kirsty when the stoat dropped its freshly killed lunch (chipmunk) at her feet, or the stoat who suddenly found itself in the presence of humans and down one lunchtime snack. After running away, it reconsidered its loss, and darted back, grabbed the limp chipmunk and scuttled off. Needless to say, I did not get a picture in time.

Fireflies

I looked outside last night to see the field covered in tiny pinpricks of light. There must have been fifty plus fireflies out there. In some parts of the US they synchronize their flashes in the first few weeks of June - mine weren't completely in step, but there were periods when it looked like the flashbulbs at Fenway Park when Ortiz steps up.

Also, it turns out that they are impossible to video. Sorry about those 22 seconds of your life you'll never get back.

Dragonfly X

Indigo Bunting, Pine Grosbeak, and others

New arrivals this month: hummingbird (see below), pine grosbeak, rose-breasted grosbeak, a scarlet tanager, oriole, and an indigo bunting (pictured)
And a better picture of the cardinals - male and female:

Coyote or Gray Fox?

I'm like 60/40 it's a coyote.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Here's one at our feeder, with an obvious lack of ruby-throat because the female is the munter, as is common with birds.

Blue Jay

Surprisingly flighty for such a big bird.

Groundhog Day

This cute little bugger has made a burrow just down our garden. We named him Phil. There was no shadow.