Here are some of the pollinators and other critters that have been visiting the garden this summer. Also, the giant sunflowers are crazy!! I had no idea when I planted them how big they would get.
Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on zinnia
Black swallowtail butterfly on zinnia
Black swallowtail caterpillar on curly parsley
Red-spotted purple butterfly on sedum
Red-spotted purple butterfly on sedum
The sedum is starting to turn pink now and attracting a lot of pollinators.
Hoverfly on phlox
Common buckeye butterfly on cucumber plant
Painted lady butterfly on Agastache hyssop
Large bumblebee on Agastache hyssop
Unknown small creature on nasturtium leaf
Nasturtium flower
I think this is a silvery checkerspot butterfly on marigolds. This butterfly has sunflower for its host plant, which makes sense. Though it also looks like a pearl crescent butterfly.
Posing by the sunflower on 8/7/19 when the first flower opened on the two tall sunflower plants.
On 8/26/19 I took this picture of the crazy sunflower plants waving above the garden.
When we got back to the garden after a short road trip one of the sunflowers had tipped over. I cut off the heaviest flower heads and propped it up enough that I could walk underneath it. The bird, bees and butterflies love these flowers!
Sunny summer day…
Add in the sound of cicadas… This is one of several cicada shells I found; this one on a collard leaf.
I am not sure if this is a grasshopper or katydid.
When I was young I spent a lot of time getting dragonflies to sit on my finger. I had fun doing that again. This beautiful blue dragonfly was sitting on the clothes line and stepped onto my warm finger and rested for a while.
We just took a short vacation and visited a lot of parks and nature preserves in Illinois and Missouri. This dragonfly was spotted at the Sue and Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge yesterday. They have an area called Sandy Hollow with wonderful hiking paths. Just guessing, but this dragonfly might be a brown spotted yellow wing dragonfly. It was resting in the prairie as the morning warmed up.
September has arrived, but I am holding on to summer a little longer!
Little Backyard World 