Butterfly Garden 2011

It's been a very dry summer, so far. It's been so dry that our grass looks like hay. As a result, we haven't had much activity in the butterfly garden this year. On one lucky Friday evening (July 22, 2011), I happened to catch the fluttering wings of this beautiful White Admiral butterfly in our garden.
It contently stayed put, eating away at the butterfly bush nectar, while I snapped numerous photos. Generally our first visitor to the butterfly garden is a monarch, but I really haven't seen many butterflies at all. Although, in fairness, I haven't been outside much either...too darn hot!

Just as I was finishing pictures of the butterfly, I heard this faint buzzing by my head. Figured it was a bee, so of course, I went
crazy waving my hands around my head as I didn't want to get stung. When I finally got out of the garden and looked back, I kept hearing the buzzing but almost didn't catch this little guy fluttering around as well, on the other butterfly bush.

I've nicknamed him, George.

This is the second year I've spotted a hummingbird hawkmoth. When I first saw one I thought mother nature messed up on this thing. But, thinking logically, I knew it had to be something, so I did some searching and found out it was a hummingbird hawkmoth. It flies like a hummingbird but has the body of a moth, the coloring almost of a bee. Very strange indeed, but interesting as well.

My neice was fascinated to be able to see both these lovely garden visitors. In fact, this past weekend she also was able to see a hummingbird and at least a dozen tiny monarch butterflies feeding on the butterfly bush. It was quite impressive how they flew around in a tangled weaving type pattern, yet never bumped into each other.

I've got some baby robin photos to share as well. I didn't know there was a nest under our deck but once I figured it out (in truth...it was my dog, Lucy, who figured it out), I started snapping pictures to see how long it would be before they flew away. But the last few pictures have been, well...life threatening. :-) Mama Robin is NOT happy for me to be around her babes and she's pulled in some backup. So, I haven't been able to get daily pictures but will share soon the ones I did get.