Nomad Bees (Genus Nomada), Taken April 12, 2025, In Georgia, US

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), juvenile, taken May 9, 2025, in Georgia, US

A disheveled young cardinal stopping for a few sips! Someone had been in the bath prior and made it absolutely filthy with dirt, but this guy didn't really seem to mind. The bath water is replaced daily, but it tends to get dirty pretty fast if there are lots of baths in a day. The birds could just go to the koi pond literally 5 feet away, but I guess it's too scary for everyone but the song sparrows!

Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus), adult (top) and juvenile (bottom), taken March 7, 2025, in Georgia, US

More hawk news... It seems as though one of the juveniles was able to chase the other out of this area and has staked a claim on the woods here. I've been seeing the red-tailed hawks less, and today the victorious juvenile showed up with a partner who already has adult plumage! I haven't seen adults here in at least a couple years, so this is a good sign that these two will be nesting this spring. It's fairly unusual for a hawk without adult plumage to be breeding, but definitely not unheard of and can still result in a successful brood!

The adult hawk was not happy with me taking pictures and flew to a further branch when I went outside. As usual, the juvenile was much more tolerant of my presence (likely used to my dumb ass at this point) and let me get closer before the adult called for it. It then joined the adult in a tree where they began calling together. Hopefully they nest somewhere close enough that I can monitor their progress. I'd love to see their babies once they fledge!

Cixiid Planthopper (Xenoliarus placitus), taken May 25, 2025, in Georgia, US

A beautiful cixiid planthopper posing for me on a leaf! This is the most common species in my area, though I do very rarely find more obscure species. This species very recently was moved to Xenoliarus from Melanoliarus, which caused some confusion for me when I saw the new genus name lol. It can be quite variable in appearance, sometimes having black patterning on the wings ranging from some spots on the tops to completely black. This makes it kind of hard to ID if you're not familiar with it, but if you're looking for them you'll become familiar in no time since they tend to like to land on your stuff!

American Robins (Turdus migratorius), female (1 & 2), males (3 & 5), and juvenile (4), taken January 23, 2025, in Georgia, US

A few of the robins in my backyard robin army! They're eating so much food. Hundreds, all day every day for weeks... I love them, but oh my god.

100% agree lol. I've gotten better over the years, but my astraphobia combined with liking to look at bugs and southeast tornado shenanigans makes storms suck a lot.

You're right that the best part of a storm is directly after when the sun has just started to come back out! A lot of insects that are usually flying out of reach are grounded from the weather and easy to photograph, and some that prefer wet weather are more common after rain. I remember going out the day after hurricane Helene hit last year and finding a ton of bugs I'd never seen before because everything was out of sorts from the unusual weather. It was a nice reward for weathering the storm!

It sucks that I can't enjoy thunderstorms that much comparatively to a lot of other people, but as someone who currently lives in a tornado zone and whose hobbies include going outside and walking around looking for bugs, the thing I like most about rain is the immediate aftermath—otherwise it's just, like, a loud, stressful inconvenience to me, sadly

Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp (Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus), female, taken August 3, 2024, in Georgia, US

Digging a hole in the sand! There were a few different species of sand wasps flying around this area, but most ran before I could get to them. I missed this lady initially storing her prey, but I did get her filling in the hole! She posed very prettily at the end, maybe showing off her hard work!

Black Rat (Rattus rattus), juvenile, taken March 9, 2025, in Georgia, US

The warming weather has brought with it new additions to the rat family living under the feeders, for better or for worse! I only saw one adult and two babies, though there were almost certainly more with how much rats reproduce. This little guy was very brave and came out pretty far to find fallen peanuts, so I was able to snap a shot of his cute face!

Non-Biting Midge (Xylotopus par), male, taken February 26, 2025, in Georgia, US

Despite how he looks, this guy is very much alive and flew off shortly after I took these pictures! I swiped him out of the sky and shook him around in my hand to stun him so I could get pictures, hence his totally shocked appearance.

This guy is one of the cousins of the arguably less friendly mosquito! I really enjoy photographing midges, but as I'm not super knowledgeable of them yet, I mostly rely on IDers (THE IDer in the case of this family) on iNat to point me in the right direction. One of the first things I learned is that males of this family can easily be differentiated from females by their long, thin abdomens and big, fuzzy antennae! This is also the case for mosquitos and most other nematoceran flies, though it can be very hard to tell when it comes to groups like crane flies, who can be more reliably sexed by their abdomen!

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans), taken April 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

Little guys!! Cricket frogs are out all over the place right now! I keep scaring them when I patrol the creek banks because it's nearly impossible to see them before they move. Once they think they're hidden, though, you can just scoop them right up, especially from the water. Because of this, they're extremely good for photos! I would advise against touching frogs and other amphibians unnecessarily because of their sensitive skin and our tendency to carry diseases they are susceptible to. Luckily, these guys don't need to be moved anywhere!