Final Approach

When photographing yellow flowers the photographer needs to underexpose the image in order to capture the full tonality of the subject. It is best to capture your image in early morning or late evening when shadows help define the flower details. And of course, I followed none of these suggestions and photographed when the sun was directly overhead, in early afternoon light - at 2:09PM to be exact, and on a cloudless day.

I was lucky to capture this Hummingbird Clearwing moth making its final approach to a yellow swamp iris. Each late spring this roadside wetland explodes with hundreds of yellow iris. This year I noticed a few, smaller wild blue iris in the swamps as well.

I was surprised to find what I have always referred to as "hummingbird moths" is really their appropriate common name. The Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) and the Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) are the most common and found throughout North America. Like all Lepidoptera their wings are covered by scales; some species lose many of the scales from patches on their wings, so they are called clearwing hummingbird moths. Like most moths they have a very long tongue which they carry rolled under their chins and that they use to reach the nectar of long-necked flowers.

The US Forest Service as a great piece on this species that can be found at the following link: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/hummingbird_moth.shtml