Wildlife and blooms and all..

It's been a busy month for the critters in my garden. I finally glimpsed my first hummingbird this morning and have enjoyed the numerous butterflies that come to visit. My winged visitors usually fly off before I can take a picture  so I tend to focus on the earth-bound insects around me..

Friend or foe? It looks like this is a multicolored Asian Lady beetle and friend hopping around my globe mallow and Texas milkweed. They are good and bad- they outcompete native seven spotted lady beetles, but do an amazing job eating aphids. My milkweed at least is happy they are around.

Speaking of my globe mallow, this one is still putting out its delicate blooms that remind me of orange creamsicles.. 

This Ailanthus webworm (Atteva punctella) looks more like a fancy ceramic bead than a beneficial (to me) bug. I think it was on my Blackfoot daily incidentally since from what I read they feed on the leaves of China sumac trees (Ailianthus altissima or Tree of Heaven) which are invasive. I have two scraggly ones on the boundary line with a neighbor and am constantly pulling up sumac shoots around the yard, which are both pungent and annoying. Removal of the trees has been on my "to do sometime" list for years. Of course if I get to catch sight of an ailanthus silkmoth in the meantime that would be cool.. 

The digger bee that was creating a nest in my new native grass area flew off to the salvias when I noticed it.. I didn't quite get all the St Augustine, but I expect it will wither in summer when it is not watered..

I initially meant to take a picture of my kidneywood tree's flower, but noticed this garden spider jumping around to hide..

Teeny ant in the rock rose..

Gulf fritillary caterpillar in the back (which has less invasive China sumac shoots underground because the passionflower vine has outcompeted it!). I leave a few nice stands of the passionflower vine since they have beautiful flowers and host these caterpillars which turn into the happy butterflies shown below.

Out of focus frolicking fritillaries..

Paused on the rosemary out front

Enjoying the lantana up front

Other butterfly visitors include this Variegated fritillary on my silver ponyfoot and a Red Admiral that enjoyed pausing in the shade one day.

The passionflower vine also attracted this red wasp- time to keep an eye out for nests. One year a wasp tried to place her nest in the middle of my front door. I tend to leave nests alone if they are placed in a far away location, but I had to knock this nest down at least three times since I didn't enjoy the thought of chasing wasps through the house every time I went in and out..

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Bloom Day

What a gorgeous time of year to look at garden blooms. Here's what's in my garden right now- it's fun to see that most are native and all are tough!

The natives include...

Square bud primrose

Evening primrose

Blackfoot daisies

Completely volunteer lantana

Echinacea- first bloom! I have many volunteers in the front waiting to bloom.

Scrappy allium with delicate flowers

Winecups- my favorite wildflower

The bees are still loving my salvia greggi

The coral honeysuckle is no longer flushed with blooms, but a few are still attracting bees

As for my non-natives- they seem to lean towards red..

Unnamed hibiscus blooming happily in the front bed

The pomegranate I planted last spring is filling out

Not red, but sweet smelling and promising of bounty is this pomelo bloom

Thanks to  Carol at http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/ for hosting this Gardener's Bloom Day!

A salvia by any other name...

The label said Henry Duelberg salvia. I bought two. One was decimated by the chickens (scratch.. scratch). The other grew up.. taller and a bit more.. purple than what I thought a Henry Duelberg should look like.

It is now at least triple this size.

I do believe this is an Amistad salvia. Mistaken identity.. but it fits well enough in its location and the bees absolutely love it. Hopefully it won't reach 6 feet tall (a possible height). The purple fits better with the color scheme anyways :)

Wildlife Wednesday

Time for another Wildlife Wednesday. April is a wonderful time for it. The first shots are from my weekend visit to Mason, Texas..

Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) among Huisache daisies

Dung beetles (Phanaus adonis?) hard at work rolling their treasure down the road. The bottom one is partially hidden by the grass. On first look I thought they had white polka dot markings, but looking closer I think they were carrying baby beetles on their back.

Sulfur butterflies (Colias eurytheme) in constant motion and everywhere!

Another painted lady and bluebonnet.

Busy bee on helmetflower (Scutellaria integrifolia). As I hiked through the hills covered in Huisache daisies and other natives I could hear a low constant buzz as the bees flew from bloom to bloom. Talk about vibrating with life..

Painted ladies everywhere! This view of one shows the "eyes" on the outside of its wings.

Back at home: 

Eight spotted forester moth (Alypia octomaculata) poking around my newly seeded Thunderturf lawn (buffalograss, curly mesquite and blue grama). I think she found a broadleaf weed for me :)

Katydid in my Gay Hill rose

A Question mark caterpillar (Polygonia interrogatis) under the elm trees (a host plant). He seemed as curious about me as I was about him!

A Monarch butterfly caterpillar tucked under the tropical milkweed.

Easter tiger swallowtail butterfly larvae just starting on my fennel (I plant it for the butterflies).

A week or so later- it has orange dots in contrast to the Monarch's yellow stripes.

Two weeks earlier I spotted a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) enjoying the verbena. 

My resident cardinal enjoying the feeder. Harder to see on the bottom picture are the house sparrows perched next to it on the same cable. When my feeder is full at least 6 try to get on it at a time!

It's satisfying to have turned what was mostly lawn into a native habitat that is buzzing, crawling and fluttering with spring time excitement. Thanks to Tina at http://mygardenersays.com/ for creating Wildlife Wednesday!

Hill Country outing

We visited my parents again at their place outside of Mason and it was the perfect time to enjoy the Hill Country wildflowers. Highway 71 had a fair show of bluebonnets between 281 and Llano and Highway 29 had a good show of bluebonnets and indian paintbrushes. Not many yellows nor prickly poppies yet, and the fields beyond the fences showed more lush green than flowers spilling over. There weren't any "must stop" sights, so we enjoyed the show without pausing for photos.

Once at their place the kids did their favorite activities: splashing in the James River, getting sandy/muddy and climbing everything. We took a truck ride across the river with my youngest and his cousin (who was visiting the ranch for the first time) and they had a blast. I happily watched them burn energy as they raced up hillsides chasing my mother (with startled deer jumping head). A great place to let the kids be "free range" :)

Climb, jump, splash

A family of deer leaping in sequence (at least six of them). They looked plump and happy.

My youngest exploring the anatomy of prickly pears.

Rock scrambling

Greener than usual- many sotols, mesquites, live oaks, cedars, persimmons and cacti to hike through. My parents have methodically cleared cedar and cacti over the years to let native prairie grasses such as big bluestem, little bluestem, sideoats grama and many others reestablish themselves. 

Butterflies among the PYF's ("pretty yellow flowers"- many daisy varieties such as Huisache, greenthread, Engelmann, etc!)

I never managed to capture the two hummingbirds in pictures, but they delighted in drinking from this claret cup cactus as well as the salvias around the house.

Mystery PYF's near the river. (Late note.. Texas flax per the NPIN database!)

The local hawk squawking at us (probably to stay away from her nest). Don't worry- we did!