Jeez, Dirt, you are all up in those insects! That first one looks scary. I love how you can see the pollen on some of them.
Goldenrods are pretty awesome. We have some at MOSI in the Historic Tree Grove under the Henry Ford Sycamore. You can read about how Henry Ford and Thomas Edison teamed up to find out if Goldenrod could be used to produce rubber here (also click on the goldenrod link in the article to learn even more):
http://lepcurious.blogspot.com...
Also, make sure people know it's not the Goldenrod causing their allergies; it's the ragweed. They bloom at the same time but Goldenrod is so much showier that people give it the blame. When I was in KY and WV last September, the pollinators were loving the Goldenrod. I was downing the Zyrtec and Allegra, but I know what Ragweed looks like so I knew where to place the blame.
I had a bee friend loving my Salvia 'Mystic Spires' and Porterweed. They grow right next to each other so it's like one-stop shopping. This was a big guy and he kept floating around. But it's like I tell the butterfly thread, "Just keep taking photos and some of them will turn out all right". Not all of us can be as talented as Dirt!
Are the yellow things on the side its pollen pouches? I think I saw that in a nature show.
I don't know where the actual Cicadas are, but their shells are all over.
