On a beautiful summer afternoon the last weekend in August, I took some time to go out wandering at a nearby park. We had just returned home after moving our youngest daughter into her college apartment. Staying home seemed like a challenge so I grabbed the camera and off I went. Unsure of what I would see, being prepared is something I’ve learned time and time again otherwise you could miss a great photo op. This day definitely provided some great subjects, especially pollinators out searching for as much nectar as possible. Capturing a few late summer wildflowers or maybe a mushroom or two was my expectation but thankfully there was more.

Meandering on a familiar trail, which was a little less familiar as I haven’t been out nearly as frequently as other years, I came across some wildflowers and snapped a few pics. Continuing on I came to some tall yellow daisies in bloom with a Monarch butterfly flitting from flower to flower. Thankfully it would spend some time at each one allowing me to capture some great photos like the one above.

Unfortunately I was confronted with a few brilliantly colored leaves along the trail confirming what time of year it was and seasons would soon be changing. This was a fact I had been trying to ignore as I wanted more summer to enjoy. If time would only slow down. Since there were some nice red leaves I decided to take the opportunity to start practicing for the possible explosion of color to come with the a simple turn of a page on the calendar. After a brief time with these leaves, it was back to those late season flowers still blooming with all of their energy.

A lot of Goldenrod was in full bloom with the occasional bee or butterfly visiting their flowers. There were a few that were loaded with tiny beetles. A quick search indicates these are called Shining Flower Beetles which eat the pollen. While it seems that Goldenrod should be a great pollinator plant with as prolific they can be, I don’t often see a mass of insects around them like I do other plants such as late season hydrangeas. They must not release a lot of nectar for them to feed on. Continuing on my journey I came across more large yellow daisies with a bee here and there dancing around these beautiful flowers occasionally landing on one.  A couple of pictures and I moved on.

Another opportunity during my journey was an Ichneumon Wasp. I’ve been trying to capture some nice shots of these for several years and here finally was my chance. I snapped a few poor photos and it was gone. Deciding to sit down for awhile, I was rewarded with another chance as the wasp returned to a leaf fairly close to me allowing for some nice shots. These wasps don’t sting as their long tails are used to deposit eggs when the time arrives. If there was nothing else to photograph, I was happy with these alone but thankfully there were others. After a few more shots it was time to head home and take care of some things before the day was over. I really enjoyed this time watching and photographing these pollinators before August transitioned to September.