August 3

I'd never seen one of these fellas in the garden before. I was used to the nice little paper wasps that pretty much totally ignored me if I stuck my lens into their space. This guy was about twice their size (at least an inch and a half long) and had colors that positively screamed "Danger, Will Robinson!" He flew more like a fighter pilot (unlike those slow-moving helicopter-ish bumblebees) and he noticed my lens.

I'm grateful I figured out when to get out of his space without having to suffer the consequences of his backend.