Pipevine Swallowtail

I saw a beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail today. For more, read here.

The butterflies after the storm

There’s nothing quite like the clear weather that comes after a good storm. The sky seems extra blue, urging you to look up. That’s how I saw a kettle of hawks migrating this morning. Five or six hawks were wheeling around each other, steadily moving in a southerly direction. The bees were back to business […]

More monarchs, la-di-da

I don’t know where we got this overblown scare. Massive storm in the Northeast? Get real! A little wind, a little rain, big deal! What was that, a feather? It’s like the weather keeps saying, To the moon, to the moon, pow! — but the braying is over now. The world is blue skies and […]

Looking for the Monarch migration

Every year around this time, I start looking for Monarch butterflies, hoping to see the migration going by. Usually I see a few straggling by, or stopping to fuel up, like this one on my butterfly bush the other day. When I see a Monarch in fall, I always remember the time I saw streams […]

The crowd on the bee and butterfly bush

The butterfly bush is surrounded by the darting shadows of bees against the all-too-clear blue sky. Amid the heat wave, this and the coneflowers are the main source of nectar around here. The powdery lavender scent is drawing an amazing variety of bees and such. Last year, the butterfly bush was the domain of the […]

More birds, fewer bugs

I wonder if I’m paying more attention to the birds because it’s time to resign myself to not seeing any Monarch butterflies this year. I saw plenty of other big orange and yellow butterflies, but not one monarch, not even in passing. What happened to them?

The butterfly bush works

I’m beginning to resign myself to not seeing any monarch butterflies this year. It’s strange. I saw several last year (or possibly the same one taunting me), and the year before streams and streams of them in the fall migration. This year, not the merest sight of a monarch. Not that there’s been a shortage […]

Jupiter is a dot

I saw lots of neat stuff today, but you’ll have to take my word for it. First thing this morning, two goldfinches were feeding on the coneflowers, and the nyjer feeder, and the evening primrose. But I didn’t get a picture and you’ll have to take my word for it.

Black swallowtail

Time for another big fat butterfly picture. This one I caught Monday, when I saw a huge butterfly swooping around the butterfly bush. How cliche. How pretty. The way it kept sweeping its wings as it fed made it hard to miss, even from a distance. That’s why the wings are a bit blurry. According […]

Big Fat Yellow Butterfly

Let’s see, how are the flower weeks doing? The roses are petering out, but there’s still plenty of them. The peonies look good, though thunderstorms tonight will probably put a stop to that. The irises are in full flower, so maybe I should stop badmouthing them. They do last more than a week each, but […]