Too Hot!

This very hot bluebird says it too well.  It is too hot outside.

Not too hot for this Red Admiral butterfly.

So far there haven't been too many of these Japanese beetles.

Someone asked if this flowering raspberry was edible.  Yes, if you like the taste.

The sourwood continues to attract bees and butterflies, and other insects.

The bees have also found this hyssop, which I think is at least seven foot tall, because of all the spring rain.

Look carefully at the wild bergamot, it might be a goldfinch,

or it might be an eastern tiger swallowtail.

A petunia basket by the green house.

The Beaumont House in a new light. I will be away from my computer for two weeks, and I wonder how much change I will see in the meadow, and here at the construction site upon my return.

Seen Around

A bee tree in the meadow.  Sourwood.

Bluebirds are still feeding young.

Pink!

A catbird showing its colors.

Japanese beetles on stinging nettles.

Cedar waxwings high in a tree above Abington House.

A cedar waxwing.

At Last!

At last I have seen a monarch in our meadow!

A gray-headed coneflower in bloom.

I saw at least four eastern tiger swallowtails in the meadow on the wild bergamot.

Also this female black eastern tiger swallowtail.

A liatris in bloom.

Now this one is a black swallowtail.

There are many clumps of monkey flower, Mimulus ringens.

I continue to see many skippers.

Today I spotted some gailardia in the wetland.

A pair of eastern tailed-blues mating.

Construction

Some views of construction progress as of the last few days.

Colorful!

The Beaumont House grows on both ends.

The new drainage basin has water in it.

Digging up the meadow already.

Doing percolation testing for the future construction.

Honey and More

Yesterday the beekeeper harvested the honey from our hives.  There was a total of 9 gallons.

I found this banded hairstreak on the swamp milkweed.

An immature blue dasher found this perch and was there all morning.

This azure was not a new butterfly for the month, but such a nice photo.

This wild indigo duskywing was a new butterfly for July.

The pondhawk dragonflies were all over the meadow.  Here is a male.

And a female pondhawk.

Can you see the female less than four inches from my shoe?  I was wondering if they were following me, as I might be stirring up small insects as I walked through the grass.

I saw grasshoppers and heard cicadas, but no sign of the seventeen year locusts.

The next day I had the male pondhawk on my shoe!

Fourth of July

Here is the front of my Fourth of July T-shirt.  Hope you had a grand day.  Nice not to have rain!

Early this morning I put out another suet cake and filled up the peanut feeder and the sunflower feeder and the bird bath.  The birds flocked to the suet.  At one time there were three birds on it at one time.  One was a juvenile red-wing blackbird, which is shown above.

In the meadow there was an eastern tailed-blue nectaring on clover.

Some black-eyed Susans growing in front of the bee hives.  They don't have top travel far.

A cute little Sachem, but where are the big butterflies?

Mated pondhawks seen in the pond.

Wild senna blooming, which seems early.

A green frog with yellow legs.

A breathtakingly beautiful Halloween pennent.

This was one big old rabbit!