Today was a good day for butterflies. I found this red admiral butterfly feasting on some lilacs. These are pretty tame butterflies and you can often even handle them.
Next I found a red spotted purple butterfly that has just emerged and his wings are still expanding.
I was able to gently pick it up from the grassy area and relocate it to a less traveled area.
I also found a huge pale faced hornet. This gal was cold in the shade and was warming up in the sunrays. These hornets are generally pretty docile and aren't aggressive unless you attack their nest.
The 17 year cicadas are covering everything right now. Here's one that is enjoying a nice fragrant iris.
Here's a couple more on some landscaping plants.
Finally here's a tiny little weevil resting on my pointer finger. I'm not sure of the ID on this guy but I found him on a thistle plant.
Super!
Thanks :-)
here in new England we have a white face hornet and they are REALLY vicious. They will attack out of nowhere, and they literally take chunks out of you. NASTY things!
I saw a butterfly like the one expanding wings in the Big garden yesterday.
Ha I bet you tried removing one of their nests right? So far they've been pretty docile towards me. Alot of butterflies were out today I got a couple tiger swallowtails on my zoom lens today as well, just have to process the raw files. Did you happen to see what cocoon the black butterfly hatched out of?
Hornets aren't aggressive in general (however, Homo sapiens often is). :)
By the way: great pictures!
Thanks :-), I once got stung by a swarm of yellowjackets because I threw a dirt clod at their nest. I learned my lesson.
Oh! I was using the description you used, I didn't mean I saw one stretching it's wings. It was already zooming around the Big garden.
I really like the black and blue ones. Once a sunray hits them they get really vibrant looking.
What a beautiful gift nature offered you, I love butterflies and yours are beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, I'll try and get the tiger swallow tails processed soon.