Turquoise Bluets (Enallagma Divagans), Teneral (top) And Adult (bottom), Taken April 13, 2025, In Georgia,

Rough Stink Bugs (Brochymena arborea), taken September 17, 2024, in Georgia, US

My favorite stink bug friends to see around!! There's honestly nothing about them that really stands out, but they have neat spiny protrusions on their shoulders that can be used to ID the species and cool camouflage for life on trees! Occasionally I'll see a fresher adult that's almost completely black and white instead of brown, which looks pretty neat!

Blue Corporal (Ladona deplanata), female, taken March 28, 2025, in Georgia, US

Behold: my first dragonfly of the year! This lady landed right in front of me on the creek bank, and who am I to say no to a dragonfly, especially one I didn't recognize? I would love to see more of these—the shade of brown on her is absolutely gorgeous! I presume that since mosquitoes aren't out much yet, she's eating other midges and the small caddisflies that are currently abundant here. Now that I know there are dragonflies out and about, I'll have to start checking all their favorite perching spots again!

Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), juvenile, being fed by a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), taken May 9, 2025, in Georgia, US

A fat cowbird chick being fed by its song sparrow foster parent! It seems as though our only song sparrow pair were chosen by the cowbirds as fosters this spring. Luckily, song sparrows are known to attempt to nest up to four times in a season, so they have plenty of chances left to raise their own brood! Once this baby cowbird becomes independent, it will meet with other baby cowbirds and begin its life as a young adult! For now, though, it's content to take handouts from mom and dad!

I feel as though the concept is much more common knowledge now, but to those who come across this and don't know: cowbirds are nest parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds so they don't have to raise their babies themselves. They do this because building a nest and caring for young is extremely costly for females and may result in a lower chick yield than creating more eggs (up to 40) and laying them in an array of host nests does. The cowbird chick often hatches before the host nest's chicks, grows faster, becomes larger, and is louder, leading to the host chicks being neglected and often dying before fledging. While this is sad, bird parents have evolved to account for the possibility of being parasitized and will often nest multiple times in a season to ensure they have at least one healthy brood of their own chicks! Many bird species are also extremely good at recognizing cowbird eggs and can either eject them from the nest or destroy them before they hatch. Nest parasites are one of many natural population control agents that ensure native bird populations remain stable, so they are not a bad thing if the parasite is native, which cowbirds are in the US!

American Robins (Turdus migratorius), female (1 & 2), males (3 & 5), and juvenile (4), taken January 23, 2025, in Georgia, US

A few of the robins in my backyard robin army! They're eating so much food. Hundreds, all day every day for weeks... I love them, but oh my god.

Stone Centipede (Order Lithobiomorpha), taken March 19, 2025, in Georgia, US

A lovely, striped stone centipede! I found this one while stripping bark off of pine trees and got what is probably my best picture of one of these guys yet. Stone centipedes (and most centipedes, honestly) tend to flee as soon as they're uncovered, so they're very hard to photograph. This guy, however, sat very still for me! What a polite individual!

Soldier Fly (Sargus fasciatus), female, taken May 31, 2024, in Georgia, US

A very beautiful green soldier fly! This is the first of only four soldier flies I've seen in the wild, the others being the more well-known Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) and two Compost Flies (Ptecticus trivittatus). There is no shortage of flies in my area, but majority of them are Nematocera! So it was a treat to see such a nice metallic green fly that wasn't a bottle fly!

society has ingrained in all of us that bugs are bad and evil and scary and they Bite You for no reason and Sting You For Fun and I would like to challenge every single person that reads this to try to step back and challenge those thoughts. CHALLENGE that knee-jerk reaction to kill every bug you see. REALIZE that killing it doesn't have to be the answer. it's fine to not want bugs in your home. but I see so many people whose FIRST choice is to kill it, even though it'd be easy to just cup it and toss it outside. why?

one of the greatest things that got me over my extremely intense arachnophobia was knowledge. learning more about the thing I was afraid of made me realize, "oh, they're just little guys trying to get by too" and I stopped killing every spider I saw.

and it's like. no, that wasp didn't sting you for fun. it stung you because it felt scared or defensive. no, the spider in your shower isn't trying to kill you. spiders need water to live too.

you don't deem a scared dog/cat evil for biting you, do you? then why are we demonizing insects and spiders for feeling scared? they are so, so small and we are so large. they don't know anything about us, they're just trying to live life. they didn't know they built their web in a bad spot. they didn't know they built their nest next to your door. please, show some kindness to these tiny creatures. I understand you can't let infestations happen or wasps build in your walls, but whenever possible, try to put bugs in a cup and take them outside. yes, even wasps. even black widows. if you want tips for safely capturing bugs, I'm always around to ask.

also, to those who say things like, "x bug eats other pest bug, so they're okay" why? why does something have to benefit you to deserve to live? shouldn't all creatures have a chance at life, even if they're ugly, even if they don't benefit you, even if they do something you don't like? what gives you the right to decide to take the life of any animal just because ahhh it looked scary? please. all I ask is you try to be kinder. it's okay to be scared, it's not okay to pointlessly kill things.

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), taken April 24, 2025, in Georgia, US

What I believe is my first butterfly of the year, at least that I've been able to photograph! I saw what I think was a Blue Morpho in early, early spring, before almost anything was awake, but it flew off before I could get a picture. Since then, it's been some skippers and a few Tiger Swallowtails, but never when I have my camera on me! This guy was touched down because of a storm. I went out right after the rain, when many flying insects are still reluctant to fly, and was able to get a couple decent pictures!

American Pelecinid Wasp (Pelecinus polyturator), taken July 29, 2024, in Georgia, US

My beautiful skinny queen.. How must it be to have such a perfect figure? For such an elegant looking insect, you'd think they'd be agile, but I've had these guys just. come at my face. They have collided with me, though they're not alone in that. Too many wasps have crashed into my face. How would you feel if you turned around and immediately received a face full of WASP?

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), male, taken February 27, 2025, in Georgia, US

A beautiful drinker!! This lovely male bluebird came to the bird bath for a few sips and stayed long enough for me to get some nice photos! His blue stands out against the tan and green background so nicely. In the video, he gets spooked at the end by a robin who flew away noisily overhead!