Winged Wednesday — 5/6/2026: Backyard Visitors

[Eric Gofreed]

It’s Winged Wednesday—where feathers, flutters, and flight steal the show! Whether they’re soaring, skimming, stalking, or just passing through on questionable travel plans… birds, bugs, bats, insects, or even airplanes—if it has wings, we want to see it. If it’s got wings, it belongs here.

Always open theme — all winged photos welcome.

This week, my contributions are birds photographed in my yard this week.

No travel required.
No itinerary.
Just whatever showed up, made noise, ate something, and left.

Some stayed longer than expected.
Some barely paused.
All of them acted like they owned the place.

Which, to be fair, they might.

Hooded Oriole
He flies like he knows exactly where he’s going, which is unusual for most of us.

Black-headed Grosbeak
He looks serious, but most birds look serious right before eating somebody else’s sunflower seeds.

Crissal Thrasher
A thrasher in flight is easier to photograph after it already flew by.

Lazuli Bunting
When two buntings argue, they both think the other bird started it first.

Bewick's Wren
For a little bird, he brought enough bugs home to feed a football team that eats insects.

 

[AlanLichty]

You get some really interesting visitors Eric - neat captures of the action.

 

[Trent Watts]

Lucky (and skilful) you Eric. What a tremendous selection of birds in your yard.
I'm going with birds in my yard this week but no such variety and certainly no insects. (It was barely above freezing this morning).
Two species...four shots.

This Black-billed Magpie was on cleanup duty. It found this dead mouse on my patio and flew up to my garage to work on it.

I had never seen Common Grackles eat whole peanuts before. It was almost like the Blue Jays but without the finesse.

 

[Eric Gofreed]

O don't have magpies or icteridsin my yard, Regrettably, I had a brown headed cowbird. Excellent work as always, Trent. Thanks for following me on Substack too.

 

[Trent Watts]

O don't have magpies or icteridsin my yard, Regrettably, I had a brown headed cowbird. Excellent work as always, Trent. Thanks for following me on Substack too.

I'm really enjoying your Sustack posts. So creative and entertaining.

 

[DES]

A frequent visitor -- possibly eyeing the birds at our fountain.

 

[Eric Gofreed]

That’s an outstanding photo, DES. I get Cooper’s Hawks too. I put up feeders for songbirds, but the hawks apparently interpret them as a complimentary buffet with seating. I put out bird feeders for the little birds, but the hawks keep eating the customers.

 

[AlanLichty]

That’s an outstanding photo, DES. I get Cooper’s Hawks too. I put up feeders for songbirds, but the hawks apparently interpret them as a complimentary buffet with seating. I put out bird feeders for the little birds, but the hawks keep eating the customers.

I think of the hawks as simply an extension of feeding the birds

 

[AlanLichty]

My blueberry patch has gone nuts this year with more blooms than I have ever seen before and I was left wondering just which critters were helping out with pollination duties and whether all the blooms would yield fruit. Lots of smaller flying specimens were zipping past but I did get some shots of the larger insects helping out. From what I am seeing since I took these shots in late April almost all of the blooms are developing into berries so late July /early August looks like busy times harvesting them all.

Honeybee at work:

Best ID I could find for this one in flight is an Andrena Bee:

And finally a big Bumble Bee on an isolated stem:

 

[DES]

My blueberry patch has gone nuts this year with more blooms than I have ever seen before and I was left wondering just which critters were helping out with pollination duties and whether all the blooms would yield fruit. Lots of smaller flying specimens were zipping past but I did get some shots of the larger insects helping out. From what I am seeing since I took these shots in late April almost all of the blooms are developing into berries so late July /early August looks like busy times harvesting them all.

Honeybee at work:

View attachment 88981

Best ID I could find for this one in flight is an Andrena Bee:

View attachment 88982

And finally a big Bumble Bee on an isolated stem:

View attachment 88983

Great detail -- at the long end of the zoom range too.

 

[AlanLichty]

Great detail -- at the long end of the zoom range too.

Thanks Darryl!

 

[Eric Gofreed]

My blueberry patch has gone nuts this year with more blooms than I have ever seen before and I was left wondering just which critters were helping out with pollination duties and whether all the blooms would yield fruit. Lots of smaller flying specimens were zipping past but I did get some shots of the larger insects helping out. From what I am seeing since I took these shots in late April almost all of the blooms are developing into berries so late July /early August looks like busy times harvesting them all.

Honeybee at work:

View attachment 88981

Best ID I could find for this one in flight is an Andrena Bee:

View attachment 88982

And finally a big Bumble Bee on an isolated stem:

View attachment 88983

Impressive photography, Alan. Freezing the wings of a bee in flight is a feat I have yet to accomplish. Gorgeous flower colors, beautiful bokeh, and excellent detail throughout. Highest compliments! I suppose the bee signed a release form before hovering there.

 

[AlanLichty]

Impressive photography, Alan. Freezing the wings of a bee in flight is a feat I have yet to accomplish. Gorgeous flower colors, beautiful bokeh, and excellent detail throughout. Highest compliments! I suppose the bee signed a release form before hovering there.

Thanks Eric - sometimes it's hard to get them to sign the release forms when they are working on the clock.