Birds and Bees and Butterflies

Saturday Critters and I'd Rather Be Birdin'.

Summer is in full swing in Virginia and flowers and pollinators can be found if you look for them. Butterflies can be elusive unless you find their favorite flowers on a sunny day.

These pictures are from the Front Royal area. The photo below of purple buddleia blossoms shows butterflies plus a Japanese beetle, a non-native species that is considered a pest for the way it chews up valuable plants.

The numbers of bees has declined and people are appreciating them more. We need their work as pollinators in order for our fruit-bearing plants to be productive. Here we see a couple of bees on milkweed blooms. Milkweed is also a favorite plant of butterflies.

The beehives are at Shenandoah River State Park.

"To make honey, a worker bee flies to a flower and extracts watery nectar using her straw-like tongue. Bees forage 20 or more times a day and can carry up to 50% of their body weight. 

The bee returns the nectar to the hive in her honey stomach. (The pollen bees need for food is carried on the back of their fuzzy legs.)"

These last two pictures are a bit confusing. I believe there were two Carolina wrens on the log, and I thought they were mating. I took the last picture moments after the one above it, believing there were still two birds in the image. When I reviewed the image, however, I counted three birds. One is airborne and blurred, one is sitting on the log, but there is a third one apparently diving toward the log (at lower left).

What is he up to? Photobombing? I don't know because it happened quickly and I was behind the viewfinder, trying to catch the action.