Scouting the butterflies! Robberfly defeat!

Today I was off work and managed to get the time to look for butterflies and see what was blooming. This time of year many of our local "hot spots" can be fantastic or a disaster. Disaster usually means the highway department has mowed the roadside down to brown nubs. Each year the wild flowers change, some that were great last year are gone or taken over by something else.

I visited the Flat River Impoundment near Durham, it is one of the best wild places we have for butterflies. A good walk there can take 4 hours, today I shortened it and walked 2 hours. In past years Tickseed Sunflowers (Bidens) have been everywhere(seas of yellow), loads of butterflies on them. This year the tickseed is behind and barely blooming. So right now the best wild flower is Narrow-leaved Sneezeweed, it grows in the gravel roadway around a foot tall, today there was atleast a mile of in in the road. Also Brazilian Verbena was everywhere, it can be awesome for butterflies, today it was barely noticed by butterflies, might need some rain. Thistles were on there way out, still they are butterfly magnets!

Anyway cutting to the chase here are some photos I managed to get with my point and shoot camera today. 

The show was stolen right after I got out of my car by these Silvery Checkerspots above and below on narrow-leafed Sneezeweed.  I counted 25 of them in the parking lot, usually you have to walk at least a mile to find just a few. Found at least 100 of them, one on my best days ever for finding this species. The link above sends you to my big butterfly page Butterflies of the Carolinas and Virginias which is now back up after 31 days of being down. Forgot to pay for the hosting, the hosting changed hands and names, left me confused.

Below is a Pearl Crescent on sneezeweed, they look very much like the larger Silvery Checkerspot shown above.

Below is a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on thistle, saw maybe 25 of them today. This is a crappy photo compared to the DSLR photos on my website.

Below is a Painted Lady on thistle, saw 3 of these today. I believe I missed seeing any of these last year. The 4 small eye spot help to tell it from the American Lady which was absent today.

Never expected to find this tiny Juniper Hairstreak today, what a lovely find! And on sneezeweed, sure that is another first for me. Made my day for sure! Their host plant is Eastern Red Cedar. Be sure to see my best photos of this tiny butterfly on my website.

These can be common in your garden, only saw three of them today. This is a Silver-spotted Skipper on thistle.

OK a little excitement in my top bar hive today! I came home and found the bees balling at the hive entrance. Balling is when the bees attack something or protect their queen. I saw the queen just yesterday two bars back.

 Anyway I watched for a few mintutes and saw the tail end of a Giant Robberfly under the pile of bees. Yes sir my tamest bees defended themselves very well, way to go girls! Below is the invader after they kicked him out.

 I think this is a Giant Robberfly, Promachus bastardiiI did a full post on them last year.

Robberflies Everywhere this year!

I have at least 4 Robberflies Promachus bastardii hanging out near the bee hive. I'm betting a single robberfly captures and eats 5-6 honey bees each a day. When I did the Durham Butterfly Count last week I saw over 100 of these robberflies in the fields and gardens.

Thinking if one honey bees makes a teaspoon of honey in its life time then these robberflies are taking away honey from the bees with every kill they make, it has to be pounds of honey.

Giant Robberfly, Promachus bastardii

mating in the garden.

Eating one of my worker bees!

Several of you asked in comments on my last post which lens do I use. All the photos taken in the last post were taken with my Canon G11 point and shoot camera as in the photo below of a robberfly eating an honey bee.

These bees with tongues sticking out were taken with my 180mm macro lens on my Canon 20D. All the other robberfly photos here were taken with the 180mm macro lens with fill flash.

Been wanting to share this photo.

Trying to get inspired to work in the garden. We lost 2 more big camellias and my first 3 camellia babies were not watered and died too. I still have 5 babies that did get watered and are ok. Rain perhaps a little tonight, Sunday and Monday are more hopeful.

The plan in the garden is to make a 6 ft x 8 ft wood frame to turn later into a cold frame. I want to plant carrots, kale and salad greens. 6 x 8 because of the open space I have available, I have left over lumber scraps to make it with.