Today we have a potpourri of photos from several readers. Their captions are indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.
From Terry Ward:
Three Monarch butterflies [Danaus plexippus] in our community butterfly/hummingbird garden in Austin, TX:
Hooded mergansers from Christopher Moss:
A male Lophodytes cucullatus:
BTW, I find my birdbook let me down: what I had thought a female bufflehead is clearly a female hooded merganser!
From Mark Richardson
The first set is a flock of bushtits, Parus minimus. Flocks of these birds come and go for about a day or two (we’re lucky to see them when we do). They come in like a flutter of butterflies, do their business and are gone- POOF. Amazing when you can capture their fleeting moments And these little interlopers understand what suet is- a fact that needs looking into (so many species grok the block).
Next is a Northern Hepatic-Tanager, Piranga hepatica (not positive) with arthropod snack. I love photos like these…I didn’t even know it had a morsel until viewing on-screen:
I’ve found that feeding birds in these parts inevitably attracts the local American black bears, Ursus americanus. Regular readers will know we’ve had the bear “Sheila” (her official name) roaming around these parts for a few years and she had two cubs last spring. Here she is after dismantling and “eating” the finch feeder’s food. She’s grappling the empty feeder and has the look: “What? Wasn’t me. I don’t even like this stuff.” Soon after she bails over the fence (last photo). LOL! I really love bears (at least the ones I know), but they make it hard if you also love birds and have dogs who go crazy at bears.
Finally, some beetles from reader Bryan Lepore. I’ve either lost the notes on these, or they weren’t supplied (this is what happens when I go traveling). Readers’ help identifying them would be appreciated:
Cool mix – I love that uppity Merganser!
Let me see if WEIT has taught me anything:
The bug is a true bug, Miloe violaceus : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meloe_violaceus
If you save the pics to your iPhone, iOS does a pretty good job IDing the specimens.
Maybe a better reference : https://bugguide.net/node/view/303
That is a kind of beetle.
Ah – so Hemiptera are “true bugs”.
Now I know.
Thanks to all three of you for the entertaining photos. The juxtaposition of the bear climbing a fence and the bug climbing a leaf is amusing.
Very cool collection of animals large and small. Oh. And there were some plants in there as well.
Good stuff! The Hepatic-Tanager looks to be eating a sawfly wasp (best guess).
I think you’re right, thanks! We do have a lot of sawflies around here.
Beautiful photos. Thank you.
Walk safely Sheila.
Do you think the tanager could be a Western Tanager, which has yellow and white wingbars as this one does?
You could be correct. I had a hard time identifying the bird. Thanks.
Yes it’s definitely a Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana)—a non-breeding male or possibly a young one, with little to no red on the face.
Hepatic Tanager has a pretty small range in the US—essentially restricted to the south-west.
I love your photos. Especially the bear!