Most people think

[joelbolden]

only of flies as nusiances found swarming around rotting organic garbage, carcasses and feces, feeding and laying their eggs which hatch as the familiar maggot. It's one of their "jobs". Another job many people don't realize is pollination. The adult flies are often the sole pollinators of those plants which aren't visited by the bees, wasps etc; often located

in the woodlands where bees don't normally find a lot of sustenance, or those who bloom so early that other insects are still in hibernation. An example of each are PawPaws(woodland) and Skunk Cabbage(winter bloom). When rotting organic matter is unavailable the adults will feed on the nectar of strong scented flowers such as Goldenrod, Asters etc to keep up their strength until "proper" food/egg laying material is available. I was testing out a new firmware update at our local wetland/nature center which is still covered with acres of goldenrod and various asters/fleabane when I came across these Green Bottle Flies feeding on them. They seemed to prefer the asters. I was using a very tight focus point and my 55-300PLM lens for these shots since the newest firmware updates were supposed to provide increased AF accuracy. Looks like they did.

 

[Space Face]

All insects play a very important part in nature.

I find Greenbottles to be very flighty so you did well getting these.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Good point here. Every creature has a purpose, even if it is to scare the holy water out of me when I almost step on it because I didn’t see it slithering through the leaves underfoot

 

[jeffashman]

Some nice shots. #3

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice set. They can land on flowers and plants all day, just keep them off my food & drink or I'll get all hulk on them.