In Beacon Hill Park, dance flies (Empididae) abounded, some of them mating. Here a female snacks on a nuptial gift of a crane fly while the male copulates.

A penultimate Tibellus oblongus waits on the grasses for prey.

A gorgeous carabid of the genus Scaphinotus on a log at Island View Beach.

Not much was sleeping on the dead vegetation, but I did find a number of these bee flies (Conophorus spp.)

At first, I thought this small butterfly was just a pierid, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a Nymphalid. Erik Runquist on Twitter IDed it as Coenonympha california insulana, our version of the Common Ringlet. EDIT: it turns out this is not so common as the name would suggest. This species is endangered in BC, and is considered Red-listed in the province. 

A worker of Formica obscuripes succumbs to a crab spider

Some of the black widows had modest egg sacs on the go.

At Ogden Point, a male house sparrow tries to distract me from something.

Fledglings! Pretty cute little buggers.

The camas was in bloom, although we were probably a couple weeks late for the full glory.

We made a special trip up to Mt. Tolmie to find some of the snakeflies, but managed just to find this gorgeous female.

Camas in the evening shadow is quite spectacular.

A gorgeous syrphid (Eristalis flavipes) is quite a convincing bumblebee mimic until it lands.

Quite a dark garter snake…

At Cattle Point, an eagle looks out for an easy meal.

And an otter has found one, in the form of some salmon discards from a fishing boat.