When I went for a blood test on July 20, I noticed that a slew of Eastern cicada killers were swarming around one of the bushes near the entrance to the Kaiser Permanente center, battling each other for territory. Although I am mortally allergic to bee stings (especially from 2-inch-long wasps), I knew that a) male cicada killers do not sting and b) I was right at the doctor's office just in case, so out came my S5. I couldn't quite get the exposure right, and it's not as in-focus as I'd like because they were flitting around so much and alighting just momentarily, so this shot isn't great. But I'm sharing it just to show that knowing about a species can make even a wary person like me brave enough to stand near them and shoot.

This paragraph is from the Wikipedia article I link to above: "Males are more often seen in groups, vigorously challenging one another for position on the breeding aggregation from which they emerged, and generally pursuing anything that moves or flies within close proximity. [Luckily, this was not the case with me on Tuesday.] It is not unusual to see two or three male wasps locked together in midair combat, the aggregate adopting an erratic and uncontrolled flight path until one of the wasps breaks away. The male wasp's aggressive behavior is extremely similar to that of another robust insect of the area, the male carpenter bee. In both cases, while the males' vigorous territorial defense can be extremely frightening and intimidating to human passersby, the males pose no danger whatsoever. They will only grapple with other insects, and cannot sting."