Flower Thursday ... with a bonus!

We've come to the time of year when the only thing blooming in our garden is this pot of mums.  Which makes them extremely popular with pollinators and those who eat them.  I was out with the 300mm lens and when this big hoverfly showed up, I didn't want to risk running in for the other camera and macro lens - so this was taken at 300mm and cropped.  Not bad clarity for a lens that really isn't optimum for bugs.  

This big specimen is in the Flower Fly (syrphidae) family of flies, commonly called hoverflies.  If I had to guess, I would say that this is a Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax). This species originated in Europe and is now wide spread in the US.  I could be wrong and if I find that it is something different, I'll be back.  The flower is a humble pink hardy mum.  Another view in Extra.

I posted 4 other pics on Flickr, starting HERE with a tiny syrphid fly.  My runner up choice for a blip is the fourth shot in the series, of a female cardinal having a stretch.  However, as winter moves in, I will have plenty of opportunities to blip cardinals whereas there will be virtually NO opportunities to blip hoverflies...

Finally convinced Hubs to go to our doctor today as he was still feeling poorly and running a low grade fever.  Diagnosis is a bacterial infection and he's now got appropriate drugs to kick it out of his system.  And, because he's not contagious, we are on for a weekend trip that we've both been really looking forward to.  Destination is a surprise.  And my blips for the next few days are likely to be very out of my norm...

Thank you for continuing to stop by, and for the lovely comments, stars and hearts.  

Happy Thursday, people.

Debbi