Insect on Oregon grape

[csh...@bywordofmind.com]

After our 2nd vaccination shot (Yippee!) We took another drive east past Crabtree.  This time we headed out on southbound circle.  We've never been to the Larwood Covered Bridge where the Roaring River joins the Santiam.  It has a really lovely  well tended park with several picnic tables.  It must be a swimming hole magnet in summer.  This was another little pocket that didn't seem to have had quite as much damage from the ice storms.  There are several gnarled old maples with long lateral branches loaded with thick moss and licorice fern.  These could have been likely candidates for getting weighed down and damaged by ice.  I took a photo of some Oregon grape and didn't notice the photo bomb bug until later.  It's loading up on nectar, but its comrade to the right wasn't so lucky.

We also saw some deer and lots of birds... mostly moving too fast to id any small ones,  but several TVs, Red-tailed hawks, a couple of Kestrels, three adult Bald Eagles and maybe some youngsters.  One Bald eagle was perched in a patch of small scraggled trees in a meadow directly above a small flock of sheep.  I'd think the lambs are too big to take at this point, so it might have been a coincidence, but I felt for the ewes.

[Bill Gerth]

Thanks for sharing your nice photos! I cropped your Oregon grape photo to zoom in on the insects. The one feasting on the nectar or pollen is a female dance fly (Family: Empididae). It is probably a species from the genus Rhamphomyia, but I would need a good look at the wing venation to confirm the genus ID. Meanwhile, here is a link to a photo of a similar-looking specimen on a yellow flower in CA for comparison...

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1658089

 

It's always interesting to see the variety of flower-visiting insects! Bees, wasps and butterflies/moths get a lot of the attention, but there are a good number of flower-visiting flies and beetles too.

 

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Bill

On 03/31/2021 1:32 PM csh...@bywordofmind.com <csh...@bywordofmind.com> wrote:

 

 

After our 2nd vaccination shot (Yippee!) We took another drive east past Crabtree.  This time we headed out on southbound circle.  We've never been to the Larwood Covered Bridge where the Roaring River joins the Santiam.  It has a really lovely  well tended park with several picnic tables.  It must be a swimming hole magnet in summer.  This was another little pocket that didn't seem to have had quite as much damage from the ice storms.  There are several gnarled old maples with long lateral branches loaded with thick moss and licorice fern.  These could have been likely candidates for getting weighed down and damaged by ice.  I took a photo of some Oregon grape and didn't notice the photo bomb bug until later.  It's loading up on nectar, but its comrade to the right wasn't so lucky.

 

We also saw some deer and lots of birds... mostly moving too fast to id any small ones,  but several TVs, Red-tailed hawks, a couple of Kestrels, three adult Bald Eagles and maybe some youngsters.  One Bald eagle was perched in a patch of small scraggled trees in a meadow directly above a small flock of sheep.  I'd think the lambs are too big to take at this point, so it might have been a coincidence, but I felt for the ewes.

 

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