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| Monarch drinking swamp milkweed nectar in my back yard |
I am currently experimenting with chocolate chip cookies for my state fair entries so I am not going to bore anyone with my not perfect experiments. Since I don't have any good food items to post, I thought I would post some pictures of my other hobbies which are butterfly and Hummingbird gardening and saving and raising monarch butterflies. I find the eggs on the leaves of my swamp milkweeds and take a few-especially from the leaves attached to broken stems or plants that have fallen over. The survival rate of eggs is low-the survival rate of the caterpillars is lower because they are eaten by birds and they are hosts to other bug's eggs-I found out that yucky fact this year firsthand and all I can say is ish!! I hope you enjoy the nature pics below.
Tiger swallowtail drinking Joe Pye weed nectar.
Chocolate scented cosmos-who knew there was a chocolate flower?
Tree frog teasing my cat from the other side of the window.
My cat Margo taking the bait
Monarch caterpillar eating Swamp milkweed
Bumblebee in mid flight above swamp milkweed flower
No, you don't need new glasses-my autofocus was out of focus!
Enjoy the day!
Wow, those are some pretty nice shots. You're quite a photographer. Absolutely love the top pic and the Frog and the one of the Yellow Swallowtail looks like a painting. Very nice :)!
ReplyDeleteThanks Adam! I have a lot going on in my yard now...kind of makes up for the 7 months of Minnesota winter!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures, Gloria! Can't wait to hear the verdict on the winning choc chip recipe =) Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteI love flowers and butterflies so I enjoyed this post! What are the butterflies that look kind of like swallowtails but don't have the blue markings? They come check out my coneflowers every year.
ReplyDeleteYou asked If I'd been back to Chez Arnaud. I haven't but I did find some really good macaron at Sweets Bakeshop in St. Paul. I plan to do a blog post about them, but haven't gotten to it yet.
Hope you got your chocolate bread fix. :-)
First, I got my swallowtail name wrong! It is a Tiger swallowtail. Shame on me!!! Sue, I'm not sure what butterfly you are seeing, but the spicebush and giant swallowtail's range includes south central MN. The other common suspects in our area include the American Painted Lady and Red Admiral. I had to consult with my Stokes butterfly book.
ReplyDeleteJust checking to see if comments still work....
ReplyDeleteWow what awesome photographs!!
ReplyDeleteHi Gloria!
ReplyDeleteJust stopping by to wish you all the best with your state fair entries!!!!
Sue
How did things come together for you at the State Fair? Hope your entries turned out the way wanted! I suppose you don't know just yet how you did?
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