Such A Lot To See

The past week has turned from a delightful 70 degress to a sweltering 90 this weekend. And there has been plenty to see out and about the neighbourhood all week.

Across the street in the park today I fond this nice immature male Common White tail

And then also in the park was this male Great Blue Skimmer. Not one I see a lot around here and one I know I havent posted on Banished's Bugs before

The pond was very very busy with the heat being what it is. But while the heat brings eveything out it also means they are mainly buzzing around like maniacs and barely settling to rest. I could see a whole host of Needham's Skimmers zooming back and forth but couldnt get a show of any of them. I thought the same was going to be true of the Saddlebags too. These things never ever perch so far as Ive seen and I thought Id be out luck again until the mating pair appeared. They mate on the wing and oviposit on the wing too but at least all the action slows them down sufficiently to grab a picture or two.Like so:

I think these are Black Saddlebags  Tramea lacerata . The name comes from the big dark patches at the base of the wings that supposedly look like...saddlebags.

Elsewhere, in the yard  most of the butterflies to be seen were American Painted Ladies Vanessa virginiensis. Very like the Painted Lady Vanessa cardui I knew from the UK which occurs here too. The best way to tell them apart is from the underwings. I'll search out underwings for both to post later. Meanwhile this week the American Painted here did escape the attention of the crab spider.

The spider retired back into the buddleia flowers as it wasn't vey well camouflaged otherwise. They can range from white through yellow to green according to where they are hanging out. But deep purple is beyond its mimic ability.

And in the front yard our Yucca has a 6 foot spike of white flowers that is full, as every year with these leaf Footed Bugs Leptoglossus phyllopus. Understandably we at Chez Banished call them the Yucca Bugs.