Summer is progressing on the savannah and prairie. They are lush with flowers with old ones fading and new ones emerging. The insect/bug transition is the same. Big animals are continue in short supply. I've seen perhaps two deer in the last couple of weeks. Turkeys are around but generally just scraping through leaves to find a snack. As always there are bugs, plants and some birds to keep things interesting.

A Robin with a very large caterpillar
This must be young Ruby Throated Gross Beak as it was near the nature center and not paying much attention to what was going on around it.
Black Giant Swallow Tail
Giant Swallow Tail
A Monarch
A Peck's Skipper on a Steeplebush (Meadowsweet)
Silver-Spotted Skipper
A Snowberry Clearwing
Hummingbird Clearwing

Both the Snowberry Clearwing and Hummingbird Clearwing were feeding on Beebalm near the Nature Center.

A (very spiky) thistle emerging blossom
A Common Sunfish; it was investigating the white speck and decided it was a white speck and not an insect (white speck)
A Gnat Ogres with a little insect for breakfast.
A worker Black and Gold Bumblebee. These are among the biggest bumblebees ... it's pretty impressive.
The Bumblebees 'maxilla' is the part extending from its 'chin'. Its tongue is inside of the two sections of the maxilla. The upper part of the tongue is just visible.
A Jimsonweed blossom
Jimsonweed seed pod.

The Jimsonweed is an aggressive invasive weed in temperate climates across the world.[2]D. stramonium has frequently been employed in traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments. It has also been used as a hallucinogen taken entheogenically to cause intense visions.[2] It is unlikely ever to become a major drug of abuse owing to effects upon both mind and body frequently perceived subjectively as highly unpleasant, giving rise to a state of profound and long-lasting disorientation with a potentially fatal outcome. It contains tropane alkaloids which are responsible for the deliriant effects, and may be severely toxic.

When I was growing up on a farm in central Illinois there were Jimsonweeds in our cattle lot. All other green plants would be eaten by the cattle but the small grove of Jimsonweeds would still be there. This plant (with others) was in the trash piles near College Avenue. They have been there for many years.

One more looper caterpillar. This one wins the innovation award so far.
A Robber Fly with a captured moth.
A strange honeybee. Normally the honeybees store the pollen on their legs. This has stored the majority on its abdomen.
A Gasteruption type wasp.
A White Tailed Deer eating water lilies (photo from a distance with a phone by Suzanne). At least one deer is still around.