New England moth season progressing rapidly into the typical first brood spring species and the late spring specialists like Orthosia revicta, Psaphida electilis, and Lycia just emerging. Probably an interesting mix coming up with the remains of the early spring species hanging on and some of the earliest emerging sphinx and saturniids with how warm it is this week
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Found the first orchid in bloom for the year. And so it all starts all over again, there’s this trail of orchids to follow now to see them all in bloom and it will fill all the weekends for the next several months, each week a new species will start blooming… I’m not addicted though!
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Here in the DC area, I’ve spotted blue-gray gnatcatchers, eastern Phoebes, and heard towhees calling. This spring, however, I’m also observing insects more closely than ever before, and have spotted a vast variety of species out for spring, including:
- A bee fly
- A European hornet
- Tiger swallowtails
- A blister beetle
- A Bibio feromatus Marchfly
- A swarm of subterranean termites
- Tons of tiger beetles, both bronzed and six-spotted
- A nest of Asian shaggy digger bees
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First flowers opened on Linus lewisii and common lilac in my garden this weekend
New Mexico olive, redbuds, and several native species of Ribes are blooming across central NM
Many Salticidae are one molt away from adult form here
I saw a ton of plants on Mount Diablo this past Friday but there were very few insects on them. That seems to be the general consensus in the Bay Area: pollinator timing is not syncing up well with the crazy blooms. But we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. It’s still decently chilly here in most areas.
Or it’s all moths 
But I tend to agree. When I was in Death Valley early March, there would be only a handful of bees, butterflies, and hoverflies for hundreds of flowers. Invertebrate life cycles are more stable than plant phenology.
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First bearded iris flower has opened in my garden. April 5, 2022 vs April 19, 2023!
Our first male Indigo Bunting in the yard, 4/20/23,
west central Michigan.
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Columbine sawflies are currently munching away on my plants here in NE Ohio.
Can’t say I’m happy about THAT development
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Where is “here” ?
My goodness, the berry-picking season begins early in the North Carolina Low Country. Still in April and already the mulberries are ripe: Mulberries (Genus Morus) from Greenville, NC, USA on April 21, 2023 at 04:05 PM by Jason Hernandez.
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I’m a little jealous; I haven’t had mulberries in ages. 
I managed to spot four dragonflies back on the 12th; managed to get a barely recognizable photo of one of them. When i went back to the refuge the next morning to try and get better photos, though – no odes. My guess is that they probably became bird food.
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I had my first tick of the year. April 28,2023.
Breaking out the ‘bug juice’….
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Over in the UK there seems to be a concensus growing that the critters have gone AWOL this year. We had an astonishing (for us) series of heatwaves and drought last summer, and winter has had a long tail (just occasional warm days - otherwise generally a bit cold and wet). Last year for the CNC I got 40 moths in the moth trap + other things: this year, nada - zilch from 2 nights (moths that is - I did get one caddisfly). Weather could have been better, but still. Hopefully there’ll be a ‘bug superbloom’ at some point…
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Sorry to hear that. Every calm, warm night this year has had a crowd at my UV lamp and the wildlife populations in New Mexico are quite healthy and resilient.
For my weekly-ish contribution to this topic, many widlflowers are in full bloom along the Columbia River in northern Oregon https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/158456325
It was kind of overwhelming. But yes, flowers for all!
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This harbinger of spring was grooming on the trail in Gatineau Park this afternoon
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Had the first May-bug yesterday, at least it means that May is really here.)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/159858142
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