First Moths of the Year!

With the nice warm weather we've had in the past couple of days, I went for a walk in the woods this morning, hoping to find the Wood Frogs out and about. Well, it's still too early for them, it seems, but there are some other creatures becoming more active with the warm days and mid-40s nights: Moths!

Last night, I got my first moth-y visitors of the year under my porch light. (Technically, I saw a moth flying outside my window earlier in the year, on January 31st, but it didn't come to the porch light and I didn't get a good look at it, so that only sort of counts.) Two Sallow Moths of some species or other (genus Eupsilia) were hanging around, one with pretty pale orange spots on its wings:

And another with bright white spots in the same place -- this moth careened into me and landed on my shirt, where it actually let me scoop it up in my hand:

What pretty wings you have, little creature:

And this is why I love moths. Up close, this creature reminds me of something big and furry and cuddly, like a yak. (Can one cuddle a yak?) Just look at that face!

The moth stayed on my hand quite calmly for several minutes, cleaning its antennae and vibrating its wings almost constantly (presumably to warm up):

And then it flew away again, off into the night. I feel like I made a new friend. :)

The moths weren't the only insects waking up, either. The porch light was surrounded by little gnats with their dainty feathery antennae, like this one that followed me back into the house:
 

So there we have it, flying creatures and warm weather (for now anyway). Yay, spring!