One of the best parts of a morning rain shower is watching the scruffy bumble bees dry off and leave their floral shelters. #bees

What a treat to watch this leafcutter bee bring the petals of a blanketflower back to line her nest, transforming a drainage hole into its own kind of bloom. #bees #Inverts

Late-season longhorn bees are truly the embodiment of Just a Little Guy. #bees #Inverts

I've seen a lot of leafcutter bees with their abdomens curled up as they forage, but never quite to *this* extent. #overachiever #bees #Inverts

Not an ABA bird, but the tufted coquettes in Trinidad & Tobago are some of my favorites. They have to find their own little garden spot because the other hummingbirds bully them off the feeders. Some of the tiniest birds in the world! 🪶

This summer has taught me so much about swallowtails, which I always thought of as familiar butterflies. These past few weeks, I've been noticing Eastern tigers that are somehow both light and dark morphs. The explanation surprised me! overtonpark.org/blog/naturez... #butterflies #Inverts

I've seen a lot of adorable baby birds this summer, and now I'm sharing them with you! Meet the next generation: overtonpark.org/blog/naturez... #birds #babybirds

Ran into my favorite red-tailed hawk today after not seeing much of him over the summer. He would like you to know it is so hot in Memphis and you should never come here in August. 🪶

On to the next one... This pipevine swallowtail didn't even bother to tuck its tongue back in when bouncing from one ironweed bloom to another. #butterflies #Inverts

Question for #bees folk: I've observed this new-to-me bee for the last few days. I suspect it's Epimelissodes compta, which I read specializes on evening-primrose. We have some of that in this garden, but so far I've only seen it nectar-rob Mexican petunia. Am I on the wrong track? (Memphis, TN)

This time of year I often see buckeyes at the end of their lives right alongside perfectly-fresh ones. They seem to be able to persist for a while on tattered wings. I like them both ways: as a symbol of endurance or of cheerful energy. #Inverts #butterflies

Love it when a gal gives you the eye just as you press the shutter... #Inverts #dragonflies

Tiny little citrine forktail forming a peak with some leaves at the pollinator garden. #Inverts

Once in a while, a brown booby will show up very far from shore and treat us landlocked folks to a glimpse of those distinctive seabird tail feathers. This one has been haunting the cypress trees at a lake in Haywood County, Tennessee for the past week or so. 🪶

A few years ago at this time, I was exploring Oregon and had high hopes of running into a Melissa blue butterfly, because I think it's fun to find creatures that share your name. I found this one along the Powder River, looking glittery and fresh. I would love to visit again! #Inverts #butterflies

I wrote about discovering that swallowtail caterpillars have FAKE TONGUES, amongst other wonders of the pollinator garden: overtonpark.org/blog/naturez... #Inverts #naturewriting

We planted some mountain mint at our park's pollinator garden this summer, and every day is a Hymenopteran party now. Here are just a few #bees from this morning's check-in.

Hard to believe such a fuzzy little nugget grows up to be so sleek and elegant! (Yellow-billed cuckoo fledgling and its parent, Memphis, TN) 🪶

The spark that got me into nature was an ebony jewelwing, so for years I’ve wanted to visit La Brenne Nature Park in France, known for its high diversity of odonate species. I finally made it in June, and saw 24 species in 3 days! Here’s a thread of the dozen damsels. #DamselflyJuly #Invertebrates

The spark that got me into nature was an ebony jewelwing, so for years I’ve wanted to visit La Brenne Nature Park in France, known for its high diversity of odonate species. I finally made it in June, and saw 24 species in 3 days! Here’s a thread of the dozen damsels. #DamselflyJuly #Invertebrates

Interesting mating behavior at the pollinator garden today. The male digger wasp wiggled around quite a bit in what seemed like multiple attempts to grab the female's antennae between his jaws. Eventually he succeeded! (Oxybelus sp.) #Invertebrates

We’ve been on a deep dive in the museum archives this week and you would not believe the letterhead game some of these gentlemen had

My favorite group of bees is back for the summer! Long-horned bees look like they're casting about for signals from outer space, but they're really just after pollen. I believe this one is a broad-banded longhorn (Epimelissodes petulcus). #bees #Invert

Cicadas are my favorite summer soundtrack, but they don't always show their faces. So it was a real treat to see a new species yesterday, the green-winged cicada (Diceroprocta vitripennis) hiding in the depths of our pollinator garden at work. #insects #inverts

Happy #WorldBeeDay to the bicolored striped sweat bees that have been shining up my lunch breaks at our park's pollinator garden. The world has become so much richer since I started paying attention to our beautiful native #bees.

Every year I treat the @inaturalist.bsky.social City Nature Challenge as my personal Super Bowl. This year I logged 443 wildlife observations in 4 days, including some critters I'd never seen before! Here's a recap of some highlights: overtonpark.org/2025/05/07/n... #birds #naturewriting

I love a teen summer tanager. He hasn't figured out how to be red yet, nor does he quite know how to eat a mulberry without dropping half of it for the squirrels. #birds

When you add in the trusty old American robin, I had a thrush flush a couple of days this week, with gray-cheeked, Swainson's, wood, and veery all striking the same pose. I can never pick a favorite, but the gray-cheeked sure was sweet as it paused from feasting on termites. 🪶

Just a flower. A flower with an ant. And definitely no moths or anything.

Yesterday I came across an aggregation of nests of incredibly tiny bees, only noticeable at my feet because there were so many of them. I got to watch one bring a huge amount of pollen back to her nest under a tuft of grass. Wish I knew what they were--some kind of miner? #bees #invertefest

Always a treat to see a little splotch on a stem, look more closely, and realize it has eyes! 👀 Keeled treehopper, Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington, TN #invertefest

This past week in the forest has been full of incredible native bees of all shapes, sizes, and degrees of fuzziness. An understory full of native plants means tons of nectar sources to keep them happy. I love them all so much. #Inverts

Between the storms that have brought over a foot of rain these past few days, I've been watching this group of American white pelicans joyously wheel through the sky. I'm sure now that the forecast is clearing, they'll be on their way, but what a visit! 🪶

A Lesson's motmot in #silhouette for #BlueSkyArtShow. A steamy morning before sunrise in Costa Rica a few years back really highlighted this bird's gorgeous tail, which it would tick-tock back and forth. 🦉

Perhaps you need a turkey this evening? The ocellated turkey (which I think might be better named the resplendent wartbird) can look haughty or deeply depressed depending on the light, and how nice the other turkeys have been to him that morning. Seen recently in a protected area in Belize. 🪶

Fitting that today's sunshine brought out the first gemmed satyr of the year and the first tiny jumping spiders too. Usually the satyr's jumping spider markings are a little bit more crisp, but this one's "eyes" are kind of wobbly. Still one of my favorite #butterflies!

My monthly #NatureZen newsletter is a little tour through everything that's blooming in the old-growth forest where I work. Open for cheer! overtonpark.org/2025/03/26/n...

The most numerous tree species in the forest where I work is the common pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Just over the past couple of days, the flowers have begun to emerge. I think they're lovely when they open up, but my favorite time to observe them is when they're still new and green. #bloomscrolling

March ritual: standing under redbud trees appreciating how each blossom looks like an exuberant hummingbird taking nectar from the tree. #bloomscrolling

Yesterday I was excited to see that one of our only local species of orchid, spring coralroot, is still happily blooming in the tiny patch where I saw it last year. Such personality hiding among the winter leaf litter! #bloomscrolling

One of the coolest things I've seen lately: this group of Mexican pitted-stingless bees in their nest in Belize. Stay tuned for a little video of where I spotted them. #bees #inverts

Taking a cue from my @mariposanature.bsky.social friends and encouraging some #bloomscrolling. The wildflowers are just starting to open in Tennessee, and one of my favorites is Jacob's ladder. This week I caught a pair of Ceratina strenua #bees using a bloom as a love nest! #wildflowers #Inverts

Every day is a new horror, quite frankly, and I haven't posted art in a while (another kind of horror), so here are some of my favourite little guys in 'Brady Bunch' format. #birds

Temps were in the teens today but I got a huge treat when this fox sparrow let me watch as it kicked up snow in search of food. Somehow it got a worm out of the frozen ground! 🪶

Today we bring you "In Bloom". Our Elbow Bush are all in full bloom. 13 different Butterfly Species in one bush. Western Pygmy Blue, Ceranus Blue, Southern Skipperling, Fatal Metalmark, American Snout, Dusky Blue Groundstreak, Gray Hairstreak to name a few. Come visit us! How many can you find?

I don't normally think of owls as darling, but this mottled owl peeking out at me in Costa Rica certainly matched that description. 🪶 #SuperbOwlSunday

This is a very good reminder to keep your cats indoors. (Er, unless you're leashing them or keeping them on a cat patio.) I know that cats are very special little libertarians who demand their freedom to roam, but keeping them indoors keeps them and you safe. Please and thank you.

This week has been full of poorly-lit encounters with one of my favorite winter birds, the blue-headed vireo. So I dug up an older photo I liked just so I could appreciate that rotund lemony goodness. 🪶

You wouldn't know it from these closed-wing shots, but the Hispaniolan mimic-white butterfly (left) is a mimic of the zebra heliconian. In flight, their open wings look incredibly similar. Glad I stuck around to see this one perched! Seen in Puerto Rico last month. #Invert #butterflies

All of the birders who have traveled to and enjoyed Colombia. among other places, over the last decade or so should know that USAID is the entity that helped fund much of the ecotourism and conservation infrastructure that we get to enjoy there. The birding trails. The lodges. The land. All of it.