Bug Off!

If you stop in the garden for a moment and look carefully at every bumble bee you can spot, you will see subtle differences. This one looks like it might be Bombus ternarius, the Orange-Belted Bumblebee. I just thought it was the cutest one in the liatris patch.

With Monarch butterflies recently being added to the list of endangered species, I'm happy to see two or three flitting about my yard and taking full advantage of the Swamp Milkweed plant in my garden. We try to grow as many butterfly, pollinator, and bird friendly plants as possible. This morning I spotted two Monarch caterpillars on my milkweed.

This katydid landed on my window and taunted me to photograph it. No, really! It also pointed out that my window cleaning abilities are not quite up to par. Fresh little bug.

Here's the nursery that puts Nursery in Nursery Web Spider.

Not quite two weeks later, my monster spider seems a bit deflated. That's quite an egg sac she's guarding.

I haven't been able to ID this lovely lady, but she's about the size of a typical orchard spider. She's pulled together some leaves on a jewel weed plant and made herself a cozy little home. edit: It's a Nursery Web Spider, and there are two lovely ladies! Update coming soon...