This Monarch butterfly prospected the garden in the early morning before settling for a while on this, yet to flower, golden rod stem. There are plenty of milkweed plants nearby so hopefully eggs, caterpillars and then more butterflies.
Clumps of these beautiful spring ephemerals are coming up this morning all over the garden.
Photograph is a composite focus stack from 8 original images
Red-bellied Woodpecker on the left and a Pileated Woodpecker on the right
Usually sold as Amaryllis, these flowers are actually Hippeastrum, of which there are some 90 species. Either way, this is a gem that has grown really well.
Found by chance in the back of an old book in our basement … winter for earlier generations
I know, done to death by a thousand others and astronomy doesn’t even interest me particularly but I liked this view.
Not bad crater detail for hand-held either.
Seeking a morning snack
There have been quite a few of these around this summer – mostly on our parsley plants but also a few like this on the wild carrot (Daucus carota) that has established itself happily in the unmown areas of our ex-lawn.
I find the contrast of the rather formal striped coat on the caterpillar with the tight, random whorls of the “flower becoming a seed capsule” of the plant rather appealing. Coordinated colours too.
