It is early summer and nature is active in the marshes. Here is some of what I saw on a recent hike on the Great Marsh Trail in the IDNP.
Most people think of flys as ugly. I thing this Golden-Backed Snipe Fly shows otherwise. There are over 150,000 species of flys, of which the common house fly is but one. Once you start paying attention to them you quickly discover that many flys are quite beautiful.
Blue-Eyed Grass are a fun plant to observe. It just looks odd for blades of grass to have flowers at the tip.
I came across a pair of these Bold Jumping Spiders at one of the rest benches on the trail. It looked like one was chasing the other. They moved very quickly and kept running in between the slats of the bench. This was the best shot I could get of one of them.
There was a nice group of Yellow Loosestrife at the far corner of the trail.
I have not ID’d this one yet. I suspect it is some sort of Plant Bug or Shield Bug.
I believe this is Evening Campion, which is native to the region. There are however some species which are invasive. I would need to see more of the flower to be sure.
This grasshopper must be quite young. It appears to have already lost an antenna.
I watched these two bees take turns chasing one another off this Aster. Eventually I was able to capture them both on the flower at the same time, though doing so required quite a bit of patience. Patience is more than a virtue when it comes to observing nature, it is necessary.