Treehopper -- Cyrtolobus tuberosis, feeds on oak.

“We live in a world that is so packaged so there is no sense of community, and there is no sense of place and there’s no sense of species.” ~ Robert Bateman

Seneca Snakeroot -- Polygala senega

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

remarkable expansion seen in a molting short-horned grasshopper

“My dear young fellow,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.” ~ from "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl

Spring Azure (f) -- Celastrina ladon, taking dew off a leaf

"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is." ~ Maxim Gorky, "The Lower Depths"

Bark Crab Spider -- Bassaniana spp., i think B. versicolor.

'Terror strikes lightly your stillness.
Serene is your bed and your icebox.
Death is your neighbor calmly
Surveying the scene as you strike.' ~ from "Spider" by Thomas Cole

Drone Fly -- Eristalis tenax, a Syrphidae Family bee mimic from Europe now common in the U.S.

"It is more than a little strange to think of people accepting as normal a view of nature from which they are excluded." ~ Neil Evernden, "The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment"

Great Waterleaf -- Hydrophyllum appendiculatum, a biennial plant, attracts some beetles, the larger here appear to be Flower Longhorns -- Analeptura lineola.

'I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together...' ~ Beatles, "I am the Walrus", 1967.

Hairy Woodpecker (m) -- Picoides villosus, with grubs for the nestlings

'Live not for Battles Won.
Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.
Live in the along.' ~ Gwendolyn Brooks, 1972.

American Rubyspot (f) -- Hetaerina americana

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." ~ Marie Curie

Emerald Spreadwing (f) -- Lestes dryas, eating a spider.

'A nymph lives under water
In our rivers, in our lakes.
It is mute but tells us stories
Of our past, of our mistakes...' ~ "The Water Nymph"

Twelve-spotted Skimmer (f) -- Libellula pulchella. Winged insects do not only make up the majority of the class Insecta, they comprise the majority of all animals.

“I go to books and nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.” ~ John Burroughs, “The Summit of the Years”

Fragile Forktail (m) -- Ischnura posita

Barn Swallow -- Hirundo rustica

'Learn by little the desire for all things
which perhaps is not desire at all
but undying love which perhaps
is not love at all but gratitude
for the being of all things which
perhaps is not gratitude at all
but the maker's joy in what is made,
the joy in which we come to rest.' ~ Wendell Berry, Sabbaths, XII, 2007.

Mute Swan -- Cygnus olor

'The Silver Swan, who, living, had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast upon the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
"Farewell all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise."' ~ from "The Silver Swan" by Orlando Gibbons

Osprey -- Pandion haliaetus, endangered in IL

'work is for people who don't know how to fish' ~ off-day proverb

iris eyes are smiling

Ebony Jewelwing (m) -- Calopteryx maculata, wiping some disbelief off its eye

'He who bends to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.' ~ William Blake, "Eternity"

Four-lined Plant Bug -- Poecilocapus lineatus, considered a pest in many gardens. A single generation per year emerge in late May - early June.

"There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste. Always he must know that the contradictions of life are not final or ultimate; he must distinguish between failure and a many-sided awareness so that he will not mistake conformity for harmony, uniformity for synthesis. He will know that for all men to be alike is the death of life in man, and yet perceive harmony that transcends all diversities and in which diversity finds its richness and significance." ~ Howard Thurman

Northern Flicker (f, yellow-shafted/Taiga) -- Colaptes auratus

Fruit Flies, Family Tephritidae. These two engaging in fairly elaborate mating behavior.

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." ~ Groucho Marx

Butter-and-eggs (alien) -- Linaria vulgaris, aka Yellow Toadflax, another garden plant that has escaped into the wild to become a permanent resident throughout the U.S.

Family Chironomidae

"Don't bargain with Zeus." ~ Chiron

Indigo Bunting (f) -- Passerina cyanea

Mecaphesa spp., Crab Spider Family Thomisidae, on Cow-Parsnip -- Heracleum maximum, a member of the Carrot Family Apiaceae and source of nectar and pollen for a wide range of insects.

American Golden-Plover (m) -- Pluvialis dominica, in breeding plumage, though breeding grounds are hundreds of miles further north.

'An idea like a storm cloud that does not spill
or arrive but moves silently in a direction.
Like a dark boot in a long life with a vague
hope in a wood house with an open door.' ~ from "Visitor" by Brenda Shaughnessy, 2011.

Bronze Copper (m) -- Lycaena hyllus

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ~ Elwyn Brooks White

Dickcissel (m) -- Spiza americana, making stump speech in Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

"What then are the situations, from the representation of which, though accurate, no poetical enjoyment can be derived? They are those in which the suffering finds no vent in action: in which a continuous state of mental distress is prolonged, unrelieved by incident, hope, or resistance, in which there is everything to be endured, nothing to be done." ~ Matthew Arnold

Eight-spotted Forester -- Alypia octomaculata, Hodges# 9314 MPG 931979, on Bastard Toadflax

“The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread.” ~ D. H. Lawrence

Orchard Oriole (1st summer male) -- Icterus spurius, checking on the fruit

Orchard Oriole (m) -- Icterus spurius, on Wild Parsnip

'A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.' ~ William Henry Davies, "Leisure"

Budgerigar -- Melopsittacus undulatus, parrot species native to Australia and common in the pet industry

'The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.' ~ from "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou, 1983.

Great Blue Skimmer (f) -- Libellula vibrans, our largest skimmer.

"I wish to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events ... so that my daily walk, my conversations with neighbors may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me." ~ Thoreau, 3/11/1856

Virginia Rail -- Rallus limicola

"The marsh is forever jealous of its real secrets which it guards with great care, revealing them only to those who with love in their hearts seek and find them." ~ Samuel Harper, 1928.

Wilson's Snipe -- Gallinago delicata

'Slower, sweet June,
Each step more slow;
Linger and loiter as you go.' ~ from "Slower, Sweet June" by Julia Harris May

Sora -- Porzana carolina, with newborn chick

"Give me strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is." ~ Black Elk

Odocoileus virginianus, springing towards summer

another Syphrid Fly -- Temnostoma balyras, a wasp mimic that develops in rotting wood, holds its dark front legs forward like wasp antennae

"If insects are worth getting to know as an enemy of humankind, they are even more worthy of attention as our benefactors." ~ Stephen A. Marshall

Prairie Sundrop -- Oenothera pilosella, Primrose family

"In all my life, I never saw or dreamed of so beautiful a sight as the rolling prairies." ~ Ellen Bigelow, 1835

Coral Hairstreak (eastern female) -- Satyrium titus. Titus what, more bromance? Let's not name anything else after infamous emperors.

“History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.” ~ Voltaire

Short-winged Toothpick Grasshopper -- Pseudopomala brachyptera

“Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within.” ~ Chinese proverb

Delaware Skipper (m) -- Anatrytone togan

“As someone that has spent their life studying natural history let me tell you, if you’re not still learning, you’ve died.” ~ Jim Wiker

Harnessed Tiger Moth -- Apantesis phalerata, Hodges# 8169 MPG 930278, seeking higher ground from flooding rains.

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever DOES anything about it." ~ Charles Dudley Warner, "My Summer in a Garden", 1870.

Henry's Marsh Moth -- Simyra insularis Hodges# 9280 MPG 931493, for whom a willow is an edible pillow

'I've been dirt ... and I don't care
Cause I'm burning ... inside
I'm just a yearning ... inside
And I'm the fire ... of life
Ooh, I've been hurt ... and I don't care ...' ~ Iggy Pop, "Dirt"

Flooding June rains drove crayfish from their burrows in Goose Lake Prairie, Grundy County, IL. i think this is the Prairie Crayfish -- Procambarus gracilis, a vital contributor to prairie and woodland soils and ecosystems.

“One must become as humble as the dust before he can discover truth.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Painted Lady -- Vanessa cardui, sampling a raccoon's crawdad leftovers.

'...They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys...' ~ from "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg

Great Blue Heron -- Ardea herodias, getting busy when crayfish are plentiful

Germander -- Teucrium canadense, Mint Family Labiatae

Baltimore Checkerspot -- Euphydryas phaeton -- the state butterfly of Maryland was once common but is now rare there.

“Man needs colour to live; it’s just as necessary an element as fire and water.” ~ Fernand Leger