A Different Sort Of Bee

A Flat-tailed Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile mendica) on Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota). A small bee, the female is usually between 1/3 and 1/2 inch and the male is slightly smaller. They eat pollen and nectar from many different flowers, pollinating while they eat.

These bees cut beautiful circles from leaves to line their nests which are built in tubelike cavities — hollow stems, holes in trees, abandoned burrows carved in trees by beetles.

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A Bobcat!

A total sense of GLEE hit me this morning as I watched the interaction between a squirrel and a larger animal. A scuffling sound started at the bottom of our front steps and immediately the two animals ran out toward the woods on the other side of our lane. I couldn’t identify the larger animal. Smaller than a full sized deer. It was so quick I couldn’t assess anything except the size, but a few seconds later a Bobcat came back out into the open. With pleading eyes saying, “Where did the squirrel go?”.

A seldom seen Bobcat (Lynx rufus) was just outside my front door.

My camera was just ten steps away but all this happened so quickly. So no picture, but here are two photos from previous encounters.

I’m totally delighted that I got to see this incredible creature again.

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Perhaps Not What You’d Expect

A female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (dark morph)(Papilio glaucus). Females of this species of butterfly can be either the color you would expect, yellow and black, or mostly black, like this one. This is called sexual dimorphism.

The dark morph looks similar to a Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) which has a disagreeable taste. That appearance helps protect the dark morph female Tiger Swallowtail from predators.

Isn’t nature amazing?

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Lemon Yellow

Whorled Rosinweed (Silphium asteriscus var. trifoliatum). A bright lemon yellow flower that is a herbaceous perennial. It grows to be four to six feet tall.

Native to the eastern United States. Found growing along trails up here.

This plant is a variety of Silphium asteriscus which has whorls of leaves of three or four along the tall stems.

The name Rosinweed comes about because of the substance that seeps from damaged stems. This gummy substance was used by Native Americans as a chewing gum.

The nectar and pollen attract bees, and butterflies, and songbirds enjoy the seeds.

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Brilliant Crimson

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), adding color to a wide swath of the Americas. Native from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America to northern Colombia.

Perfect for hummingbirds and butterflies love it too. Though I have it in my gardens, I totally love to find it in the woods!

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Bliss

Total bliss. Rain rain RAIN! Not water from a sprinkler but rain falling from the sky this afternoon, 1.74 inches of gorgeous rain.

My cabin sits in an area that has been suffering from severe/extreme drought. Grass brown. Plants dying. That rain totally delighted me. Now rain gods, more please.

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A Pollinator

I’ve got a few species of mint plants growing on my back hill. One of them, Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens), has an extended bloom period and attracts many interesting pollinators. One of them is this Double-banded Scoliid Wasp (Scolia bicincta) with its beautiful metalic blue wings. These wasps usually have two white bands, but there are some that have three or even four bands. I wonder, is this just to confuse us?

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A Green And Brown Butterfly

Brown isn’t an unusual color in a butterfly, but green is unusual. This is a Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus). It’s a small butterfly with a wingspan of just 3/4 to 1 1/4 inches.

Native to North America. Here in Virginia the larval host plant is Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana).

This guy in the photo is getting nectar at the flowers of an Applemint (Mentha suaveolens).

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