What's orange and yellow with green eyes...

and a hairy bottom?

Well, a Sunflower Maggot Fly, of course!  (Strauzia longipennis) in the fruit fly family.

I remember seeing these guys last summer on my sunflowers and being rather fascinated with them.  They are quite small - about 1/2 inch or 1.3 cm and move quickly to always stay UNDER the leaf.  Makes it a bit tricky photographing them.  I had to crouch down on the ground with my lens tilted up under the sunflower leaf and aim a bit blindly to get this.  I changed the orientation because I just have a hard time looking at images that are upside down.  Heavy crop on this, but no other edits.  Probably would have benefited from a monopod but I don't think I could have managed it from where I was crouched.  

Anyway, I thought this would be a good entry for #TinyTuesday (and big thanks to WalkingWombat for another really fun challenge!  

I posted four other shots on Flickr, starting HERE with a iPhone shot of the first swallow egg in our nest box!  Yes, she's started laying eggs - I suspected as much when I saw her and Mr doing the deed on the roof.  That was actually interesting to see because he would swoop and hover over her, jump on, jump off, swoop, hover, repeat. This went on for 3 or 4 minutes before they both flew to different parts of the roof to preen and fix themselves up.  Very interesting.  

It was a stormy day so I was only able to get out for brief sorties in between showers. Tomorrow looks to be a better day so I'll meet up with a friend to do a little walking/birding in the morning.  

In the yard...catbirds are all feeding babies as are finches and house sparrows.  House wren still hasn't found a new mate.  Wood thrush as been singing in the woods for the last week - beautiful.  Chipmunks are running rampant on the patio.  Hummingbirds are still being coy, but making more frequent visits to the honeysuckle and feeders.  Milkweed is coming up but probably 6 weeks before blooming.  Must start it earlier next year.

Be well, people.