Monday Morning Meandering

During yesterday's first session of my nature journaling class we discussed the relatively small number of blooming wildflowers compared to years past. It appears to me that the daisies are pulling more than their usual share of providing meals of nectar and pollen to the visiting insects.  When we spent 10 or 15 minutes in any small patch of daisies we usually encounter at least a half dozen species of visitors.  That provides a varied diet for the Goldenrod Crab Spiders lying in wait.  The two new blooms this week are the Chicory (top photo) and the Spreading Dogbane (2nd photo).  The Showy Milkweed (3rd photo) are coming on strong now and are attracting a variety of insects.  I'm hoping to get some good photos of Monarch Butterflies.  They're arriving, but are still rather skittish.  I could sit somewhere with a telephoto lens, but I find it more fun to try to carefully approach with a standard lens, or just sit and wait close to a bloom I think they'll approach.  Click on the single blossom of milkweed above for a close-up.  It seems like a very attractive landing site, although it's probably fragrance rather than architecture that attracts the insects.  I don't know the species of plant bug (4th photo) on the milkweed leaf, but there were several on this plant.  The bottom photo provided a little drama.  It was hovering against the French door in our dining room, and from a distance I thought it was a harmless Cranefly.  Then our cat tarted jumping for it.  When he finally scored, he let out a big meow, jumped back and started rubbing his cheeks.  On closer inspection I discovered it was an Ichneumon Wasp and was obviously able to take care of itself.  Dulce made several more attempts to subdue it and was stung each time.  He finally gave up and we set the wasp free into the back yard.
Time will tell whether Dulce will be able to identify this bug in the future and avoid more stings.