Not sure why the photo didn't resize? Sorry it's so big.

No, the pic size is ok Laurie, if you resize in Photobucket you have to "refresh" your browser in Gardenweb to see the new size. Took me ages to figure that out.

Pretty butterfly! I bet that milkweed feeds a ton of caterpillars.

It's early for these critters, isn't it? Nice photo!

Ahh, refreshing did work.......that's much better!

Doris, I'm not sure if it's early or not, as it's been years since I've actually seen a Monarch in my yard. This is the first lilac to bloom for me and the butterflies are just drawn to it. Lots of the whitish ones, Sulfurs or something like that? And about an hour after I got a pic of this guy, I saw another butterfly with different markings. It wouldn't let me get very close, but it could have been a swallowtail.

Laurie that is amazing photo, I've never had a Monarch in my garden yet. Beauty is all around us isn't it ;)

I did though see for the first time yesterday a Oriole, now I don't know if it was a Baltimore or a Bullock's, I'll have to take the binoculars out with me today, all I know it was such a bright vivid orange. I must pick up some oranges at the grocery store today too.

oh btw, the photo is a perfect size :)
Sharon

Had a couple more visitors in the garden over the weekend.

This little guy was trying to become one with the daylily leaf.

This is the first time I have ever seen a hummingbird moth. And we saw three of them on a little leaf lilac, one big one and two little ones.

This was the big guy. His body was about 2" long, the little ones were only about 3/4" long.
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It was very cool watching them fly around and feed on the lilacs.

Aw that frog is soooo cute! Looks like a perfect frog hammock. :0)

Hummingbird moths are cool, I have never seen them during the day - how interesting. They used to like my nicotines in the evening.

The only visitors I have had lately are bumble bees constantly in my lupines. They just love them.

Laurie that lit' frog is the most darling thing I've ever seen, he is sooooooo cute sleeping in a curled leaf.

How do you get such great shots (close-ups) of a moth hummingbird. Everytime I see one, especially watering in the evening, I have to run into the house to get my camera and then run back outside and its gone! LOL

Great photos as usual!

Sharon

Well, I found the big hummingbird moth sleeping while hanging on the side of the deck around noon. So I did get some good close ups because he never moved. I then went and grabbed DH and the boys to come see it and he used a stick to lift him off the deck so I could get a better shot of him rather than just the back. But he then woke up and flew to the lilac and started feeding and really didn't pay any attention to the camera in his face at all. I'm sure he was still groggy from us rudely interupting his sleep, but he was so cool to see. The little ones, on the other hand were feeding and flying around in the middle of the day. I saw them again yesterday in the middle of the day too.

Love the little green frog!

Hummingbird moths, huge (1 1/2" long) bumble bees, little bees and little orange moths, swallowtail and monarch butterflies are all feeding on my lilac bush next to the front door of the house. It is noisy there. The ground is just covered in little pink pieces of the lilac flowers.

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Brenda

Brenda, is your first pic a moth or a bee? That's a really neat looking bug whaatever it is! The wings are transparent like a bee but marked like a moth.

Laurie, absolutely adorable photo of that frog. Way too cute! I'd almost like to cuddle him...almost.

Toots :^)

Sorry, should have individually labeled each picture.
First one is the hummingbird moth and the second is a large bumble bee.

It is really hard to get a good picture of the hummingbird moths 'cause they are constantly moving their wings just like a hummingbird does, even when sipping nectar. I have never seen them sitting like the monarch butterfly does. Actually the swallowtail butterfly won't sit still for very long either.

Brenda

Brenda, that's a HUGE lilac! Just imagine how many thousands of bees, moths and butterflies that tree can feed. Mine's only like an eighth of the size and it's like grand central. :)

Our home/acreage is about 32 years old and I bet that lilac was planted at about the same time. It is a non suckering lilac that has about a 2 1/2' diameter base already. I love it's medium pink flowers. Wish I knew the kind it is.

Brenda

I was finally able to get a picture of the catbird who is nesting inside the little leaf lilac.

And on the same lilac, this morning there were two swallowtails feeding. I was finally able to get close enough for a good pic.

This seems to be a great year for butterflies!

Laurie

Awesome butterfly pics Laurie! WOW!

I found about 8 little visitors munching on my dill today - I knew they were Swallowtail caterpillars so I didn't kill them, but I did "relocate" them into the back lane. I let them take some dill with them, I had extra. Now that is generosity!

A very colourful little guy isn't he? I'm sure he appreciated your generous gift too!

Yesterday, to my horror, I found a fairly large light green striped caterpillar, who had eaten half way into a rose bud. If he had only been eating a leaf, I would have tried doing a search to see if he was good or bad. But eating the bud inside........I saw red and squished!

I've never seen a monarch caterpillar until yesterday, and now I've got 3!(at least!) They are very happily munching away on the milkweed. I think they're so cute!

It's kind of hard to tell which end is which, isn't it?

Laurie

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Sierra

Laurie, i had three of those too. They totally stripped one of the milkweed plants - hope it will come back now. I didn't see them this evening, but wasn't looking too hard (busy!). I'm looking forward to seeing three Monarchs fluttering around in a few weeks. :)

Marcia, three of them stripped one plant?? My, they have bigger appetites than I thought! This spring, I had divided one milkweed for the plant exchange, and the lady who got it phoned me yesterday saying that she had some worms devouring her plant. I asked her what they looked like and of course, they were monarchs. So she said that she moved them into a ditch so she could save her milkweed plant. She said she had moved at least 20 of them!! Hopefully they'll find some native milkweed to feed on.

Btw, have you seen the massive roots on milkweed? I was shocked when I dug up this, supposedly "little" plant. I had a couple of 6" pots ready for the divisions to go into, but I had to go back to the shed for a couple of 2 gallon pots! So I'm sure your plant will be fine.

Sierra, awesome macro shots! Man, you can even see the hair on the fly's back!lol

That Monarch caterpillar is adorable! I want to know now, which end is the front?

My Swallowtails have devoured almost all my dill. Little piggies! There are at least 25 in the garden now, I have stopped evicting them. They're too cute!

Great shots Sierra! What type of flower are they on?

Syreeta

Hi Syreeta,

Thats the ornamental onion in the front of the side bed. You already have this one, well minus the fly and bee. LOL!

Sierra

Well, from hours of extremely careful observation, I figured out that the eating end is the one with the longer antennae and the pooping end is the one with the shorter antennae!lol Man, I should have been a researcher!LOL

Laurie, it was a small plant, only one or two stalks. I planted three a few years ago, but only one has taken off. They weren't on that one, though, which is okay.

Took me awhile to figure out which end was which, but - careful observation here too - the mouth end was the one that was chewing! LOL

LOL Laurie you scientist you. I guess the caterpillars have no trouble figuring out which end is which - they shovel all my dill in one end and make little black thingers all over my retaining wall with the other.

Here's another visitor.

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Sierra