Tag Archives: pollinators

Photo of the Week – February 1, 2019

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It’s till pretty drab and brown outside, so today’s photos are again selected from last summer’s shots. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is glad to look at some color.

We missed out on most of the polar vortex here in Aurora; we only dropped as low as -5 degrees one night, and we’re back up close to 50 degrees today. The misplaced jokes I’ve heard (“heh heh, global warming, am I right?”) reminded me that I’d written a post several years ago about how global warming does, in fact, influence longer and colder temperatures at times during the winter. I looked up the post and was dismayed to see it was almost SIX YEARS OLD. And we’re still arguing (and joking) instead of acting.

Moving on, though, here is some color from last August. I photographed bees and a few other insects on tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum) several different times during that month. (Which reminds me of another previous post, this one on native thistles and their importance to pollinators). Here are some highlights from those August thistle photos.

A crab spider waits for the next pollinator to stop by…
A skipper butterfly on tall thistle at our family prairie.
I think this might be a fruit fly (Tephrellia?) that lays eggs in thistle flowers. Anyone know for sure?

Something Blue

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One of the most striking plants in our prairies this time of year is pitcher sage, also known as blue sage (Salvia azurea).  It’s tall, of course, but more importantly, as the surrounding prairie is dominated by green-becoming-gold grasses and big yellow flowers, pitcher sage stands out simply because it is starkly and unabashedly blue.

A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of a bee that specializes on pitcher sage, but there are many more insects commonly seen on the plant.  Last week, I spent about 45 minutes in our Platte River Prairies, photographing pitcher sage and as many visitors as I could.

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I initially pulled my camera out because there were several monarch butterflies flitting around a patch of pitcher sage.  While chasing them around (and, as always, being thankful no one was watching me), I came across quite a few other insects – some of which I managed to photograph.

A sulphur butterfly (and a second partially shown at the bottom left) enjoys pitcher sage.

Anthophora walshii (a digger bee) is a species I see on pitcher sage frequently, and this was just one of several hanging around a single patch of flowers.

This moth was nose deep.

Several skipper butterflies were around, including this sachem skipper.

Not all the insects were feeding on pollen and nectar.  I’m not sure what this plant bug was doing, but there it was.

This blister beetle was feeding on the flower itself.

This monarch was so distracted by the nectar of pitcher sage, I took this photo from about a foot away with a wide angle lens.

One more monarch…

In addition to being tall, striking, and beautiful, pitcher sage is also pretty good at withstanding drought.  During late August of 2012 – a year of extreme drought, pitcher sage stood out against a background of brown dormant grass, blooming just like it does every year.  Not only did it provide some welcome color when many other plants were wilting, it gave all the insects pictured above, and many others, something to eat when they needed it most.

What a great plant!