It began at breakfast

 Insect photography began early today.  Yellowjacket on French Toast for breakfast.  That was followed by a hike to Gilson Creek and beyond to the first railroad tunnel.  We saw enough exciting plants and animals that I decided to post some photos before finishing with posting yesterday's photos.

 My first stop after leaving the north end of camp is usually a big, burned-out stump of Ponderosa Pine that is surrounded by Spreading Dogbane, some good-sized Mullein and couple of beautiful Scarlet Gilia (above).  It was quite hot and dry, so we didn't linger long.  We moved on to the big open area that has lots of milkweeds - Showy Milkweed and Narrow-leaved Milkweed - where I hoped to find a good variety of colorful insects.  I was not disappointed.  In fact, before getting to the milkweeds, I found a solid black Thread-waisted Wasp on a Sierra Mint.

 That complemented yesterday's photo of a different species of Thread-waisted Wasp on a bush of Indian Hemp, also a milkweed.

 Then, when we approached the larger crop of Narrow-leaved Milkweed, we saw an abundance of Checkered Clerid Beetles, various kinds of bees and flies, and many Monarch Butterflies.  This is one of my best photos of that butterfly.  I love the positions of the antennae and tongue.  The butterfly was preoccupied with eating and let me approach pretty close.

 I don't know how I spotted this Pentastomid bug on a spike of wild grass.  Tougher than finding a needle in a haystack, I'd say.

 With three guest hikers from camp, I was photographing some blooming Pennyroyal when one of the ladies spotted to discarded skin of a Cicada clinging to a Pennyroyal leaf.

 I checked one more time for the Goldenrod Crab Spider that inhabited a particular specimen of Brewer's Angelica, but she was gone.  Instead I found a handsome black and orange wasp.

 I explored around the culvert which carries Berry Creek under the camp road.  There were reports of a snake that might have been a rattler, but was more likely a go[her snake.  I didn't find a snake, but looking straight down into the water from the road, I was impressed by the pattern of shadows and ripples made by a group of Water Striders. 

 Last, perhaps the most ubiquitous beetle in the area is the Common Checkered Clerid, and here is a beauty resting, or maybe eating, on a Brewer's Angelica.  Some beetles seem to associate with only one species of plant, or one family of plants, but the Checkered Clerid seems to be indiscriminate.  I'm not sure which plants it feeds on and which might only be resting places.