Sept. 13, 2009 - A hawk, some insects and a flower

This Broad-winged Hawk was perched on a dead tree in the middle of a small pond near our driveway. It has a very intense gaze and is probably looking for its next meal. Broad-winged Hawks are very common in their breeding territory which includes the Eastern United States and Southern Canada. They tend to flock together in the fall when they migrate. A couple of years ago, at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota, over 100,000 migrating Broad-winged Hawks were counted in a single day.

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I took this damselfly photo at Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton, Minnesota. I haven’t been able to positively identify it but I think it is a female Hagen’s Bluet. Note how the wings are held close to the body, which is characteristic of most damselflies.

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One subgroup of damselflies, however, is called the spreadwings. They tend to hold their wings out from their bodies but pointed to the rear, as you can see in this photo. This is an Emerald Spreadwing and it was at our home in northern Minnesota.

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Fall is the time when Spotted Touch-me-not begins blooming. It is also called Jewelweed and is a favorite of hummingbirds. This photo was also taken at our northern Minnesota home.

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We see lots of bees on the flowers at our home. When I took some photos of them, I discovered that we had several species of bees. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised by that. I submitted my photos to BugGuide.com and found out that this one is called a Tricolored Bumble Bee because of the gold, black, and white colors on its body.

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