the Lesser Goldfinches
Earlier this summer I started to hear a different kind of bird song, very sweet and cheerful. It turns out that we have Lesser...
Lots of food for the bees
This year, I think I've been better with providing food for our bee, butterfly and bird visitors in the backyard. To be sure that there...
Cuckoo bee!
This weekend I spotted this cuckoo bee, a female coelioxys on the naked buckwheat blossoms. These bees are natural enemies of other bee...
Carpenter bees are back
I haven't seen carpenter bees in the garden since early summer. And then yesterday afternoon I heard the distinct buzz of a larger,...
Tickseed aka coreopsis = more food for bees
I purchased a new plant for the backyard, tickseed aka coreopsis. It's still a small plant, but within a few hours I observed a hover fly...
Honey bee on the fennel flowers
Now that the swallowtail caterpillars have vacated the fennel plant to morph into chrysalises then butterflies, somewhere nearby in the...
Ivory banded digger male bee waking up on Klondike cosmos
Last week I observed an ivory banded digger male bee sleeping on a prom dress cosmos blossom. And this morning I observed another ivory...
Honey bees in the morning
Here is another bee waking up in the Prom Dress cosmos blossoms, this time a honey bee. It stayed in this position for at least ten...
Beautiful monarch butterflies
Here are more images of the monarch butterflies we watched develop from caterpillars on our milkweed plant, to chrysalises to adults. We...
The monarch butterflies are out and on their way
Hooray! Hooray! After 17 days, the monarchs emerged from both chrysalises! We just weren't sure anymore if the chrysalises were okay and...
