Fussy goldfinches--they prefer a greater variety of lettuce seeds to choose from! :-D
That is great about the hummers, Ric! We don't seem to get many of them here, unfortunately.
Plant It and They Will Come part 6
I hear the goldfinches about, they do that chirpy thing as they take off or fly. I know they like my sunflowers. And I have seen them on great mullein, in the past, of which there are 3-4 spikes in the yard this year.
Ok, yeah, I hear you guys , all birds do a chirpy thing... it's that quick 3 note thing...
I just saw a goldfinch this morning-- pretty birds!
I know what you mean, Sally...goldfinches do make a distinctive sound !
Goldfinches have been eating seeds from my sunflowers.
Thought I'd share a couple recent pollinator photos
(1) Eastern tailed blue on my Solidago 'Golden Fleece'
(2) Bumblebees enjoying my Heliopsis 'Lemon Queen'
I did see 2 yellow flashes in the garden this AM.
What were the yellow flashes heading towards, Ric?
Thanks for sharing, CatMint! I had never heard of an Eastern tailed blue before; it's really pretty (sorry for offending it if that happens to be a male : - ))
they were 2 gold finches exiting the old lettuce I left go to seed for them.
thanks, Muddy! I think male butterflies don't mind being called pretty! :-) This one has a partially torn wing, which gives it that interesting dark blue splotch.
Ric, glad to hear that the goldfinches are enjoying the seeds still!
I can't tell even with reading glasses on, CatMint...is the dark blue an area that can be seen through the torn wing, or did the healing process change the wing color?
I have never grown lettuce and would never have imagined that backyard birds would like it. At my daughter's house in Utah, however, there were Quails that apparently loved lettuce. The previous owner of her house put netting over it, but it had bolted by the time I arrived so I removed the netting so the Quails could enjoy what was left.
Yes it's an area that can be seen through the torn wing! I probably wouldn't be able to tell either except that I can zoom in close on the original photo. It really stumped me at first--trying to figure out what butterfly had a dark blue splotch. LOL
Ric, maybe I need to plant some lettuce next year and see if I can attract some goldfinch! :-). I had no idea either that lettuce seeds were a draw for them.
Sunflowers would be more effective than lettuce, for goldfinches.
They adore Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans too.
Well, I have lots of BES for them. Hasn't been a good year for my sunflowers, though. All I've got blooming right now are the dwarf variety, whih I just don't find as satisfying. :-/
Growing parsley has been a very rewarding experience! I get swallowtail cats on them every year. Here are my second and third "batches" of them this year.
1. One from the 2nd batch of swallowtail cats, looking very fat and happy now.
2. One from the 3rd batch of them. They are only about half an inch long at the moment.
3. Protected from birds :-).
I love growing parsley for the Cats. They love my bronze fennel, too.
I am growing a bunch of Parsley for the second year in a row.
No cats on them--for the 2nd year in a row....WHY?
g.
That's wonderful, Donner!
Lucky you, Donner! It's nice of you to help hide them from birds.
I haven't seen any caterpillars in my yard yet this year, but I'm seeing Swallowtails fairly often so I'm going to take a good look around tomorrow.
I always wondered where cats went for the next stage of their lives. Well, look what I just saw on my Sedum!!! If this cat was one of those from my parsley pot, it went through about 3 yards of paved patio, up to a 30" retaining wall, and settled on this plant! Quite a hike!
Wow, great find, Donner!
Cool find, Donner!
Lucky you!
I've been looking, but all I ever see on my Milkweed are beetles and aphids, and nothing's on my parsley, dill or Spicebush.
I have seen NOTHING on my Parsley or Dill. Two years now....
I do not spray my herbs with anything--and I planted plenty of them.
So far--NOT ONE cat! Two years ago-they were all over the place.
g.
Muddy those might be baby milkweed bugs there, they have been on my swamp milkweed pods.
Indeed they are.
What are Milkweed bugs?
http://bugguide.net/node/view/504
I've been squishing them on my swamp milkweed, hoping to keep the seed pods clean and healthy. Pods are ripening.
I just noticed pods on my tropical milkweed, so I am collecting from both as they start to split. They get a little yellow and shrivelly and seeds inside are brown. they split open soon after that.
I guess I should make sure that at least some seed pods survive!
#1 - Bees adore this Agastache nepetoides (Yellow Giant Hyssop) - new to my garden this year thanks to greenthumb and ecnalg. I find it interesting how only a few of the little flowers on each spike open up at the same time. I kept thinking the poor bees were getting the dregs from fading blooms, then I realized the flower spike doesn't bloom all at once, so the lucky bees get a steady supply of fresh nectar.
#2 - I'm hoping this Black Swallowtail finds its way to the host plants I have waiting for it!!
I remember seeing those bugs on my milkweed too. Yuk! :o(
The swallowtail cat that had made its way to the Sedum is now safely in the pupa stage :o). It is so well disguised that I kept losing it when looking through the camera lens. I had to use a few flowers to mark where it was :o).
Wow, that's a great photo of its camo job!
I keep a tower of tumble pots, planted with herbs, by the patio door. When I want some fresh herbs I just step out and clip/clip. 2 years ago I had so many swallowtail cats I had to relo some to the bronze fennel in the garden so I had at least some herbs left in the pots. LOL :-} They are voracious eaters. This year I had some 4"pots of fennel in the GH and got cats on those, same thing, I just moved them to the 6' fennel about 20' away.
Lucky you, Ric, to have so many cats! I just found a few more on the parsley in the garden. The parsley plants in the pot are stripped of leaves after the cats went through them. Hopefully they will recover quick enough for more cats :-).
Great photo, Donner!
Ric, that's great that you have so many of the little guys!!
I was out back looking at my new shrub garden just now and noticed I had a baby spicebush swallowtail cat on my spice bush! I'm super excited. He's tiny, probably only 1/2" long and 1/8" diameter.
Woohoo!!!
Great news on the little cat, Seq! :-)
Was delighted by tons of pollinators in my garden today. Felt very happy to enjoy visits by a hummingbird, skippers, lots of bees and wasps, a clearwing, and a dragonfly! Got a few photos.
Isn't it great to see the birds, butterflies and bees enjoy the fruits of our labor?!
Sequoia jogged my memory and I realized that the butterfly I photographed the other day might be a Spicebush Swallowtail rather than a Black Swallowtail. Here are 2 photos of the same butterfly; does anyone know what it is? Even after studying online photos, I'm still not sure!
I saw what I thought was a spicebush swallowtail today fluttering about the zinnias. I didn't have a camera handy though. The pic on the right looks like a spicebush swallowtail but there are a few that look really close and I'm far from an expert.
I'm pretty sure those are 2 photos of the same butterfly; I took them at the same time. It took a while to get a photo of it with open wings. It didn't open them quite wide enough for easy ID, though (at least not for me). I'm also leaning towards Spicebush Swallowtail, though.
This message was edited Aug 8, 2015 10:29 PM