Memphis Trip 2026

  Link to all Trips page. 

From 5.13.26-5.16.26 my father, sister and I drove from Chicago, IL to Memphis, TN and back.

Zebra Swallowtail Day 2

Day 1, 5.13.26:

Illinois: Rend Lake. Pictured: Caenochrysis doriae, a genus of Cuckoo Wasp, Common Micropanthers, Variable Field Ants, Eastern Black Carpenter Ant, Common Picture-winged Fly, Yellow-legged Mud Dauber, Common Blue Mud Dauber, Eastern Carpenter Bee, Sidewalk Firedot, Common Greenshield, Eastern Gray Squirrel, Bald Eagle, and Black Vultures.

Day 2, 5.14.26:

Tennessee: Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington. (large-winged insects). Pictured: Zebra Swallowtails, Red Admiral, Eastern Pondhawk, Fall Webworm, Eastern Tailed Blue, Dotted Renia Moth.

Tennessee: Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington. (medium no-winged bugs). Pictured: Pennsylvania Dingy Ground Beetle, Bronzed Tiger Beetle, Pasimachus sp., Eastern Carpenter Bee, Long-jawed Jumping spider, Four Toothed Mason Wasp, Southern Yellowjacket, Red Paper Wasp, Carolina Grasshopper, Western Honey Bee, Zebra Swallowtails, Brown-belted Bumble Bee, crane flies.

Tennessee: Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington. (fungi and bacteria). Pictured: polypores, Scaly Oysterlings, Turkey-tails, False Turkey-tail (Stereum ostrea), agaric, Jelly Fungi, common greenshield, infections on oak leaves, Bacterial Crown Gall.

Tennessee: Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington. (large winged insects). Pictured: Zebra Swallowtail, Red Admiral, Eastern Pondhawk, Fall Webworm, Eastern Tailed Blue, and Dotted Renia Moth.

Tennessee: Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Millington (birds and plants). Pictured: Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Common Grackle, Great-crested Flycatcher, Mississippi Kite, Summer Tanagers, Indigo Bunting, Cerulean Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, Hackberry tree, Bald Cypresses.

Day 3, 5.15.26: 

Tennessee: Metal Museum, Memphis. Pictured: Ferruginous Carpenter Ant, Horned Oak Gall, Dimorphic Jumping Spider, Jumping spiders, Gineau Paper Wasp, caddisfly, and Blue Jay.

Day 4, 5.16.26: 

Memphis: Shelby Farms Park (vertebrates and mushrooms). Pictured: Splitgills, Yellow American Blusher, Barn Swallow, American Buffalo/Bison, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Grosbeaks, Muskrat, Red Eared Slider , Canada Geese, Cows, Turkey Vultures.

Memphis: Shelby Farms Park (vultures). Pictured: Black Vultures.

Memphis: Shelby Farms Park (bugs and lichen). Pictured: Black Swallowtail, beetle Pupa, Sineweed Bushy Lichen, Brown Stink Bug, Speckled Shield Lichen, Gallinipper, Non-biting Midge, Pillbug.