I don't really have favourites, but….

You know, the hairstreaks may be my favourite group of butterflies, if I could ever manage to pick such a thing. The big, showy guys definitely have a lot going for them, but there's something very rewarding about tracking down what looks like a small, drab brownish thing and discovering once you're close that it's not drab at all.

Banded Hairstreak

Coral Hairstreak

Acadian Hairstreak

Bees Ahoy

There really are an astonishing number of bees. I don't think I fully appreciated that until I started paying a bit more attention to that whole group of insects. How the heck did the honey bee get all the fame and glory when you've got gorgeous little things like this flying around?

Bicolored Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon virescens)

And let's talk bumble bees. Those fuzzy little blimps that really shouldn't be able to fly. I know that a lot of people don't realize that it's not just The Bumble Bee, singular, but have a look at this ID chart if you really want to go down that rabbit hole.

Here's just the ones that I've found close to home, within a relatively short time of actually looking:

Two-spotted Bumble Bee (Bombus bimaculatus)

Northern Amber Bumble Bee (Bombus borealis)

Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens)

Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus griseocollis)

Tricolored Bumble Bee (Bombus ternarius)

Yellow-banded Bumble Bee (Bombus terricola)

Super obvious differences there, right? That's such a great help when you're trying to figure out a busy queen who won't sit still long enough to photograph (I have not yet graduated to catching bees in nets, that seems like something that comes with a steep learning curve full of stings). I love them, though. Bumbles are rapidly becoming some of my favourites.