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| . . . . . . . . . Hummingbird Moth . . . . . . . . . . This day-flying moth can easily be mistaken for a hummingbird or a large bumble bee (but they can't sting or bite). They are frequent visitors to our flowers. They feed exactly as a butterfly does...from a long tube called a proboscis that slurps up nectar and gets covered in pollen as it visits different flowers, so it makes a good pollinator of plants. |
| . . . . . . . . Cool Dragonfly . . . . . . . . . . Dragonflies of all different sizes and colors love to hang out around the fish pond and also patrol the yard hunting for mosquitoes and other flying insects, that they catch with their long legs held out in front of them like a bug-catching net. |
| A tray of old, mushy fruit will attract many different species of butterflies that prefer this sort of food over flower nectar. But be warned, other insects such as bees, wasps and flies will also come to dine. Raccoons and opossums may raid the food at night if they live in your area. |
| Here's how many lovely butterflies we hand-raised and released in the year 2006 from eggs collected from our own gardens 1,275 Black swallowtails Giant swallowtails Pipevine swallowtails Spicebush swallowtails Tiger swallowtails Zebra swallowtails Question marks Commas Red admirals Red-spotted purples pipevine swallowtail Viceroys Monarchs Clouded sulphurs Cloudless sulphurs Orange sulphurs Cabbage whites American snouts Dusky wings |
| . . . . . . . A bird with a sweet tooth . . . . . . . . . Here is one of our many cute little hummingbirds that enjoy drinking sugar water from these types of feeders. Notice this is a female...the males have bright red shiny feathers on their neck under their beak, hence they are called ruby-throated hummingbirds...the only species of hummingbird that we see here in Kentucky. |
| . . . . . Coming in for a landing . . . . Yellow finches spend a lot of time in thegarden eating flower seeds. They especially enjoy pulling seeds off the old blooms of cone flowers, sunflowers and these lavender verbena flowers. Hey look, a monarch butterfly thinks these flowers look delicious too! |
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| This garden won the 2006 Gardener Recognition Award from the Cincinnati Horticultural Society ! |
| Life cycle of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton) |
| The caterpillars of these lovely butterflies feed on turtlehead (Chelone glabra) and English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) |
| Skipper on verbena. |
| Spicebush caterpillar...look at those cute false-eyespots near his head. Do you think he looks like a little snake? |
| Large garden spider |
| This little brown bunny decided that our poppy flower leaves made a delicious salad. |
| We found this cute tree frog hiding in the leaves of our hosta plants. They have sticky feet, and sometimes like to hang on the glass of sliding doors. After a rain they can be heard calling to each other in the woods. |
| Zebra Swallowtail on lupine flowers. |
| 2007 Butterflies found as eggs, we lovingly hand-raised the caterpillars inside our homes and released into our gardens as adult butterflies we raised 1,267 butterflies during this year |
| "The Life Cycles of Butterflies" by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards |
| Zebra Swallowtails Buckeyes Black Swallowtails Monarchs Pipevine Swallowtails Sulphurs Tiger Swallowtails Viceroys Spicebush Swallowtails Commas Giant Swallowtails Snouts Baltimore Checkerspots Hackberry Red-spotted Purples Duskywing Question Marks |
| We were watching a Question Mark butterfly lay eggs on Wayne's hop vines.....Christina must have been standing too close, because the butterfly landed on her shirt and put 3 eggs on her ! |
| Here is a Red-spotted Purple butterfly egg (greatly enlarged) we found on the tip of a willow leaf. When the caterpillar hatches, it will eat the leaf but leave the center vein....must be too tough to chew. |
| Here's a nice little Sulphur butterfly resting on some zinnia flowers. Notice the green eyes and the pink fringe around the wings. |
| Here's a photo of a cool lizard we saw clinging to the side of a tree. |
| When butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, their wings are wet and folded. They need to expand and dry before flight is possible. |
| A monarch made its chrysalis on the elbow of Judy's garden statue. |
Chrysalis
| Thank you Elisabeth from Ohio for identifying this as a Brown Anole lizard ~ a native of Cuba and tropical islands. This picture was taken at a park in Cincinnati. |
| 2008 Butterflies ~~~~~~~~~~ Our first butterflies emerged from their winter chrysalises on April 21 species list: Zebra swallowtail - Pipevine swallowtail Black swallowtail - Spicebush swallowtail Tiger swallowtail - Giant swallowtail Hackberry Emperor - Sulphur Pearl Crescent - Snouts Monarchs count for this year = 889 |
| Our garden and butterfly counts for 2006, 2007, and 2008 |