July 24tap images for gallery view

 

Good day to you. I'm the autumn onion, Allium stellatum, that you saw before. It's taken 18 days to raise my flowers and I'm almost there. Another couple of days and breakfast for the bees and hoverflies will be served.

 

 

Hello. I'm a water parsnip, Sium suave. I Ilke wet areas, like this mudflat. Along with the wasp or sawfly here my nectar is a favourite of eastern black swallowtail flutterbyes.
You have to be careful because I look similar to spotted water hemlock which is poisonous. The difference is the hemlock's stems are sort of orange by the leaves and the leaves are serrated.

 

July 25tap images for gallery view

 

Well, good day(s) to you. That's me on the 14th and the 25th. Flowers take a while sometimes. Give me a week and I'll be serving brunch to bees, wasps, flutterbyes, skippers, moths and and and.
Oh yeah. I'm a tall (aka cutleaf) coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata. Silvery checkerspot caterpillars (among others) like my leaves. That dogwood in the background has me in the shade, which I like.

 

 

Hey. I'm a narrowleaf sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani. I can reach up to 2 m tall and we grow all over the place. Bees, flutterbyes and blister beetles (of course) like my nectar. Goldfinches love my seed. Oh yeah, my flowers smell like chocolate.
And, did you know, Wildernots use(d) various parts of us as food, oil, dye and thread.

 

 

So, you've got a problem with us? Well, we're just playing our part in the ecosystem:
Eating this Indian hemp up and then rolling ourselves in the leaves (what's left of them) and cocooning. Then we become that cute leafroller moth you met a few days ago.
No, those aren't eggs on the leaves. It's ... ah ... you guessed it.

 

July 26

Hey, how's it going? I'm the meadowlark again. This is one of our other songs. You can hear one of my buddies answering me in the distance. That's how we check in with each other.

 

July 27tap images for gallery view

 

a healthy biosphere ...

 

 

What can we say? We're just taking a break. We were flying around the yard co-joined (as you can see). Exciting though it is to be so engaged 30 to 40 feet in the air, it does tend to wear one out.
Next I get to lay some eggs. And there are lots of milkweeds. That's part of why we like it here. ☺

 

July 28tap images for gallery view

 

hello. thanks for stopping by. i'm just taking a break for the moment. oh yeah, i'm a northern crescent flutterby. That's Phyciodes selenis in science-speak. i like it here because there are lots (i mean lots) of white panicled asters. That's what my caterpillars like to eat.

 

 

Hey there. I'm a great spreadwing, Archilestes grandis. Yeah I know it sounds like I'm boasting ... well "great" means I'm the biggest in the spreadwing family. We look like dragonflies or damselflies. The difference is we don't keep our wings fully stretched nor do we fold them up completely. We all eat tiny insects. For us it's mostly mites and the like.

 

 

A memorial service is planned for the fritillary butterfly here that fell prey to the ambush bug. You're asked to send contributions to your local conservation organization in lieu of flowers. Oh, BTW, that Darwin guy missed something. In the insect world it's survival of the lucky.

 

 

Hey. I'm a Riddell's goldenrod, Solidago riddellii. We're currently serving breakfast all day. As you can see hoverflies like what's on our menu. But they better watch out for the ambush bugs. Fortunately they're otherwise engaged at the moment.

 

July 29tap images for gallery view

 

Ola! Estoy tan feliz de tenerte aquí.
Yo tambien. Te necesito mucho.

(Hello. I'm so happy you're here.
Me, too. I need you so much.)

 

 

Okay. Send out the flyers. Dinner will be ready shortly. Oh yeah, I'm that tall (cutleaf) coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata, again. Just about everyone likes my nectar and goldfinches love my seed.

 

 

So now you know why they call me beautiful, eh. That's right I'm that beautiful sunflower, Helianthus pauciflorus, again. And those are baby hoverflies. They're so small the photog didn't know what they were until the image was enlarged. Did you know that hoverfly larvae eat aphids? The adults are also excellent pollinators.

 

 

Yo, Canada hawkweed, Hieracium canadense, again. As you can see I'm popular with hoverflies. Bees, moths and butterflies like my nectar, too.
In the fall, when I set seed, my "pappus" is light brown That other plant—the exotic hawksbeard—has a white pappus.

 

 

A
spot
of
rain
on
the
prairie.