Shall we go for a swim?

The water was clear in the pool this cool morning.

I was surprised to find that someone was in swimming.

I was not tempted to join them.

It was fascinating to watch Garter Snake swim.

Did you know that snakes were such great swimmers?

After a while I had to dip it out and turn it loose down by the pond.

The pool really isn't a good place for snakes.

Where are the butterflies?

Are you looking for butterflies in the garden, on the flowers?

I found them in some different places.

Look at this one - in the garage.

We can see it up close while it tries to go out.

Shoo! Go over to the open door, butterfly!
Fly away!

Go find a flower.

That's not a flower!

That's the little sand wagon.

I think the butterfly is confused because it is a bright color.

There aren't any flowers up in the apple tree either.

But look! The apple tree is full of butterflies.

Are they eating apples?

I think they are drinking the sweet juice from the bruised or rotting apples.

Strymon melinus

It is a windy day and the flowers are tossing back and forth.

This doesn't seem to bother the little grey butterfly with the bright orange dots.

I walked right up to him to take his picture.

If you enlarge it you can see the thin black-and-white bands edged in red along his wings and the wonderful orange spots that make him noticeable. This is the Gray Hairstreak.

Really, I'm not making up these names.

The mystery plant identified.

I noticed a sturdy plant coming up in the rocks by the pond. I thought it might be corn by the leaves that came out first. Then it put up a short stalk and began to bloom. Clearly it was not corn.

I didn't know what it was. Now it is making seeds and ahhh! I recognize them! The little round seeds are ones I see in birdseed mixes all the time.

This is a Millet plant!

Who do you think planted it here?

More colorful wings

I can't seem to stop taking pictures of butterflies this year.

There are so many of them.

Here's one I hadn't identified before.

You might think it looks like the female Tiger Swallowtail that I posted before.

This butterfly doesn't have the little spiky tails that the Swallowtail has.

There are small reddish orange dots on the tops of its wings, and when it closes them up you can see dots on the bottoms of the wings.

And if you could see it in person it seems to change colors from brown to purple in the light and when it opens the wings wide the blue is luminescent.

This one is a Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly.

Got Milk (Snake, that is)?

One morning I found a tiny snake in the pool.

It was thinner than a pencil and about as long as one.

I dipped it out and took a quick picture of its pattern so I could identify it. Milk Snake.

Fluttering by

This summer has been full of butterflies - many more than we usually see.

I have been trying to take pictures of the different kinds of butterflies.

If you click on the pictures to make them bigger you can see them better. Many of the butterflies are small - like this silver-spotted Skipper.
They move quickly and it is hard to get a picture of the little ones.

Some of the butterflies are big and spectacular.
It is a little easier to get their pictures.

See the stripes on the body? This is the Tiger Swallowtail.

The points on the tail are what make it a Swallowtail.

They love the Joe Pye Weed. They flit around to other flowers but they always seem to come back to these tall pale purple blossoms down by the pond.

The top one here is a male and the bottom one a female - she has blue spots that he doesn't.

This is also a female Tiger Swallowtail- Isn't she lovely?

We found this winged creature resting in the woods.

Usually you only see it by night.

See the feathery antennae?

This isn't a butterfly at all.

It's a Luna Moth.

Wish you were here to look at these lovely creatures with me!