Early Bees and Butterflies

Wilson Justin writes:

Have not been out on the trail for a week. This afternoon I saw 2 large bumble bees tending to the overhead willow and alder branches. I was not able to discern what attraction there was except maybe the buds just coming out. That's the earliest yet I've noticed the bees in the spring. I saw two butterflies. The smaller one all brown with black speckled on its wings. The larger one was mostly black but had a distinctive band of gold or yellow along the inner edge of the wings. Further along where the hillside came to the trail a colony of small red ants already moving larvae around the ancient log they called home. Finally a large thin bodied flier reminded me of a moth but lacking the body and wing structure. The sun when direct was intense, definitely not April and not May...more like the month of June.