Large Bee-fly?
Here's someone I met that I think I know, the Large Bee-fly . Despite the name, I wouldn't consider them to be large; they're measured in millimeters (6-12 mm). Presumably in the world of the bee flies they're relatively large, but no one who's not an entomologist is likely to say "Wow - look at the size of that thing!". I have to admit that I wasn't able to get any confirmation of the identification from iNaturalist, but the photos on Wikipedia look pretty close. And the Large Bee-fly is considered to be pretty common; it's not a stretch to imagine them at Sourland. When I took the pictures I saw them either on flowers or sunning themselves out in the open, and I suspected they might be flower flies (aka hover flies) of some sort. This would have given them an ecological niche very similar to many of our bees, competing with bees for nectar/pollen and important pollinators in their own right. Fortunately iNaturalist's picture recognition algo...