Saturday, August 29, 2015

Prospect Park: Birds and Insects 8.29.15

     I got out on a 2.5 hour walk early in Prospect Park, walked from the boathouse through a trail to the Vale, back toward the Ravine followed the water down to the Neathermead and then got to walk along the Lullwater.
Lots of quick-moving red eyed vireos out together. Seen in various areas during today's walk.
A terrible photo, but helped me to ID this unknown at the time... warblers this time of year are notorious for getting a wee bit confusing. This is a black-throated blue. The little white patch at the base of the primary feathers (on the wings) was one clue I went by, as well as the marking around the eye. Black-throated blue is my very best match. 
A not-so shy grey catbird. I like these guys, but they are everywhere!
Not a bee/hornet/wasp or anything from the hymenoptera order of insects. This belongs to the order, diptera- flies! This is a Toxomerus hover fly. They look like a wasp, but do not sting. Like a bee, they feed on nectar and can hover, as their name implies. Nice job at mimicking, by this creature.
Fooled again? This is also a fly (order, diptera)! I a=have identified this one as transverse flower fly. These flies too feed on nectar, and also in turn are helpful pollinators like bees and butterflies. 
A pearl crescent butterfly, feeding in the same flower patch as the two flies above.
An Eastern Bumble Bee comes to join the pearl crescent on the same flower. That bee is coated in pollen! I also found a great online guide to bumble bee species, did you know there were so many??
A robin born this year, just looks so wonderfully awkward in that juvenile plumage.
A grey catbird takes a stroll on the Lullwater with a few others, and myself.

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