The poor, dried up frogpond has sent froggies elsewhere... Happily, there is a storm front going across the region and we had 11.2 mm last night (0.44") of rain. More on the way. We are having a drought, and this will bring relief, although it won't top up the water system.
to my goldfish pond, specifically. I counted 14 frogs in my wee pond. The leopard frogs are in the foliage, my veggie garden and the ornamental gardens. I don't know where the bullfrogs have gone.
The trees are full of aerial insectivores, birds that only eat bugs in the trees, like the American redstart (witchety-witchety-witchety), and the Red-eyed vireo (song is like a conversation,"How are YOU? I am fine. Talk to you later." I have a hard time photographing them, not only am I only 5'4", but they are in the tall trees! Dorah did a catch-and-release last year, I must confess.
Phoebe had two nestings, after a poor start. They are around on the ground snapping up bugs, bless their hearts. These photos are quite artsy, except they were taken through the plexiglass on the upper deck. (Remember my bugs...)
The butterflies have been busy. We have a ton of milkweed and I spotted my first monarch butterflies here in two years! Fritillary, methinks, as well as an admiral.
The mason bee house is going great guns.
Dragonflies are happy, as are the Butterflies on the weeds. The goldfinch is thirsty. We are so dry! It's a banner year for raspberries, that'll make our bear happy! We want happy bears! It's a banner year for Virginia ctenucha, as well. It's a pretty moth, quite ubiquitous. I hatched one from a cocoon last year. New hatchling: Virginia Ctenucha they come from a lovely fuzzy cocoon. a beautiful moth, with an orange head and flabellate (feathery) antennae, blue marking and a blue thorax. My book tells me that black and blue indicates to birds that they are bitter-tasting and/or poisonous.
I have found my first chrysalis, which is either the Eastern Comma, or the Question Mark!
For more critters, visit Eileen's Saturday Critters #134!
13 comments:
Hello, I always love to see the scarlet tanager. The frogs are cute. I am glad the Dorah catch was able to be released.
Pretty butterfly. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!
Lots of wonderful critter shots ~ nature is so plentiful ~ hope your 'drought' ends soon ~
Happy Weekend to you ~ ^_^
You certainly have a lot of animal company around!
Lovely summer photos!
Frogs, a bird in the hand, the red eyed Vireo, but my favourite is your pond with the jetty, love that look beyond the trees and tall grassy stalks. Tennis, ONE to go, and guess who I will be backing tomorrow morning? Another ONE a.m. start. And a new word for me, I confess I had to Google it " Ubiquitous" and there it is, or they are in plenty, so true.
Great photos. Lots to take pictures of in the country. :)
Hari OM
Love the bugs... and the birds of course! It's interesting, is it not, that there is no such thing as the perfect season - each demands a 'tax' of some sort; in this case the flies! YAM xx
I enjoyed reading your post and the seeing the photos. Lots of frogs! I saw some frogs for the first time in three years at our local lake. Maybe they were always there at times but I never saw them.
That's a lot of critters! We have the Virginia ctenucha moths too; they're all over the fragrant Valerian in the garden. 'Flabellate', that's a new word for me.
You must walk that yard all day everyday to know where all the little critters are hiding. It's goo you are getting some rain.
Beautiful photoessay!!
Such a wonderful variety of critters! I never heard of a red-eyed bird before. The bee hive is such a great habitat and the other photos are terrific.
Fantástico este conjunto de fotografias.
Um abraço e bom fim de semana.
Andarilhar
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