The 21st Century Matriarch

There are always plenty of plants to see during a walk at Brookside Gardens, but I’ve been looking for insects in a few of my short walks before starting my shift inside the butterfly exhibit. The weather has been pleasant…just warm enough for the insects to be active but not overly hot for a walk. I saw an Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly along the walk toward the arrivals area for the butterfly exhibit.

A few feet away…about 30 seconds later…I saw a Hummingbird Moth Clearwing. What a great way to start the morning!

The next time I was at the gardens, I walked back to the same area. I photographed 2 different insects but they were not as showy as the dragonfly and hummingbird moth.

I headed up to the salvia garden to see if there were still any hummingbirds feeding on the plants there. I saw a couple of females but didn’t have the right camera to attempt to photograph them. I did see a Common Buckeye taking a break on a gravel path.

2019 09 IMG_5354.jpg — The salvia garden is very popular with bees of all kinds. There were large bees that were nectar robbing because they were too big to get into the flower (sometimes the stems bent a little with the weight of the bee as well). They had shiny abdomens so were probably carpenter bees.

One morning before my shift at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy last month, I finally managed to photograph the hummingbird moth (this one might be a Hemaris thysbe) that was frequenting the path toward the exhibits ticket taker station. They are difficult to photograph because they are always in motion. Most of the time the wings are just a blur. The wings can be moving differently enough that one is visible….and the other not!

I try to get different angles. The first time I ever saw a hummingbird moth (and had no idea what it was), I knew it wasn’t a hummingbird when I saw that it had antennae.