Flying Things

Just a quick post today with some photos.  My large sage bush in the yard is in full bloom and it's really popular:





This is a snowberry clearwing moth.  It moves like a hummingbird and is colored much like the wood bees.  These are about 1 3/4 to 2 inches long.  They never stop moving so it was difficult to get any kind of good shot of them. This year is the first I have seen this moth.  It's also known as a hummingbird moth or a bee moth.  The official name is Hemaris diffinis.





This big bee on the right is a wood, or carpenter, bee.  I'm not sure what the little red one is, but it looks like some kind of bee.






I don't know what kind of caterpillar this is.  He sure didn't know what he was getting into when he crawled up the stem in the middle of the sage.  






This small unknown type bee is about the size of a honey bee.  It's black with some green iridescence on the abdomen. 





I'm not sure what this is.  It looks like a wood bee, but is much smaller, just a little bigger than a honeybee.  





This monarch butterfly visited the bush several times.





This moth visited the sage, then rested on the redbud.





Jazz was a little interested in the moths.