Wordless Wednesday

 Cabbage White Butterfly

 Painted Lady.....with a busy proboscis. 

 A glimpse of the upperside of the wings.

I love this shot, to get some scale with the Painted Lady and the Fritillary behind (Great Spangled?).  I almost missed the bee sharing the stem with the Painted Lady.

View from the Yard

We were given 6 butterfly bushes last year to plant in Amber's memory.  Three different colors for Amber's parents' yard and three for our yard.  The bushes spent last summer in their original pots as we were just too stuck to do anything.  The babyMomma's yard is a work in progress and with two puppies who like to "garden," the bushes have not been moved to her yard yet.  My hubby did heel in the six bushes in a raised bed the babyMomma had in our yard.  To our delight and amazement, they survived the near neglect of last year and a harsh winter and are blooming!  Dark purple bloomed first, followed by a deep red-violet, and the pale pink is just beginning to bloom.  Yesterdays visitors included a Hummingbird Moth and a Red-spotted Purple Admiral (as far as I can tell).  At first I thought it was a Spicebush Swallowtail, but it didn't really fit the bill.

Frantic Flights

After a quiet three weeks, my yard exploded on Monday with feathered family groups!  Nuthatch fledglings bursting upwards after a parent, like a tornado of leaves on a blustery autumn afternoon.  Chipping sparrows had another brood and they were non stop noise all day!  Eastern Phoebe fledglings were out and about, practicing their bug catching skills.  With all the activity, I was only able to capture this Woodpecker.....my guess is Red-bellied Woodpecker, but I am not sure.  The sun was too bright so the exposure is terrible, but his posture on the branch startled me.  Quite possibly he was drying off after a visit to the birdbath.