First Monarch Butterfly of the season on a Red Cosmos flower in my wildflower meadow. I have seen them along with yellow and black swallowtail butterflies the last few days, but finally found one that stayed in place long enough to have its picture taken.
First Monarch Butterfly of the season on a Red Cosmos wildflower. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4.5, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on a purple delphinium bloom. Bumblebee on a Sunflower bloom.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on purple delphinium bloom. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon N1-V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec) (David J Mathre)Bumblebee on a Sunflower Bloom. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon N1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
We had a lot of rain last night. Good for the small wildflower meadows, and good for the few tomato plants that haven’t been nibbled by the deer. I did an early morning walkabout to view the wildflowers. I am still getting a lot of Poppy blooms, as well as Cosmos, Coreopsis, Zinnia, Blackeyed Susan, and others that I don’t know the ID. Some of the Sunflowers are starting to bloom (those that the deer didn’t find). I also saw that the Burma (Bottle Gourd) bloomed last night with a big white flower.
The kitchen renovation is progressing. All but one of the IKEA cabinets have been assembled. Still lots of work to do. After the contractor left, I went back out to the wildflower meadow and saw a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. It made my day knowing that the work to create the trial wildflower garden/meadow was worth it…
The first Sunflower to bloom in my wildflower meadow. Somehow it escaped the deer that have nibbled many of the sunflower plants before they were able to bloom. The deer don’t seem to mind the electric fence. My neighbors tell me that I need to put up an 8-10 foot fence. That won’t keep the ground-hog from digging below the fence.
First Sunflower Bloom. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/6.3, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)