This year the Bidens laevis, the bur margiold or beggar’s ticks, are on fire along the pond! We’ve had them sporadically over the years and then the taro choked them out, so I am delighted that they are returning in force this year in the area that is becoming a wetland behind the pine trees […]
Rufio the Rufous Hummingbird
It was early September and we were eating dinner and Forest was in his usual eat a bite-turn around to look outside mode and he said he spotted a hummingbird that was red. We figured he had just seen the ruby part of a ruby-throated and didn’t think much about it. The next morning I […]
Late August Pollinators (and Friends)
Common Whitetail, Plathemis lydia If early summer felt like a bit of a drought in regards to pollinators, August and September always make up for it. This, I should know. And back with a fury they came! The gulf frits are busy as ever, searching for nectar, laying eggs, and generally enjoying life in the […]
A Brush with a Saddleback
There are three saddlebacks on the backside of this banana leaf—but we actually found a total of four later on! I have always wanted to see a saddleback caterpillar, Acharia stimulea, in person. Chris found one in the field a few years ago and texted me a photo of it and that has been the […]
Quick Check-In
Hey! Yes, I’ve fallen off the face of the blogosphere! I should probably do this as a Life Lately post but I’m short of time so this will be a quick update and eventually I’ll do something a bit more in depth. Highlights: +Online school is going. That’s about it…going. I wish he was at […]
August Insects
Yellow Star Grass, Hypoxis hirsuta Last weekend I noticed that the mountain mint was abuzz with insects so I grabbed my camera to see what I could a snapshot of. It turned out we had quite a few interesting characters in the garden! Common Thread-waisted Wasp, Ammophila procera Two-striped Forceptail, Aphylla williamsoni I caught this […]
Sipping that Sweet, Sweet Nectar | Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris)
In one of my recent posts I know I mentioned that it seemed that all lepidopterans had taken to a quiet spell around the yard, though we would have a friend visit on occasion. This dun skipper would be one of those friends to visit back on June 20th, however after our recent rain over […]
Egg to Caterpillar, Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) | Wildlife Wednesday
Over a month ago now, I noticed a giant swallowtail ovipositing on the rue. I had bought pots of rue a year or two ago just for this reason and to have another source of food for when they came through and found my citrus instead—it was a place to relocate them as necessary. But […]
June Blooms
Argentine Skies salvia June came and went. If parts of spring seemed to crawl by, June and the rest of summer are zooming by. Someone up north posted about noticing signs of fall migration beginning and I thought, NOOOOOO! But I too have noticed a slight change in the light already, life is shifting for […]
A Bee & A Butterfly | Wildlife Wednesday
June has proven to be incredibly busy for work so any of the intermittent downtime I had in April and May has gone *poof*! Which is one reason my writing here has tapered off once again. I did want to share two little nature bits from the yard yesterday evening that I took with my […]
