Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday’s post about the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge….

A plant community that becomes more evident the further south we drove is epiphytes with the Spanish moss being some of the most noticeable. But I took pictures of smaller ones as we walked around the boardwalk of the visitor center.

Flowers are always attention getters too.

Insects are even a bigger draw. Different kinds of bees were competing for flowers. The bumblebees are so big they usually drive the others away!

A long tailed skipper stayed put long enough for me to take a picture too.

The dragonflies looked similar to the dragonflies of Maryland.

We found a dead Polyphemus moth on the ground before we even walked into the visitor center. We perched it on a bush to photograph. It’s a male (large antennae to detect pheromone emitted by the females).

The seed pods on the button bushes in Florida look the same as the ones in Maryland.

And then there was a small tree in the pollinator with seedpods at various stages of maturity…and flowers too – obviously a legume.

When we got to the beach (the wildlife refuge abuts the Canaveral National Seashore), I noticed the sea grapes had color variation in their leaves and also had clusters of fruit.

These plants are planted on the dunes along the shore for stabilization.

There were a few gulls about but they were not as interesting as

The juvenile sanderling that seemed very interested in every piece of seaweed tossed up by the surf.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – Part 1

While we were in Florida earlier this month for the OSIRIS-REx launch, we spent a little time at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge although it was too hot to spend as long as we did before and after the Maven launch back in 2013 (posts from November 2013: Roseate Spoonbills, Brown Pelicans, Alligators, Bald Eagles, Osprey, beach). The Black Point Wildlife Drive was not open until mid-September so we 1) stopped at the visitor center, 2) checked the Manatee Observation Deck and the Bairs Cove boat ramp and 3)drove down the Bio Lab Road….and saw quite a lot in a couple of morning hours. I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures I want to share so am doing it in two posts instead of one!

I didn’t see any alligators (it was warm enough that they were not basking on the sides of waterways…they are harder to spot when only their eyes are out of the water) but we did see some reptiles near the visitor center: cooter turtles

And a lizard (that posed on a sign!).

My attention was drawn to leaves. There are so many plants in Florida that don’t grow in Maryland.

And then there were the birds. The osprey seemed to be everywhere. Many times the white head fooled me into thinking the bird was a bald eagle until I took a closer look. One was precarious perched on a pine branch over water near the bridge over the haul over canal between Bairs Cove and the Manatee Observation Deck.

We saw another along the Bio Lab Road…with feathers ruffled from the wind.

The wildlife refuge is right next to Cape Canaveral…can you spot the heron is this picture with the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background? It’s just below and to the left of the building images…stating on a small island of vegetation.

Here its after I zoomed in as much as I could. It’s probably a Great Blue Heron.

There were tri-color herons as well.

Ibis were feeding in the distance.

But the American White Pelicans were by far the most numerous birds that we saw. They winter here and must have just arrived recently. There was a film crew on the Bio Lab Road that was filming the birds as a helicopter swept overhead and caused them to fly up several times. I got a reasonable picture of them in flight as well.

A little further along the road were some black vultures. We saw them soaring every day we were in Florida and, a few times, they were cheekily grouped on the ground. We stopped for them…let them go at their own pace.

More of my Merritt Island photography tomorrow ----

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 17, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Sensory Biology Around the Animal Kingdom – Beyond sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.

A Variety of Ways for Students to Explore National Parks Online – Not just for students….these resources could be worth a look before traveling to a national park or helping to savor the visit after you return.

Proprioception: The Sense Within – The sense of position and movement of our limbs, the senses of muscle force and effect, and the sense of balance --- easy to take for granted, more important that you might think at first.

Six Snapshots of Geoscience Research from National Parks – Our National Parks highlight the value of these special places for more than recreation…they are often places uniquely suited to increasing our understanding of Earth.

Thanks to this man, airplanes don’t crash into mountains any more – Don Bateman’s terrain mapping device....a long development cycle.

Bumblebees Pick Infected Tomato Plants – And does this compensate to offset the costs of viral infection when it comes to seed production from the tomato plants?

The Flower Sense of Hawkmoths – Olfactory receptors in the proboscis….but what attracted mw to the article was the picture of the hawkmoth (made me think of my recent hummingbird moth observations).

Late boneset: A fragrant late-summer pollinator favorite – Thinking about late blooming plants that sustain pollinators into the fall. Late Boneset is one….goldenrod is another!

“Skeleton Flowers” Turn Beautifully Transparent in the Rain – Botanical eye candy from colder regions of Japan and China

The Value of Water in the Nebraska Sandhills – Water is valuable to every environmental niche on Earth…this blog post focuses on detailing water in one type of place. Water percolates down and into aquifers below the root zone of plants!

OSIRIS-REx Pre-Launch Activities

Our first day in Florida was spent with check-in as a launch guest, a mission briefing, and touring the Kennedy Space Center. The check-in was at the ATX (Astronaut Training Experience) Center.

It was a busy place with people picking up the packets with a badge/lanyard, information sheets, a paper model, stickers, patches, and pens. We also picked up the tickets for the mission briefing.

We had previously signed up for the 12:30 briefing that would be held in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center so we headed there as soon as we had our packets. We made arrangements for a bus tour in the afternoon and then had a quick lunch.

After the briefing we boarded the bus for a tour. We were able to see the OSIRIS-REx capsule atop its Atlas rocket (one booster) on the pad. We didn’t get as close as we did for the Maven capsule back in 2013.

The launch pad where the SpaceX rocket exploded recently was also visible.

We also saw some wildlife while on the tour: some cormorants and an alligator.

The next day we would come back for the launch --- the topic for tomorrow's blog.

Road Trip to Florida

We were in Florida last week – for the OSIRIS-REx launch and a few days of touring…more that in upcoming posts. The drive down from Maryland was done in an easy two days with a stop in Florence, South Carolina. The weather was hot so we didn’t stop for any of our usually outdoor activities. We retraced our steps coming back. The first day was very hot but the navigation system routed us to the Beltway around Jacksonville, Florida rather than saying on I-95 and we crossed the Dames Point Bridge. I managed to get my camera out and take some pictures of it.

It’s quite a sight.

I also liked the colorful mass of shipping containers just past the bridge.

We stayed in the same hotel in Florence, South Carolina on that night and I managed to get a sunrise photograph from the window. It was the only sunrise picture from this road trip!

The weather has cooled down a bit and the humidity was not so high for the last day on the road. We lingered a little at one of the rest stops – still in the Carolinas – and I took some pictures of a late blooming day lily

And some grasses swaying in the breeze catching the morning sun.

There was a dragonfly lying on the sidewalk – dead but still relatively intact. The plates of color on the abdomen reminded me of a Mayan turquoise mask.

The thorax was yellow green.

Hummingbird Moth at Brookside

I was thrilled to see a hummingbird moth enjoying the flowers at Brookside Gardens last week. The insect is always one I look for during the mid to late summer in the fragrance garden since that is where I’d seen one before. They are probably their every year but I have not seen then consistently so it was a special treat to see it and photograph it too. The images are good enough to identify it as a snowberry clearwing hummingbird moth (Hemaris diffinis) (Info from USDA and Wikipedia).

The wings have red veins but are almost always moving so fast that they are blurred or can’t be seen at all. The insect moves rapidly from flower to flower – similar to the way a hummingbird moves. I watched this one in two stretches. (Interrupted by a group of women with strollers in the garden for a ‘new mother’ outing; they need the full path and I stepped out of the way…remembering fondly that time of my life that is now more than 25 years ago).

I took lots of pictures, trying to get every angle and proboscis position. Look for the following in the slideshow below:

• A skipper butterfly photobomb
• Extended proboscis
• Fully extended wings – with a flower send through the ‘clear’ wing
• Coiled proboscis
• Antennae structure
• Bristles on the end of the abdomen
• Fuzziness of the thorax

Minutes in the Meadow

It’s the time of year that schools start again – and I’m more of that with the classes for Howard County Conservancy volunteers. I got to Mt Pleasant a little early for one of them to give myself time to spend a few minutes in the meadow. I didn’t have time to go very far but there were plenty of subjects for photography. The dew was still evident on the flowers. Chicory flowers always seem a darker blue before they completely open. I had not notices the little fibers on the calyx before; they catch dew.

Sometimes the chaos of an unfurling flower is what catches my eye. This one was so low to the grown that I almost missed it.

And then I saw some movement in the mass of meadow plants and, with some difficulty, managed to find it and zoomed in enough to figure out what it was. A grasshopper or a Queen Anne’s Lace fruit cluster!

I glanced down near the edge of the path and saw what looked like thorn on a blade of grass. I backed up enough for the zoom on the camera to focus on it. Another grasshopper! I ended up zooming out to get the antennae in the picture. They were very long!

I was pleased to see so much in such a short period of time and in a relatively small area of the meadow.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 10, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Sunflowers Track the Sun, Like Solar Panels – The behavior was reported in scientific literature in 1898. Now there are studies to understand how the plants do it biochemically and physically. I also liked the picture at the beginning of the article.

Ancient air pockets changing the history of Earth’s oxygen – Ancient air trapped in rock salt shows that earth’s atmosphere contained 10.9% oxygen 813 million years ago….about 300 million years earlier than previously thought. It’s not as much oxygen as in our current atmosphere but a lot of organisms did develop during this time period when there was less oxygen.

Healthy Eating, A to Z – How many of these 26 do you already know?

30 Reason Your Next Car Should Be Electric – I’ve been thinking recently that my next car will probably be electric. It’s good to see that there are a lot of reasons this it is a good idea! Item 29 on this list (kids and grandkids and great-grandkids) is high in my rationale.

How comedy makes us better people – Analyzing humor’s role in our culture – in much the same way as we analyze intelligence.

Exploring How and Why Trees ‘Talk’ to Each Other – An interview with Suzanne Simard.

Closest Living Relative to the Dodo Dazzles with Vibrant Iridescent Plumage – A little eye candy and interesting biology in one article.

As lab-grown meat and milk inch closer to U.S. market, industry wonders who will regulate? – A complex issue and it’s not clear if the USDA or FDA will be responsible. The technology is moving forward quickly in the agricultural biotechnology arena. It is challenging to understand it well enough to propose appropriate regulations for public health and safety.

Newly discovered fossils break record, dating back 3.7 billion years ago – Evidence of microbial life found in Greenland (where there are some of the world’s oldest sedimentary rocks). Another article on the same topic from Science Daily can be found here.

Study assesses climate change vulnerability in urban America – Our area got a wakeup call in this arena with the damage to Ellicott City from recent flooding. It happened very quickly, with very little warning. The planning for infrastructure, human populations and local concerns when it comes to climate vulnerability is in its infancy in many parts of the country.

Zooming on Insects

The last week or so has been a great time for photographing insects. There were skippers enjoying some last season Joe Pye Weed at Centennial Park. I took pictures at different angles and discovered when I got home that there might have been two different types of skippers on the plants.

At home, I checked the milkweeds for insects and could find any adult milkweed bugs like I found a few weeks ago but there are some larval stage milkweed bugs. They develop so quickly that there are at least two stages in this one grouping…maybe three.

On another milkweed there are aphids – again. There must have been something that came and cleaned off a lot of the aphids, but they are back now. Again – there are multiple stages of aphids in this one picture with the whitish ones being the youngest and then look at the different sizes of the yellow ones.

There was a very small insect with a green metallic-looking thorax. Sometimes insects look like little machines.

And a fly on the milkweed – with bristles on the abdomen!

As you can tell – I am having a lot of fun right now using the zoom (optical + digital) in my camera! There is a lot to see out there.

Some Birds at Centennial

My short walk at  Centennial Park last week included several bird sightings. I was most excited about a green heron that flew into a tree not far from where I was walking. I didn’t know what it was until I managed to zoom in enough with my camera. It is surprising how well camouflaged the birds are in the foliage. It flew down to the water’s edge from the tree and I didn’t see it again until it flew away across the water.

There was a mourning dove enjoying the morning sun on a park bench. When I walked closer it flew down to the shore…then squeakily away to the island in the lake.

There were birds in some foliage near the shore with berries. One flew out and perched on the top of a sign. I think it was a mockingbird. It proceeded to fluff its feathers – looking rather comical as it preened.

Way across the lake – a great white egret was fishing in the shallows. This picture is about at the limit for the zoom on my camera but I like to take pictures of these graceful birds. There were two great blue herons that flew low over the lake while I was there…but I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of either one.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 03, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Edible food packaging made from milk proteins – I’m not sure how this works to reduce packaging since to be edible it would have to stay clean (i.e. another layer of packaging?). Still – it would be great to reduce the amount of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging.

Zika Infects Adult Neural Progenitors Too  and How Zika infects Mother and Baby – Two articles from The Scientist. Zika is a hot research topic right now…and a public health concern.

Research priorities for the field of atmospheric chemistry – The development of a predictive capability to provide foresight into the consequences of rapid changes in the Earth system is need to help in preparation and decision making. Right now the field is focused on observing, learning and discovering for fundamental understanding…so there is data to support attempt to develop a predictive capability.

New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection – The Guaico Culex virus that infects mosquitoes has 5 genes and each gene is individually packaged. A mosquito cell has to have 4 of the 5 packages to be infected. The 5^th package may cause the infection to be potent. Once again – a case that shows how little we really understand about life on Earth.

How Aluminum Changed the World – A little history for the week.

Wildflower Wednesday: Chicory – Like the author of this post – I like chicory. The blue color redeems it from being considered a weed for me!

Invasive Species Spotlight: Canada Thistle – Evidently it was introduced accidently to North America in the 1600s!

Photos of Frozen Flowers Capture the Paradoxical Beauty of Preservation and Destruction – Eye candy for the week….maybe an idea for some photographic experiments for this winter.

Hope for reversing stroke-induced long-term disability – What a boon it would be for an aging population where having a stroke often reduce the quality of life.

Actin Architecture (image) – Filaments in a cancer cell imaged via confocal microscopy.

Feathers in the Park

Earlier this week, I accompanied my husband to Centennial Park. We got one of the last parking spaces in the lot closest to the concession area (south area of the park). He did his normal walk around the lake and I enjoyed some photography along the path primarily from the boat ramp toward the dam. The morning was very humid and I was thrilled to find three very different feathers in the wet grass --- good targets for some photography. The first one was black and white. The water droplets on its surface appealed to me…as did the curves of the lower part of the feather than are obviously no longer repelling water.

The second feather was in better shape – and probably not from the same bird even though it was not very far away from the first feather.

I zoomed in for a closer look. The water droplets are very tiny on the part of the feather closest to the rib.

The third feather looked quite different that then other two. It was a feather that looked like it would blow away at the slightest breeze. The white part would have been closest to the body and looked like down.

I zoomed in to get better view of the structure.

Then I looked at the feather from a different angle and saw that it too has many water droplets.

The dew droplets almost looked like an encrustation of tiny globules of glass…on both the white and brownish part of the feather.

I’ll have some other posts from this visit to Centennial Park over the next week or so; it was a photogenic morning.

Zooming – August 2016

Like last month – I selected images this month where I used the zoom on my camera past the 30x that the lenses do. The digital zoom goes to 120x. I’m often surprised by what I am able to ‘see’ via the camera.

For example – the green eye of this Cabbage White Butterfly on blooming mint. It misses being a great picture because of the errant piece of grass and the other mint plants in the foreground…but it works for identification. Speed is important when trying to photograph anything that can move (like insects) so I opt to get some kind of picture rather than a perfect one!

Black eyed susans from early in August. These three seemed to go together – further back in the garden so zooming was the only way to photograph them without stepping on other flowers. I like the curly petals of the one in the foreground.

Early in August the trees looked like we were going to have an early fall. This is a zoomed shot of the tulip poplar from my office window – across our backyard. Now most of the leaves that were yellow have fallen and there don’t seem to be many new ones – yet.

The sycamore keeps getting new leaves all through the season while the other leaves keep getting larger and larger. This is a new leaf that I took from my office window. I like the blurred background behind the leaf that comes with the lens focusing on the leaf.

Sometimes I like to use the zoom to get my shadow out of the picture. This is a mature seed pod on a sweet bay magnolia (at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm).

In the Honors Garden at Mt. Pleasant Farm, the algae mat at the edge of the water feature was attractive to bees.

It also was a good place to look for small plants. I like the red edges of these small leaves. I was able to stand comfortably on the walkway to take my pictures rather than leaning over the small pond.

Birds are easier to photograph if I can stand further away. This male goldfinch was tearing a zinna flower growing on my deck apart with a vengeance.

Sometimes the flowers themselves are my topic. I liked the curves of the petals and the black background in this zoomed image.

The butterfly has not clue I was even around. Using the zoom on the camera is a great way to see insects better than you can with just your eyes.

What about this fly on a milkweed leaf? I was surprised by the red eyes.

 Took two pictures of an insect pollinating a chicory flower. The color on the head and thorax seemed to glitter in the sunlight! But the pictures are not quite good enough to key out what it is.

That’s enough….I may have gone overboard for the zooming post this month but I had so many images to choose from!

3 Free eBooks – August 2016

It always is hard to choose 3 favorites….there are so many available from the online repositories these days.

Roberts, David; Brockedon, William; Croly, George. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, Nubia. London: Day and Son. 1856. Available in 6 volumes from Hathi Trust Digital Library here. Some of the places are familiar from modern pictures but were more covered by sand in the 1850s…like the inside of Abu Simbel in the picture I clipped for this post.

Gruelle, Johnny. Raggedy Ann Stories. Chicago: P. F. Volland Company. 1918. Available from Hathi Trust Digital Library here (Raggedy Andy Stories are available here). When I found these it prompted me to look up the author on Wikipedia. Apparently he was an artist, political cartoonist, children’s book author and illustrator, and songwriter. But Raggedy Ann and Andy are his most enduring works. One of my sisters was particularly interested in the dolls…but I don’t think I’d ever seen the books until now.

Marshall, Nina Lovering. The mushroom book. A popular guide to the identification and study of our commoner Fungi, with special emphasis on the edible varieties. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1905. Available from Internet Archive here. I was interested in the quality of the photography of the mushrooms in this volume published in 1905. This fly amanita (poisonous) is in color and includes the shadows. I wondered if the picture was taken in the field or carefully brought back into a studio.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 27, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Dome of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Not As Gleaming As It Once Was – Biofilm is making the dome darken…and it is hard to treat without damaging the marble of the monument.

The Giant Pyramid Hidden Inside a Mountain – It’s in Cholula (Mexico) and the largest pyramid on the planet (base is 4x larger that the Great Pyramid at Giza and nearly twice the volume).

Longest-lived vertebrate is Greenland Shark: Lifespan at least 400 years – The specimens studied were caught as by-catch. I wondered how big the population is and if the by-catch is actually having an impact on the species; no info on that from the article.

365 pounds of Anacostia Park Goose Breast Going to Afterschool Lunch Program – I wonder if geese from nearby areas has filled in the void at Anacostia Park. Our area has a lot of resident Canadian Geese.

SpaceDrafts Vids! – My daughter is part of the group that finds speakers for the Space Drafts monthly events in Tucson…and they’ve made videos of the latest talks available. Most of the speakers are from University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Lab.

Invasive Species Spotlight: Devil’s Tail – Another name for mile-a-minute…a very common invasive plant in Maryland. This blog post gives some history of the plant.

How it feels to live in darkness – Dialog in the Dark exhibit in the Children’s Museum in Holon, Israel gives sighted people a 90-minute tour of what it is like to be a blind person.

Let there be LED: The future of light-based technologies for interiors – Anything that gets closer to natural light (for during the day) and can be tuned to not inhibit melatonin production at night would be what the kind of lighting I would want in my house.

Transparent wood windows are cooler than glass: Study –  I would like to have skylights made of this kind of material.

The Killer Flood Made of Molasses – In 1919, a tank holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed created a 20-feet-high wave of molasses. It flattened buildings and picked up people. 21 people died, 150 were injured.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – August 2016

August has been hot and humid…punctuated with thunderstorms and downpours of rain. There has been plenty to celebrate:

Lots of tomatoes – Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides so many different kinds – heirloom, cherry, yellow, red, orange…and I am celebrating the bounty for almost two meals a day. Last week we got a bundle of basil and I’ve had it on the counter all week; I add it to salads and sauces so frequently that I don’t think I’ll have any left to dry at the end of the week.

Homemade salsa – I had a jalapeño pepper from the CSA and combined it with tomatoes, cilantro, dried onion flakes and lemon juice/pulp in the food processor. Yummy. We’ve eaten up the first batch and I’ll be making a second one soon. It’s good food worth celebrating.

Lemon Vinaigrette – I discovered a new favorite salad dressing. I’m celebrating the change – even though I still keep a supply of my previous favorite: Green Vinaigrette.

Clean cabinet doors -  I found some Murphy’s Oil Soap that we’ve had for years and cleaned the cabinet doors. There are times that ‘cleaning house’ becomes a celebration of the place we live and this was one of those times.

Home in the 1990s – I scanned pictures we had taken as we moved into the house we live in now…and the rest of the decade. Seeing the pictures again were a celebration of that time of our lives.

New Kitchen Floor – The new floor makes the whole room look new to me. I’m celebrating the end result…and that our decision to ‘do it now.’

Wood Floor – We got the wood floor in the foyer refinished and matching wood in the office to the side of the foyer and the powder. Wow – the whole area of the house looks very clean and full of light, bigger than it looked before. Now we are thinking about where else we will put wood flooring…while we celebrate the success of this project.

Goldfinches – Every time I see the goldfinches enjoying the zinnia and sunflower seeds it is a little celebration of color and motion.

Monarch butterfly – There are not very many Monarch butterflies in our area so the one I did see near our house was a celebration.

Tree hike – The tree hike at Belmont was something I committed to do months and months ago so when it finally happened this month, it was a milestone of 2016 to celebrate.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 20, 2016

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Sweat: How to Keep Your Cool – This post seemed to fit with the hot, humid weather we’ve been having since late July here in Maryland.

How millennials are shaping the future of work – I think it is more than just millennials that want these things. I can remember wanting the latest tech for my entire career….and when I didn’t always get it, being frustrated. I remember in the 1990s wanting a laptop rather than a desktop PC as my primary work machine because I was traveling a lot…and being told that laptops could be checked out when I traveled but were not available for in-office use!

From Tree to Shining Tree – The wood-wide-web that is the forest under the forest…made of roots and fungus. A Radiolab Podcast just over 30 minutes long.

Fresh look at burials, mass graves, tells a new story of Cahokia – Skeletal evidence was re-evaluated. The publications in the 1960s assumed all the skeletons were male….but they were male and female. And the motifs with the graves have to be interpreted differently too.

Pressure Mounts to Reform Our Throwaway Clothing Culture – I’ve been donating clothing for a long time…but this goes a step further.

Questioning the Presidential Candidates on Science – 20 questions sent to the candidates with answers requested by September 6^th. I’m interested in seeing those responses.

Plastic bag usage has 85% decrease in England after government starts charging per bag – Hurray for England. Wish we were doing more in the US to reduce plastic bags. I’ve been using usable bags for the past few years but there are still a lot of people that aren’t.

Wind power fiercer than expected – I was surprised that evidently there has not been a lot of research on the wind patterns at turbine level over the east coast where a number of wind farms are being planned….including off Maryland’s coast.

The Secret Lives of Horseshoe Crabs – We often see horseshoe crabs on Chesapeake Bay beaches…this was a good post about their life cycle and the current challenges to the species.

New Wondrous Photos of the World’s Beautiful Diverse Fungi – Nature photography and eye candy all in one!

Photographs through a Window – August 2016

August has been hot, humid – punctuated with thunderstorms. Photography through the windows of our house has still be good. The doves are still around – coming for water at the bird bath frequently.

There always seems to be a wasp that leans too far into the bird bath and ends up drowning. I watched one for several minutes and saw that even when it maneuvered itself close to the side, the wasp could not get enough leverage from only 2 or 3 of its legs touching the side to lift itself out of the water.

There has been an uptick in gold finch visits. The bird bath is popular with them just like it to the doves.

But the gold finches like the zinnias

And the high narrow perch of the hanger for the bird feeder (empty during the summer) that the doves are too big to enjoy.

There was a molting American Crow on a neighbor’s roof.

We had more butterflies around in August. The zinnias were visited by spicebush swallowtails and

Tiger swallowtails.

The tiger swallowtails are probably our most prolific large butterflies because we have so many large tulip poplar trees in the forest behind our house (tulip poplars are host plants for the tiger swallowtail caterpillars).

August was a good month for through a window photography!

Almost Hidden

Sometimes I take pictures and capture something unexpected – like the katydid in a day lily taken back in July.

Or the tiny spider in a black eyed susan (during the ‘Black Eyed Susans in the Morning’ photo shoot).

Sometimes I take the picture knowing that there is something more – like this tiger swallowtail almost hidden behind a sunflower. I had been taking pictures of the butterfly on the zinnias just beforehand…and decided to do the hide and seek picture just to be different.

And then there are the milkweed bugs that are hiding on just about every milkweed seed pod I find – but they are rarely positioned to be completely visible!

Chaos Garden

The plot of ground in the back of our house that is not covered by the deck that is a story of the ground is my chaos garden. It is a haphazard production. The two hydrangea bushes that we planted almost 20 years ago two blooms on them this year after being almost killed by a late frost and heavy deer grazing last year. In early July they looked wonderful against the white brick of the exterior of the basement. A closer look showed the green tinges on the petals.

By early August – the flowers are fading. Many times they will dry on the bush. I bring then inside in the autumn for dried arrangements.

A close up of the leaves show deer are still around this year too.

The cone flowers come up every year on one side of the plot – and attract butterflies. On the day I was doing the photographs for this post last week there was a persistent spicebush swallowtail. There is some honeysuckle that photobombed a couple of pictures. I periodically pull all the honeysuckle to keep it from taking over.

There is a sycamore that came up in the corner of the plot furthest from the house and I have left it there to shade the big dining room and master bathroom from the sun in the afternoon. It has helped make the house easier to cool – but having a tree as large as the tree will be in another 10-15 years might be problematic. Sycamores have peeling bark…leaves that continue to get larger and larger throughout the growing season.

The garden also has two types of milkweed which I planted to help Monarch butterflies but that are enjoyed by lots of other insects as well. The common milkweed had all its mid-range leaves eaten by something. The lemon balm grows all around both milkweeds.

There are also several clumps of chives. I harvest just enough to use immediately. Somehow herbs that are cut fresh always taste better!