Really, she did!  Of course,  she said it when I was being a particularly pesty child (although I prefer to think of it as “inquisitive”).   I called her today to see where the term came from (its etymology,  not to be confused with  entomology) and she told me that she wasn’t sure, but, that her mother used to call her and her siblings bug artists when they were “bugging” her.  So apparently the term has been handed down through a generation of notorious “bug artists”.  Has anyone else ever heard this term?  Surely, none of you were pesty children.  So, where was I going with this…Oh, yeah, today’s post is about all the “bugs” we came across during our birding class on Saturday.  It was a relatively slow birding day so we had ample opportunity to look down and find some pretty cool creepy crawlies.  Toni will be posting about our birding class soon (or may already have) so stay tuned folks.  Here are a few shots taken by Toni and myself.  I’ll start with the “pretty” ones and work my way down, although I think they are all pretty in their own way (except for maybe the last one:)

A monarch butterfly "puddling" as captured by the monarch queen, Toni!

An eastern American Copper butterfly sunning himself.

A beautiful meadowhawk dragonfly.

A transverse hover fly, a.k.a. Syrphid, enjoys some golden rod nectar.

Toni found this very cool banded garden spider (argiope trifasciata) feasting.

This crane fly is not too bad from a distance.

But up close it's a face only a mother could love;)

Hope I haven’t been too much of a bug artist and you’ve enjoyed the creepier crawlier side of Presque Isle.  We encourage you to come on down to the park and check things out for yourself.  You know we’re gonna bug you until you do!!