As the summer of 2022 was starting to wind down and the early days of fall were still warm and pleasant I was out looking for the biodiversity by my home. I was still seeing many insects on Yellow flowers of common native plants or "weeds" here in East Tennessee.
I started my iNaturalist BioBlitz on the15 miles of paved trails that make up the Maryville Alcoa Greenway system on July 25, 2022 and continued into November when the cold weather started to end the flowers I was seeing in bloom. I am also working on organizing my photo library of flowers and insects with blue, purple, pink/red, and white flowers to post later.
Several species of Bees were gathering nectar and pollen from the many yellow blooms I was seeing along the Maryville Alcoa Tn Greenway trails as well as other summer/fall Nature explorations I was doing several days a week.
Left click on each photo for a better view in a gallery format. You can also scroll through them with the directional arrows. To return to the main page hit escape or click the X in the upper right hand corner of the picture.
I loved seeing and learning the names of many of the Butterfly species I was seeing on these yellow summer flowers.
I was also seeing other insects on the Goldenrod flowers like these Paper Wasps on October 9, 2022 along the Alcoa section of the Greenway near the Clayton-Bradley STEM School.
Some other unusual insects on yellow flowers in September 2022 on the Maryville Alcoa TN Greenway trails.
A five day camping trip from August 11-15, 2022 to Mount Pisgah along the Blue Ridge Parkway above Asheville NC added many higher elevation types of flowers and of course more insects especially so many bees and some butterflies there.
In September I visited Cades Cove several days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that is a 35-45 minute drive from where I live in Maryville TN. The time to get there from home is depending on the traffic to this heavily visited area.
The Cove is still being managed as the historic area it was when the park was established. Much of the Cove is the native plants in grown up fields that are managed with some selected mowing and fires to preserve the open areas from becoming forest over time.
Also during August and September as well as into October I added visits to other nearby natural areas such as the Fort Loudoun State Historical Park and along the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) East Lakeshore trail.
We had a warmer but dry late summer and early fall in East Tennessee which I think kept the insect populations higher than usual especially for the bees and butterflies.
Be on the lookout for other colored flowers and the Bees, Butterflies, Bugs, and other Insects that visit them in future posts and sidebar pages as Randy continues to get.......Closer to Nature........
Links to these places I visited
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