Mid-Summer Nature Tidbits | Neighborhood Nature

Summer is slipping away and I feel like I have had my head down and haven’t been enjoying nature the last couple of weeks. Everything is happening in a blur. But the monarchs are here again, not that they totally left this summer, but we’ve had more hanging around this last week than I’ve seen since spring.

And they’ve been leaving evidence of their progeny all over the place.

I get a kick out of watching them methodically chow down on a milkweed leaf!

I have not been able to identify this caterpillar yet. I found it on the path leading to our office and moved it over to a nearby tree.

A tersa sphinx moth graced us with its presence on our porch earlier this week! What a cool moth to get to see up close! It stayed throughout the day and flew away that evening when I opened the door to go for a walk.

This moth was also on the front porch for several days before I realized it was a moth. From a distance I thought it was an old pipevine swallowtail chrysalis (which I’m finding in all of the oddest places now) but it turned out to be a yellow-collared slug moth!

I interrupted this fawn while on a walk one evening. I glimpsed over and thought it was really cute that it had a leaf hanging out of its mouth so I took a few shots and said hello and left it to finish dinner!

Those are the little tidbits going on around the yard and neighborhood right now. I’ll spare you the mowed milkweed spots that just break my heart to see. Or the houses being crammed into empty lots.

We’re back to hunkering down a bit more here since hospitals are full and school is in session. I’m feeling the desire to get back to this space again and have been craving autumn since the end of July. I don’t want summer blooms and growth to end but I am looking forward a bit to slightly cooler weather again and some camping trips.