Wings of Waning Winter

Winter is certainly on the wane her in Bastardland. Besides the annual ritual of shoveling snow while wearing gym shorts, the local wildlife is coming out of its winter torpor. One of the most unusual sights of this time of year is seeing insects crawling on the snow. In this vicinity, the stoneflies, specifically the Taeniopterygidae are the first insects to emerge at winter's end. I was able to snap a decent picture of an individual, probably Taeniopteryx nivalis, resting on the end of a pruned branch of one of our onsite apple trees:

From what I've read, stoneflies, which have an aquatic larval stage, are sensitive to pollution. Either the local "flies" have evolved a high tolerance for the waters of the New York metro area, or the onsite body of water is a lot cleaner than I had supposed. I hope it's the latter, just in case I ever trip and fall into the drink.