Wildlife Wednesday: Tiny Syrphid fly and Notsotiny Skimmer Dragonfly

1. Tiny Syrphid Fly: Toxomerus marginatus on Crepe Myrtle flower above, a species of hoverfly I have run into before (if my ID is correct, that is).

2. Notsotiny Skimmer Dragonfly: Below, Common Whitetail (odd name since I see no whitetail) on rock. And as I just learned over on my favorite insect ID site bugguide.net, it's an adult male Skimmer Dragonfly Plathemis lydia.

Back to Life

back to reality as the song goes. I spend my days watching plants, weeding and paying some mind to visitors and this is enough for me now.

Inspiration

I have to admit that much of the inspiration for my insect pictures comes from the desire to dazzle my faraway nephew who loves bugs. He would have appreciated the Dragonfly (Common Green Darner) that seemed to sit for a picture for me this afternoon in the Japanese Garden and the Jurassic-looking grasshopper from last month in the Rose Garden. They were both giants in the insect world.

Field Trip to Chanticleer & Longwood Gardens

Chanticleer charmed us all right away. Even in the parking lot, we were admiring the plants and the place. I loved how this garden had all these little pockets of awesomeness, whether a handmade wooden bench or fence or plants growing in pockets carved out of stumps, all made by the gardeners/artists working there. Longwood was perhaps its perfect contrast..a serious machine of a place with a nightly lightshow and fountains and hoses that pump out fertilized water or treehouses shaped like cathedrals and beehives. The gardeners working at both places though were pretty generous with filling us in on their doings. The only complaint really was the weather, which was blazing.