Since I’ve been spending so much of my early morning time working in the yard, it seems only appropriate to do a post about what’s been happening there recently.
This morning was particularly rewarding because, after what seemed like a month not seeing a hummingbird in the yard, I was treated to a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird visiting a nearby feeder while I sat on the stone bench under the shade of the Scotch Pine.
This morning was also good for House Finches and House Sparrows.
Here’s what the front yard looked like this morning. I have thinned out the goldenrod considerably, while leaving some for the butterflies and bees to enjoy as it is about to explode into yellow blossoms. I have left most of the Common Milkweed as well.
I found a bee on the Joe Pye Weed. I could barely see it, as it blends in beautifully with the wildness of the blooms.
This afternoon I took a couple quick photos with the phone of the Culver’s Root and a bee on a specimen that is growing close to the neighbor’s fence.
Also in front earlier, there was a Black Swallowtail Butterfly I captured with the phone camera.
Yesterday morning, I found a young House Finch on the birdbath while I sat cooling off on the stone bench.
Going back to Saturday morning, I had a Monarch Butterfly on the Common Milkweed.
The House Finches were enjoying cracking their own seeds in the sunflower seed feeder.
And a Gray Squirrel was showing off his acrobatics on the peanut feeder.
On July 16, there were insects such as this Red Milkweed Beetle.
A Paper Wasp was flying around.
And a Green Bottle Fly shone in the sunlight.
I found bees on a Pink Coneflower and an Eggplant blossom. I’ve never grown eggplant before, but it sure is pretty,
Google identified this as a Two-spotted Bumblebee on the Monarda.
Going all the way back to July 6, things were just getting started. So the last couple weeks have been like an explosion. Below, photos of the Culver’s Root and a Bumble Bee on the Monarda.
I observed an American Goldfinch that day. I haven’t seen them in the yard very often lately. They are busy nesting in places like the Chicago Portage.
And after years of failure, I have finally managed to grow some Rattlesnake Master. I hope I can keep it going.
We are in for another hot spell the next couple days. Then we are promised rain on Thursday followed by cooler temperatures. I have photos of recent outings and a lot more leftovers from May and June. I am also trying to work on my book. Let’s see what happens.
Have I ever said I adore bumblebees? If not, now I am proclaiming it, and they are some of the friendliest creatures in my yard. Last weekend the one in these pictures was definitely enjoying the Wild Senna, making me take extra notice of the brown spots on the blooms which make the flowers almost look like bees themselves.
And just as I had had enough and was about to go inside, this lovely Black Swallowtail showed up. I had seen one in the yard before but leaving, not hanging around.
I had a staring match with the Fox Squirrel. The sunflowers growing from spilled seed are too numerous to photograph, so here’s a close-up of one.
I’ve discovered one or two Snow on the Mountain flowers in the yard, not where it was coming up for years, but now scattered, after it disappeared entirely. Glad to have it back.
And if you made it this far you might recognize the flower below as the invasive monster I was trying to eradicate earlier. I discovered the name of this nefarious plant yesterday while scrolling through the Audubon Wildflower App on my cell phone. The app isn’t new, but my use of it now is a new diversion. I’ve decided to scroll all the way through everything from A to Z to find things that I can’t remember, can’t identify otherwise, or discover new. So far, this was a fortuitous decision because I was close to the beginning of the alphabet with this one. And it is every bit as terrible as I suspected. Well, maybe not where it belongs, but it’s from Europe, and here’s part of the description from the app: “spreads by underground stems and forms sizable colonies. The plant contains poisonous sapnonins (soap-like substances) that inspired the genus name (from the Latin sapo, meaning ‘soap’) and the alternate common name Soapwort. Lather can be made from its crushed foliage. The common name Bouncing Bet is an old fashioned nickname for a washerwoman.”
Still wishing for a Monarch Butterfly and/or a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird or Sphinx Moth to show up on a weekend when I’m in the yard…with the camera. 🙂
