Flatid Planthopper (Family Flatidae), Nymph, Taken May 18, 2025, In Georgia, US

Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa), female, taken April 22, 2025, in Georgia, US

What I thought was a lifer dragonfly, but turned out to be the female of a species I've seen once before! This lady seemed quite relaxed around me, flying almost lazily through the air and allowing me to get very close (for a dragonfly). As far as dragonflies go, this species is quite small, and so is the rest of their genus, aptly named "small pennants"!

Coppery Leafhopper (Jikradia olitoria), nymph, taken April 12, 2025, in Georgia, US

A teeny leafhopper nymph on a flower stem! My favorite leafhopper species is finally returning for the year! I can't wait for these nymphs to grow larger and gain their bright colors. The ones in this area tend to be orange and green, though nymphs of this species are highly variable, also coming in yellow, tan, brown, black, red, and white. All young nymphs look like this individual, being very dark brown and, in later instars, gain their unique colors!

Jumping Spider (Maevia expansa), female, taken May 8, 2025, in Georgia, US

A curious jumper making her way along a twig! She was not very happy with me but ultimately cooperated enough to get a single good picture. Like the Dimorphic Jumping Spider (Maevia inclemens), this spider's males have two different morphs: a "gray" morph that is gray with black stripes and bright orange palps and a "tufted" morph that is black with white legs and 3 black tufts of hairs above its eyes. The males of the species look nothing alike, which may cause them to be misidentified. This species can be differentiated from M. inclemens by the presence of white patterning on the head of the female and around the eyes of the males. You can also use locality, as they have currently only been found in Georgia and once in Tennessee.

Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta), male, taken July 30, 2024, in Georgia, US

Dragonflies remain fierce contenders for my favorite photo subjects, at least amongst bugs! For their size and speed, they're very cooperative. I've even had some take advantage of the mosquito cloud following me to grab a snack! This guy just sat on the tip of this stick and helped me make some sick looking pictures!

Northeastern Hammertails (Efferia aestuans), females, taken July 15, 2024, in New Hampshire, US

I have too many pictures of these things... They were the beginning of my love of robber flies! You can't see in these images, but females of this genus can be distinguished from males by the large blade-like ovipositors on the end of their abdomen, while males have a white strip on the abdomen and a large hammer-shaped bulge on the end, hence their name! Two of these ladies are enjoying tasty moth (left) and plant bug (right) meals, while the third looks to have recently had a meal herself, if her enlarged abdomen is anything to go by!

when u are holding a hammer everything looks like a nail -> when u are holding a point and shoot camera every sight looks incomparably ephemerally beautiful

Tube-dwelling Spider (Ariadna bicolor), female, taken March 18, 2025, in Georgia, US

Well, good news is that she definitely is living in a tube! Bad news is that it is no longer inside the log she was in, but instead on the chunk of wood I ripped off the log. This provides and excellent view of the nest structure, but doesn't serve very well as a home anymore. I put the wood chunk back as well as I could, but whether it was good enough is still up in the air!

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), taken March 7, 2025, in Georgia, US

Just a nervous guy looking for seeds under the feeders. Surprisingly, he was one of few who didn't take off when I initially went outside to find my spot, so I was actually able to get decent dove pictures for once. Most of them involved him peeking his head above the rocks to look at me like in the second photo, though!

Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), juvenile, taken May 27, 2024, in Georgia, US

Fledgeling season is so fun when there's a bird bath because you get to see baby birds have pool parties! This particular individual injured its leg in some way and lived exclusively at our feeders for weeks, eating seeds off the ground and begging for handouts from any adult bird who got close lol. Surprisingly, it didn't get picked off and its leg ended up healing, so we got to see it reach adulthood with its siblings!

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!