Photographed this Honey Bee loaded with yellow pollen still feeding on Stiff Goldenrod.

We still have an occasional Monarch on either the New England Asters(shown above) or the Stiff Goldenrods.

The warm(70 degrees) weather has brought out hoards of Boxelder Bugs.  Harmless but a little irritating when there are so many.

Caught this honey bee with photo in midflight.

Sow thistle backlit by the sun.  Believe it or not I got this shot with a Kodak camera.

BEES AND BEEFLIES

Honeybee on Panicled Aster.  Our grasslands and prairie has many species of aster and goldenrod blooming now.  This provides food for many species of bees, wasps, and beeflies. To view more photos go up and to the right and click on September 2012.

Notice how yellow the back part of this Bumble Bee is.  That is all pollen that has been moved to the back part for transport to the hive.

Bumble Bee on Coneflower head.  We have several species on our prairie and I have never been stung by one(yet) even though I get within 6 inches to photograph them.

Paper Wasp on Goldenrod.  This species makes small (6-25 chambered) nest under eves.

Green wasp on Purple Stemmed Aster.  Not a very good photo but I seldom see this species-not sure of correct species name yet. Go up and to the right.  Click on September 2012 for more photos.

Baldfaced Hornet on Stiff Goldenrod. This is the species that creates the large football shaped nests in the woods.

Mud Dauber wasp that got into the house just below the screen.  I carefully pick these up and take them outside-they are not aggressive and I have never been stung by one.

This is a yellow and black beefly that imitates the marking of a bee or wasp.  Note the wings are fly wings and not bee style wings.  The flower is a panicled aster..

                                             Black beefly

Monarch on Stiff Goldenrod-as of 9/19/2012 we still had a few monarch and 3 hummingbirds still hanging on here.

Rescued this Green Darner from a screen on a cold morning-hard to take a one-handed picture.
She flew away in just a short time.

 

Young Red Tailed Hawk

Red Tailed hawks have the red on the top of the tail.  This is a fairly young one.

The New England asters have started blooming and will provide bee food right up to a hard freeze.

The garter snakes are on the move to find a rock ledge to crawl into for the winter.

 Our hummer feeders vary from 6 at a time to up to about a dozen birds as new northern arrivals head south and find our feeders.  Our records show that over the past ten years that almost all the hummers will have left for warmer climes by Sept. 21.  Took this picture on Sept. 5.