September Garden Images
About a week into September, days are a little cooler and the colours are moving towards warm yellows and reds ... some pictures for you to enjoy as text is in short supply this week.
The Beetles Are (Still) Coming
Japanese Beetles in the Ascendency Recently we wrote about the welcome appearance this summer of the eggs of parasitic Tachnid flies on the bodies of Japanese Beetles in the garden and we have been looking forward to a decline in beetle numbers as a consequence. No such luck. For the past four years, [...]
Action on the Golden Rod
The Golden Rod was alive with insects Tuesday morning in the warm sun - here are four that posed for their portraits. There were also a number of Hover Flies which never paused long enough to be immortalised. Clearly a Bumble Bee and I think most likely Bombus impatiens (Common Eastern Bumble Bee) [...]
The Illustrated Garden Month – August 2019
A Garden Month (to 24 Aug 2019) Pictures follow Even back in late July some end-of-summery things were already being noticed such as a small group of Waxwings taking berries from the Dogwood bushes on a hot and windy day … the sort of day on which it is perfect for Japanese Beetles [...]
Hummingbird Video
A little Sunday morning magicThis tiny bird appeared to accompany the Sunday morning cup of tea … the red flowers are Cuphea (Mexican cigar plant) and have proved to be the best attractor of Hummingbirds we have ever grown. They are not hardy, but plant some where you can nsee them next summer and [...]
Bonny Bouncing Babies
Berries and Birds Everyone has remarked on the amazing size and variety of the tree fruit crop this year - and it has not gone unnoticed by the juvenile American Robins in our garden who have started to fill and fatten themselves on the bounty - observed by some young Song Sparrows. [...]
Autumn is Coming
Signs of the Season Turning Our first visit to North America was in 1987 at about this time of the year. A friend we were staying with mentioned that seeing Egrets on a lake in Minnesota was his marker that summer is nearly over while ours has become seeing Golden Rod in flower. [...]
Fall Webworm Moth
Garden Creatures The sun at just the right angle illuminated a horizontal band of white "fluff" in a Pagoda Dogwood tree and it warranted a better look. At first appearances one thinks of Tent Moth caterpillars but this is the wrong sort of tree. Closer inspection found that most of the affected area [...]
Garden Ephemera
This and That Coming back from a walk we found a Banded Hairstreak butterfly (Satyrium calanus) on the "other" sort of milkweed (Asclepia tuberosum). They only open their wings to fly away but the upper surface isn't much more colourful than this. ** Not bad photo for one taken with an iPhone, albeit it [...]
Around the Garden with Wildlife
We seem to have slipped into the habit of writing a round-up of recent activities in the garden around the middle of each month. This one is being composed as we swelter under a “heat dome” sent to us from south of the border - far too hot to do anything physical at [...]