Saturday, September 5, 2009

I Love Blogging/Camera Critters

After work yesterday, I went outside and spent an hour taking 301 photos of critters, blooms, and the sky for the memes I participate in. (I needed to delete many of them.) There are so many ones I like to see on others' blogs, but I am only able to keep up with a few.

I went out the front door, and the first critter I saw was this Tiger Swallowtail on our largest butterfly bush.



The wasps are still enjoying the mountain mint.



I think this is lightening bug on the Eupatorium perfoliatum, a relative of Joe pye weed.


This a fly on rue. I had several caterpillars on it last year, but haven't seen any on it this year. I even planted a couple more for them this year.



I enjoyed my time in the veggie garden, where there is lots of verbena bonariensis, which attracts lots of butterflies and bees, who happily share the blooms. There were a number of butterflies out and about today. I wasn't able to get a photo of the cabbage whites, which teased me by landing nearby, then taking off before I could get a photo. Here is an American Painted Lady feeding next to a bee.



Two more American Painted Ladies:



Another Painted Lady:



The boltonia, (if I'm remembering correctly) in the flower bed in front of the veggie garden is full of insects, but it was hard to get a good photo of them. I cropped this photo to get the bee larger.



Next, I went across the street to see what I could find to take photos of. The tithonia, Mexican sunflowers here are about a foot taller than I am. I saw 4 monarch butterflies on them! (The zinnias in front of them were also visited by the monarchs and bees.)





There were several bees, too.



I went back home, and into the back yard, trying to find the rabbit I had seen go in there after it saw me walking toward it in the side yard. There were a number of insects on the garlic chive blooms.



The insects that remind me of lightening bugs are still enjoying the rough goldenrod, and are sharing it with a bee.



I think this is Wichita Falls goldenrod, and I'm not sure what kind of wasp or bee this is.



Did I mention I really had a good time on my hunt for critters? At this point, I was thinking about how much I love blogging, and even though I sometimes spend more time on it than I should, my housework gets neglected, and, like this evening, I am staying up too late, I feel like my enjoyment of gardening and nature is enhanced by it. I saw 4 daddy long legs today, and if I wasn't blogging, I would not have gone out to see them. I am more observant of my world now.

Here is the first daddy long legs I saw on this Indian Summer rudbeckia, which had aphids on it that I couldn't get a picture of. There was another on a different bloom, too.



There were 2 more on the fence. I just included one of them.



I went back to the front to see if I missed anything, and there was a monarch on the butterfly bush.



This was a blue of some kind that I couldn't get a good photo of.



This photo was taken a couple days ago. This garter snake was so afraid of me, that I was only able to get this photo of it before it made its get-away.


Have a fun and safe weekend! I may do some research and come back to better ID what I've posted, but if you think you know what they are, go ahead and say in a comment. Another thing that blogging brings is awesome blogging friends and acquaintances to learn and get ideas from. We give each other lots of encouragement, too. I need to find a way to read faster or something so that I can keep up with all the blogs I try to follow.

It's September, and I am sad that summer is almost over, and am already thinking about spring.

To see more Camera Critters or find out how to include your critter post, click on the icon in my sidebar.

22 comments:

  1. What a busy yard you have!! Could have done without the snake though...come see the birth of the Monarch!!

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  2. Sue girl ! You are taking such beautiful pictures .. I think you are right about us all improving with our photographic skills .. the more we take the better we get at it!
    I am so jealous of all the gorgeous butterflies you have in your garden .. I must never be out in my garden when any ? visit .. I have so many plants they would love .. and heaven knows I have had so many honey bees enjoy them .. I wonder where all the butterflies are hiding ? LOL
    Very pretty pictures Sue : )
    Joy
    PS .. you can keep the spiders and snake though ? haha

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  3. The insects in your yard look very busy and happy! Isn't it wonderful when the garden attracts so much wildlife?

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  4. What a nice post, Susan. I even like the snake (though my hubby is totally unrational about them, so I always tell him we have 'no snakes allowed' signs posted around our perimeter.

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  5. Wonderful, wonderful! I enjoyed your critters and your blooms.
    To me, blogging is time well spent. I enjoy seeing gardens from across the country and getting to know the gardeners. Plus I get great ideas and learn about new plants.

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  6. Sue,
    These are some nice little critters you took photos of, and boy, you took a lot!
    I love the Monarch on the Tithonia, very striking!
    And thanks for the help with the linking to other people on my site!it worked!
    Have great weekend!
    Rosey

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  7. Wonderful garden/ backyard...Wonderful, wonderful
    Very nice and interesting.

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  8. Lovely photos, all of them (except the snake... scared of those guys)

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  9. Push lots of bulbs indoors , It will be so lovely throughout the winter, you making pretty dish gardens and bonsais in miniature.. lovely critters at workk sandy

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  10. The blooms rival the beauty of your creatures! I have never seen mountain mint or rue blooms, and that joe pye relative is a name I was looking for (got a nick name for it?). Thanks for sharing:)

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  11. I looked up this name and found it also called Bone-set, easier for me to say:). I'm going to go outside and see if this is what I have growing. Thank you for this name:)

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  12. ah, Sue. I always save your blog until the end of the day when I know you have pictures.

    That way I can finish my day by relaxing and reminding myself that if we take the time to look, we are truly blessed with beauty all around us.

    Thank you so much, for helping me keep my perspective.

    Troy

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  13. Hi Sue. Great pics of the critters! You're blessed with lots of butterflies. :-D

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  14. Sue, you've taken the most amazing shots! Can't understand how you do it - my butterflies always seem to fly away...
    Also, I agree with your thoughts on blogging - makes me more aware of 'little things around me' too!
    Katarina

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  15. Hello Sue!
    Wonderful series of pictures, congratulations!I just loved the first one!
    purrs, love and Happy camera Critters
    Luna

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  16. A wonderful collection of critters! I rarely see Daddy Long Legs out in the garden and never really thought about it until I saw your pic. Love the Monarch pictures.

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  17. Sue~~ I love all your critter photos. I'm wondering about the mountain mint. Not that I have room for even one more plant, still, I'd like to grow it anyway. The gray/white blossoms and silver leaves are unusual eye candy.

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  18. I know what you mean about the housework! But then again, the dust will just return, and if we're really lucky someone else will get tired of seeing it and take action.

    What a great collection of beasties you have in your garden!

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  19. Sue, these are some really awesome pics of butterflies i have seen in a while. I love butterfly bushes and the beauties around them. Thanks for providing us a great source of joy.

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  20. Thanks for all the nice comments. I sure enjoyed them. I have gotten all of your blogs visited now. Whew! I am starting to get caught up.

    I mentioned to Carla that I have a link to tags in my sidebar, and "mountain mint" is one of them. I have some posts where I go into more detail on the 2 kinds of it that I grow. They are not as spready as other mints. I thought this one was going to be, but I controlled it in the spring by pulling up some of the stems that were starting to form roots.

    I hope you all had a great weekend.

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I welcome comments and questions from anyone, including those who do it anonymously. Some people find my posts by doing searches, and I like hearing from them. I guess spammers won't even read this message, but I will delete spam as soon as I see it.