I was organizing my many photos and started grouping the wildlife photos in an album. Winter is a great time to reflect on everything that goes on in the garden. Here are a few of our creatures.
Monarch butterflies stop by our butterfly garden, a certified Monarch Waystation. This Monarch Caterpillar is munching on asclepias tuberosa. Agastache 'Blue Fortune' is a favorite nectar perennial for Monarch butterflies.
The Black Swallowtail Butterfly uses our garden for both host and nectar plants. While this one decided to visit us on the front porch, I have bronze fennel in the butterfly garden that serves as a host plant for the BST cats.
A Red-banded Hairstreak on the chaste tree (vitex) in the butterfly garden. The Swallowtail butterfly is common in our area. We have butterfly bushes (buddleia) throughout our gardens to serve as nectar plants.
"Godzilla" is a regular in our garden. He hangs out with us on the front porch and is always showing up nearby when I work in the garden on sunny days. He's easy for us to recognize due to a little scar on top of his head.
The fawns, born in our woods, stay in our garden and meadow during the day while the mother doe goes foraging for food. I suppose were the fawn-sitters. The fawns born here aren't afraid of us and don't run away until we get very close to them. These little ones are now much larger and have lost their spots.
Frogs and bullfrogs live in the stream and waterfall. They don't like to be approached and will jump into the water whenever we walk by.
A Purple Finch waits for a turn at our bird feeder that is located in the butterfly garden during the winter months and a hummingbird feeder in the summer. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were plentiful this year. The hummingbird feeders are scattered about the butterfly garden, the waterfall garden and a garden room window.
The bee and wasp posed on the flowers for me when I visited another garden in July.
Our gardening greyhound, Charm, takes a break inside with a few of her many stuffies. She doesn't tear up anything, so there are many little stuffies residing in our family room with her.
Photos by Freda Cameron