August, 2015 was a good month for pollinators in our new gardens. There were many flowers in bloom and a large variety of them with all the new native species for different types of  pollinators to enjoy. Flies, bees, moths, butterflies, wasps and hummingbirds were seen throughout the month. The Cardinal Flower was visited frequently by hummingbirds, which is always amazing to watch.

This is a blow fly, which normally is attracted to the smell of rotting meat, but they feed on flower nectar, plant sap and other sugary materials as adults. These flies, and others, can be very effective pollinators

To many this insect probably looks like a bee. It is black and yellow with strips, but if you look closer you’ll see this insect only has two wings that are out at an angle and its eye are large and at the front of its head. This is a Syrphid Fly, otherwise known as a Hover or Flower Fly and it is a ‘wanna-bee’. These hoverflies may not be able to carry as much pollen as bees can, but they make up for it by making a lot of visits to flowers.

As you can see in the above picture, this bee, with its eyes on the side of its head, is capturing pollen on its back legs. Their ‘pollen basket’, as it is called, is located on its hind legs.

Bees can be very difficult to specifically identify. I am far from an expert and have had to edit posts after learning more about a specific bee. I believe the above picture is of a domesticated honey bee which were introduced by early European settlers.

This beautiful Tiger Swallowtail visited our butterfly bush regularly.

This Swallowtail had a lot of damage to its wings. Notice the holes and the missing edges? Did you know that you can actually fix a butterfly’s broken wing? Me neither. Check out this link to see how or watch the video below.