Here a few things I saw this week
during a second look.
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| Skipper butterfly on a cone flower. If you look closely, you can see its proboscis extended into the flower. No matter how often I see an insect collecting nectar, I am still excited every time I see it. This time was no exception. |
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| Marigold. All of the marigolds we have this year were reseeded from last years flowers. |
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| Some giant mushrooms/fungus showed up in the yard this week. Notice the 12" (30 cm) ruler for scale. |
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| Close by there was another set of yellow ones. Once again, notice the 12" ruler for scale. |
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| Queen Anne's Lace with black spot. I studied the spot or lack there of a couple of years ago. If you're interested in the results, you can read here. |
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| Day lilies |
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| The wren's nest finally has eggs in it. I suspect that there will be more. |
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| There have been a lot of rabbits around this year. |
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| Zinnias and marigolds. |
I also get excited every time I see a bug on one of my flowers, even if it's a wasp. Why is that, I wonder? But bees make me the most excited of all. I really should make more of a concerted effort to attract bees in my garden. I learned, during the native plants presentation last Saturday, that Florida native bees are loners. So providing one of those bee houses made with all the little tubes is important to the survival of Florida native bees. Also, I don't think they produce honey, but I'm not sure. I'm planning on attending a seminar on backyard bee keeping and bee preservation at the end of the month, so I will have to ask. I don't want to have hives (too much work for me!) but I'd love to have more bees visit.
ReplyDeleteThe planter with the zinnias and marigolds is beautiful! The flowers aren't as showy as some of your other flowers but they really make an impact nonetheless. Do the rabbits eat much of your landscaping? They are so cute. I know they're pests but somehow I'd rather have a rabbit than a squirrel in the yard. At least they don't run up poles and trees and squeak at you angrily, lol. I always feel that the squirrels are giving me the fingers after I've chased them off so our "disagreement" is never settled satisfactorily.
I liked reading your research blog post about the Queen Anne's Lace. I didn't know about the legend of the black spot. It would have made for an interesting Science Fair experiment for a middle schooler, I think.
Rabbits do eat some of the plants. Luckily, one of their favorite things are white clover which we have plenty of. While all of our backyard critters are pests in one way or another, I'll have to admit that I enjoy watching them.
DeleteThat is some huge fungus! You would think with the damp weather of the PNW that we'd have some large fungi in our yard, but we just don't, maybe one or two itty bitty mushrooms, here and there.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are beautiful. Enjoy the day!
If those are really mushrooms, I've never seen any that big. A few days before we discovered the huge yellow fungi, there was a little yellow mushroom in the same area. I wish I knew if it was the same one that had gotten much bigger or if there was any relationship.
DeleteYes, they are really mushrooms. They're from the boletus family. My dad and I used to pick a certain variety of them in the woods in France and he would cook them. Undisturbed, they can grow very large! One day we found one as large as a steering wheel! It was amazing. We would also pick Chanterelles and black mushrooms called "Trumpets of Death" but they weren't poisonous and my dad would can them. I have some boletus growing in my backyard once in a while. I sent a picture to the University of Florida to find out if I could cook them but they told me the kind that grows here is too bitter. Still, every time I see one, my gatherer instinct comes back and I really have to fight myself not to pick it, hahaha. I wouldn't know how to cook them though. Also a lot of mushrooms from Europe that are edible there look like poisonous mushrooms from here. I've read before that a lot of Eastern Europeans who move to the US tend to poison themselves with fresh picked mushrooms because they assume the mushrooms as the same as in their countries.
DeleteThanks for the information. It was really interesting. I have essentially no knowledge about mushrooms and other fungi. They're not really my favorite food, but I would like to learn about them just to know.
DeleteIt sounds like it's wise that you are not picking wild mushrooms.
I was also eyeing up the fungi! My daughter got a beautiful picture of fungus on a tree when we were in Gatlinburg. It was a scarlet color. So neat to see. I love the different colors that they can be. And of course, I love your flower pictures, too.
ReplyDeleteSome of the fungi on trees is really beautiful and usually has interesting patterns. I enjoy them also.
DeleteWow! That butterfly and the fungi are so cool! Lots of great pics, nice post :o)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I haven't seen as many butterflies this year as I do some years. Hopefully, they're just a little late and will start arriving soon.
DeleteI am also one who gets excited when I find a "good" bug or butterfly on my plants. Until today I never questioned the spots, or lack of, on the Queen Anne's Lace. But you can bet I'll be looking closer from now on.
ReplyDeleteI love your brick zinnia and marigold planter!
The planter is right outside our back door and we can see it easily from inside. I am really happy with it this year. The zinnias and marigolds were planted specifically with butterflies and hummingbirds in mind. I don't know if the flowers have increased their numbers, but we are happy with the color they provide.
DeleteI was surprised with the whole black spot thing with the Queen Anne's Lace. I had never noticed one before. I always look now.
I love your comment on gnats vs. black flies, and I have to agree. Though, we do get swarms of gnats along the river (where the bike path is) so I have had to train myself to breathe through my nose during certain stretches of the path lest I inadvertently enhance my protein intake!
ReplyDeleteThe biting flies though... NOTHING helps, and they find me delicious! We have mostly deer flies out there, but black flies in the northeast are terrible too. I even tried some "jungle strength" insect repellent once - it didn't help with the deer flies, but it did turn my skin into something resembling fly paper, so I returned home from the ride with quite literally a layer of gnats stuck to my skin. Perhaps they could market it as a new type of sunscreen - I wonder what the SPF factor of a gnat is! :-)
Now that's an idea I hadn't thought of--gnat sunscreen. I might be interested if it kept them from flying around my face.
ReplyDeleteI love that butterfly on the flower photo. You take such finely detailed in focus photos. I love them. Those are some huge fungi!
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