New England Asters are some of my favorite flowers. I know when the asters bloom in my garden that fall is truly here and the calendar year is coming to the end. New York asters are similar flowers. I am not sure what the difference is between the two species. They both are great for […]
insects
Pollinator Syndromes: How to Predict Which Flowers Insects Will Like
Pollinators are those animals that give the invaluable service of helping plants reproduce and create seed or fruit that humans and others eat. There are many pollinators including bats, bees, beetles, birds and butterflies. The flower type, shape, color, odor, nectar, and structure vary and attract different pollinators according to the pollinators likes and needs. […]
The Yellowjackets And The Squirrels
The big nest was suddenly there one morning. My next door neighbor called before 8 a.m. asking if I saw the big nest in the tree that grew in front of our houses. I hadn’t noticed it. We used my binoculars to marvel at the engineering skill of the big gray and tan object partially […]
Red Admiral Butterfly and Flowers That Attract Them.
A Red Admiral butterfly was sipping nectar from the Purple Coneflower (Echinacea Purpurea) in my garden the other day. When I see a Red Admiral, I always catch my breath. It is something about the curved band of red on the dark black wings that delight me. These aren’t big butterflies but their colors are very […]
Observing Butterflies At Home and Far Away
![Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) Butterfly. Lycaenidae Butterfly Family). By Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach, Florida, Planet Earth! [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i1.wp.com/donnallong.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/gray_hairstreak_strymon_melinus_6195779779.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
We like observing butterflies because they capture our attention with the fluttering of color as they pass by us. The blues, greens, and bright yellows advertise their presence and call attention to their beauty. On these pages we will learn about observing, their life cycle, their families and how to attract them to our gardens […]
Insects Head, Thorax, and Abdomen – drawing to learn.
I confuse an insect’s abdomen and thorax every time. I think it is because my abdomen is in the middle of my body, so I think the middle section of an insect should be an abdomen, too. I am drawing these three insects in my nature journal to help me remember. I realized while drawing […]
New England Asters are a Buffet for Pollinators
From my nature journal – October 14, 2015 The New England Asters in my garden have finished blooming. The deep pink flowers began opening in late September and had a crowd of bees, flies, and beetles around the blossoms until last week. New England Asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) are native from Massachusetts and Vermont to North […]
Fall Sunflowers, Bees, Flies and Pollination
From my nature journal for 28 September 2015 In the last day of summer and the first days of fall, sunflowers bloom in my garden. The flower petals glow golden-yellow in the sun. These autumn blooming flowers provide food, pollen, nectar and prey to visiting insects and resident spiders. I stood and watched several species […]
Gossamer Butterfly Family (Lycaenidae)
Gossamer Wing family butterfly is called the “gossamers” because some of the butterflies have wings, which are so sheer and delicate the wings look like the soft, filmy, sheer fabric called gossamer. They are also called “the little butterflies” because many butterflies in the family are small with wing spans of ⅞” to 2’’ (22 […]
Swallowtail Butterfly Family
Swallowtail butterfly family includes large, attention-demanding butterflies. Swallowtail butterflies are classified as members of the subfamily Papilionidae (Swallowtails) of the order Lepidoptera (butterflies, skippers and moths). The family also includes the Parnassian butterflies. There aren’t any Parnassian butterflies in the East Coast region of North America and I don’t discuss them here. Population […]
