More flowers and insects at McCarthy Woods

Here are some photos taken today.

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) near the feeder at the place where I live.

Walked over to McCarthy Woods in the afternoon.  Most of the White Trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum) are flowering now.








Out of the many flowering White Trilliums, I only saw two Red Trillums (Trillium erectum).


Carolina spring beauty (Claytonia caroliniana)

Unknown wasp visiting a Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) flower.

Today, I headed in a different direction in the forest and came across this railroad track.

The vegetation is the same on the other side of the track, but I spent quite a while observing this Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) queen flying around searching for potential nest sites.  I used manual focus and hoped to photograph the bumble bee in flight, and the results were decent.

As I was leaving the forest, I saw my first syrphid fly of the year.

I believe it is a Helophilus sp., because the scutum (throax) has central parallel yellow stripes, there are no strong bristles on the scutum and scutellum (posterior end of the throax), and pterostigma on the wing (faint dark spot on the anterior end of the wing) is not very distinct.

Using this helpful information sheet, it is either H. fasciatus or H. latifrons, but I can't say for certain.

Have a nice weekend.