Help! I have noticed a lot of yellow jackets around, but now I'm seeing this creature, and it hovers around me, checking me out while I'm outside. Is it related to the yellow jackets (their queen?), or is it a hornet of some type? And am I in danger of being attacked? I don't swat at it, that's for sure! Help!
That looks like a nice, sharp picture - can you crop it so we can get a good close-up view?
Off-hand, it looks like some kind of fly to me..
I agree with claypa - looks like a fly in the family Syrphidae (hover/flower flies).
Splattttttt
No splatttttt, probably a friendly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverfly
LOL, phicks!
Amazing!!! Looks so much like a big, scary hornet--smart fly, who's gonna try to eat him?
I guess that explains why he was hovering, and why he didn't sting me, huh? lol
Sorry, all I have on this old computer is Microsoft Paint, and I'm not even sure how to use that for photo editing. But I believe you ID'd it correctly. Thanks ever so kindly, claypa and suunto! And thanks for your fun sense of humor (again), phicks!
YW. I just tried it in MS Paint, it was pretty easy. Here's how, if you want to try it on some rainy day:
Right click on the picture, hover the mouse on "open with", click on "paint". Then just click on the rectangle in the left corner and draw a small rectangle (or circle, or whatever) around the fly, right click on the rectangle and "copy to" your pictures.
Or splatttttt. lol.
LOL, thanks again!
Okay, I cropped and enlarged it--kinda grainy, but here it is.
