mthew

Eastern Tailed Blue with her hindwings, and tails, shredded. Painted Lady with a big chunk of one hindwing gone. Question Mark, ditto. Just enough to still fly for this Red Admiral.

Knapweed (Centaurea) is a draw for this big Golden Northern Bumble Bee/Bombus fervidus. And for this European Small-Woolcarder Bee/Pseudoanthidium nanum. This relatively recent introduction to North America loves this plant. Another Golden Northern in a bindweed flower. Nearby this Cerceris weevil wasp was lurking or resting. And, for a finale, a female Monarch laying eggs on…

Atop the Temple of Peregrines, three of the four Common Ravens seen last week. Some of these must surely be members of the ravenous, rambunctious, and raucous Class of 2023…

Two male American Kestrels. The lower one, whining incessantly, was a begging juvenile. Who’s your daddy?

The color of these pollen bundles! Not sure if the pollen is all from these mountain mints, in bloom now and virtual crack for pollinators, or a mix of flowers, but the pattern is delicious.

First one I’ve managed to photograph this year, I mean. This is the second I’ve seen this year. With the other female I saw today, that makes three! And, right next to the meeting place for today’s Green-Wood member’s walk: A Monarch egg on the underside of Common Milkweed.

Parancistrocerus leionotus. Euodynerus hidalgo ssp. boreoorientalis. These potter wasps are licking up nectar produced by American Trumpet Vine buds before they bloom. Such extraflora nectaries are a huge hit with wasps, bees, ants, beetles, and other critters. Find a good patch of this wall-covering plant, and appeal of sugary carbohydrates will never again be obscure. Great Golden…

Canada Greese, European Starlings, Pond Slider, Wood Duck. Missing here is a fishing Great Egret and a permanently teed-off male Red-winged Blackbird diving and yelling at it. Orange Bluet males: above recently emerged from exuviae; below in full adult coloring. Amberwing and snapper…

A pair of mating Hibiscus Sawfly/Atomacera decepta. Well, maybe. They are on a hibiscus…. Sawflies are pretty hard to ID by photo. And this, I suspect, is one their larvae, defoliating another Malvaceae family plant. Sawflies are not flies; they’re akin to wasps. Note the two pairs of wings seen so well in the adult…