A Fly Takes a Bath

As I sat reading on the garden bench the other day, occasionally watching the birds and bugs around me, this hoverfly landed on a nearby hydrangea. It periodically buzzed away and came right back again, to the exact same spot. Google tells me it's a Batman hoverfly, Myathropa florea. It has that name because there's a dark marking on the back of its torso that looks like the Batman logo. (You can't see it too clearly in my photo but it's clearer here.)

And now I'm wondering what this fly was called before Batman rose to prominence in the 1940s. Surely it had a name before that.

Anyway, I watched this little creature go through an elaborate grooming ritual, first rubbing its forelegs together, and then stroking its back legs over its back and across its wings.

It was pretty fascinating. We've all seen flies do this grooming, I'm sure, but this fly was large enough that I could really see it clearly. Apparently this action removes pollen, dirt and microbes that might interfere with its finely tuned flight capabilities. There's a whole blog post about it here; more than I needed to know, but interesting in its detail. (Here's a shorter version of the same information.)

I finished going through all my newly acquired slides yesterday. I'd say of the 1200 or so that I bought, ten to 15 are what I'd call really good photos with potential -- pictures that made me go, "Wow!" About 400 are mildly interesting. The rest are useless. I'm not disappointed with this ratio; in fact it's what I'd expect from a mass of unsorted slides. Now, the question is, what do I do with all the ones I don't want? I hate to just throw them out, but they really are photographically insignificant, I think. Maybe someone could make a lampshade out of them. I suppose I could put them on eBay as craft supplies!

I also walked down to Camden Market to talk to the dealer about the rest of his slides, but his booth was closed. I'll catch up with him again in a couple of days. I got a nice walk in, at least, though the wind was blowing and there was a lot of dust and pollen in the air, enough to give me sneezing fits.

Once again I am working my way through New Yorker magazines. I am going to conquer this stack if it kills me!