Wild rose in bloom, with European skipper butterfly and beetle

 

In Glacier National Park, we hiked the Running Eagle Falls nature trail and saw this wild rose blooming with a couple of insects checking it out. The butterfly is a European skipper, accidentally introduced into America over a hundred years ago. The trail has signs along the way that identify bushes and trees in English and the native Pikuni (Blackfeet) people's language.

Samsung a52, f1.8, 1/1591 sec., ISO 25, 5.2 mm, cropped tighter

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

American Dipper in the Yellowstone River

 

This American dipper, otherwise known as the water ouzel, was traipsing around in the Yellowstone River's Le Hardy Rapids. Dippers feed on the insects that live in rapids, so it can move through the water with little threat of being swept away. They actually walk on the bottom surface of the river and feed on insects that wash down the river or are attached to the rocks. There's a small parking area next to the Le Hardy Rapids and a trail with a deck for visitors to look out over the river. We caught sight of harlequin ducks and pulled off to take pictures of them and the dipper turned out to be a bonus.

Dippers don't get cold in the river water because the have the most wax in their feathers of any songbird. When they dip into the water, their feathers don't get wet at all.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sticky Geranium with a wasp on the petal

A wasp in a Sticky Geranium (Geranium viscosissimum) blossom in Granite Canyon, Grand Teton National Park.  We photographed this flower with insect while on a 3-day backpacking trip from Teton Village in the southern end of the Teton Range and came out at Jenny Lake around the middle part of the range.

This shot was taken with the macro settings on the camera and fortunately there was no wind to cause blurring.

Remember, it's not just a photograph, it's a story.

Honey Bee in Blackberry flowers along the California north coast

During a trip to the north coast of California to see the Redwoods National Park, Rick and his wife spent some time enjoying the blackberries. For a couple of hours, they turned into grazers and kept finding one good patch after another. The blackberry bushes had ripe fruit, but were also flowering. This honey bee was busily flitting from one flower to another. Rick had to use a fast shutter speed and multiple shots to get one where the bee had settled onto a flower and the wings were still. The honey bee isn't native to North America, but was brought from Europe and has spread across the entire continent. But something is threatening these highly important pollinators with a condition called Colony Collapse Disorder. Losing the pollination services of bees would be a huge disaster for us humans.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!