Backyard photography

A nature photographer’s images and stories of birds, butterflies, and other creatures from her backyard near Orlando, FL

‘Pope John Paul II’ rose

September 17, 2007 - We got home tonight to see the black-and-white neighborhood stray cat sleeping underneath the big bird feeder. “Shoo” is not a technique that has worked well with this cat, so Rich turned on the sprinklers to make her leave. Aside from providing me with a very good laugh at the poor cat’s expense, Rich also […]

Butterfly Pupa

September 9, 2007 - Another pupa…this one I found attached to the underside of a leaf on my ‘Memorial Day’ rose bush. I have no idea what kind of pupa it is. Some of my close-up shots showed very pretty specks of blue on it.

Fiery Skipper

September 6, 2007 - It’s Skipper Season again. I’m starting to notice a lot more of them in these last few weeks. We think this one is a Fiery Skipper. It’s hard to tell – there are so many types of skippers!!

‘Sun Flare’ rose

September 3, 2007 - My new ‘Sun Flare’ rose! It’s a floribunda that I put in the front yard next to ‘Angel Face’ and ‘Granada’. I can’t wait until it’s covered in blooms!

‘Simply Marvelous’ rose

September 1, 2007 - ‘Simply Marvelous’! is going crazy with blooms. (Yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name.) This wasn’t my favorite rose when I saw it in the catalog, but it’s quickly becoming one of the prettiest in the garden.

Sphinx moth

August 31, 2007 - I saw a different Sphinx moth in the yard today. He was nectaring on the bottlebrush tree and let me take lots of pictures. I like the coloring on his back wings.

Wendy’s got me hooked on daylilies

August 29, 2007 - Wendy’s getting me excited about daylilies. We went to Johnson’s Daylily Farm today and saw hundreds of gorgeous blooms! It was hard to choose just a few to bring home. This one is ‘Age of Elegance’. I can’t wait to go back to the farm with my camera!

Lesser Vine Sphinx Moth

August 28, 2007 - Tonight Squirt and I noticed a big bug on the screen, and upon closer investigation, I saw that it was a Lesser Vine Sphinx Moth. Squirt thought I was crazy when I made him go inside, turned off the light, and started flashing pictures! But I got a few good results that really show the […]

Blanketflower

August 26, 2007 - My blanketflower is a nice splash of red in my “Hummingbirds please come back!” red-bed. We haven’t seen any more hummingbirds this summer, but this bee sure appreciated my flower.

Dragonfly

August 21, 2007 - Thanks to the monopod that Rich got me for my b-day, I got a great shot of this dragonfly tonight. He was posing on Carla’s firespike for me. He’s not exactly the hummingbird that we were trying to attract, but he’s still pretty cool to look at in close-up!

Giant Swallowtail caterpillar

August 17, 2007 - One of the two caterpillars continues to feast on the leaves of our little citrus tree. He’s almost doubled in size. We hope his brother is happily transformed into a butterfly somewhere…preferably in cat-eye range around the porch!

Two new caterpillars

August 9, 2007 - Time sure flies when you’re having…work? rain? At any rate, tonight we saw two new caterpillars feasting on the citrus tree. (Maybe it’s good for something after all! It appears to be rootbound and its spot is a candidate for a new rosebed.) We identified the caterpillars to be Giant Swallowtails. Can’t wait to see […]

The house finches are learning to share

July 29, 2007 - Rich and I had a good time watching the house finches learn to share today. Six house finches and only four feeding stations meant that there was lots of fussing and fluttering as they figured out who got to eat and in what order. We wondered why two didn’t go eat at the other feeder, […]

Mexican sunflowers

July 26, 2007 - After reading all winter how much butterflies like Mexican sunflowers, I was finally able to find a Mexican sunflower at Lukas. (Next year I should just get some seeds in spring!) So it’s as pretty as I hoped, but I’ve yet to see any butterflies take interest in it!

White Peacock

July 21, 2007 - The White Peacock was back today. We’ve had fewer Monarchs in the yard, and I haven’t seen a Queen in days. Yesterday a Black Swallowtail was fluttering around the parsley. I’m waiting for the eight Monarch caterpillars that were on the milkweed a few weeks ago to show up in pretty butterfly form!

Evening moth

July 17, 2007 - I was deadheading roses this evening and I saw a pretty moth settle himself down on Spellbound. I got the camera and proceeded to play with the fine art of exposure at dusk…turns out I needed a 6 second exposure to capture this guy! I was pleased with the result. :)

New roses

July 5, 2007 - Roses! I added ‘Granada’ and ‘Gold Medal’ to the flowerbed in the front yard today. I also added more red pentas to the back in hopes of seeing another hummingbird. Come back, Ruby!

Backyard butterflies

July 3, 2007 - There are lots of dragonflies in the garden these days. Lots of butterflies, too. Monarchs, Queens, Gulf Fritillaries, Black Swallowtails, the occasional Giant Swallowtails, and lots of Sachem/Hairstreak/small guys that I’m still learning to distinguish. Unfortunately we’ve yet to see a Monarch grow up on our milkweed, though, since the milkweed are infested with assassin […]

First-time ‘Tuscan Sun’ bloom

July 2, 2007 - The first blooms appeared on crape myrtles Susie and Q! (Yes, the crape myrtles have names!) Also blooming for the first time is my replacement ‘Tuscan Sun’ rose. The aphids liked him almost as much as I do. :-p

White Peacock

June 30, 2007 - Vacation time! Finally! Just as it started to rain today, I saw something fluttering in the backyard, and I dashed out to get a picture before it poured. Turns out it was a White Peacock, a first-time visitor to my yard. I got some great shots, the best of which is below.

Teeny or Toadsworth?

June 20, 2007 - It was a dark and (potentially) stormy night…we heard strange splashing in the bird bath…Squirt raced over to investigate…there was a rustling in the rosebush…and out popped this frog! It made for a very exciting cat night. Is this Teeny or Toadsworth, Peter?

‘Purple Tiger’ roses

June 19, 2007 - There are more ‘Purple Tigers’ today! The fully open flowers are even more pretty than yesterday’s buds. I think Goldy’s rose is one of my favorites already. :)

First ‘Purple Tiger’ bloom

June 18, 2007 - ‘Purple Tiger’ bloomed! I love how I can plant bareroot roses in Florida and have them bloom less than a month later. Purple Tiger is even prettier than I expected, though I’d have to say I agree with those who call her ‘magenta’ and not ‘purple’. However, she’s a wonderful addition to our backyard rose […]

Gulf Fritillary

June 16, 2007 - Rich accuses me of neglecting these guys because they are so common in Central Florida…so here, here’s a picture of the poor neglected Gulf Fritillary. He was feasting on my purple butterfly bush and driving poor Squirt crazy!

Common Buckeye caterpillar

June 10, 2007 - I was weeding this afternoon when I noticed this caterpillar on the few healthy snapdragons that are left in our 90 degree Florida heat. He’s very pretty, but not as pretty as the Common Buckeye butterfly that he’ll be one day.

Mini Rose

June 8, 2007 - I can’t resist posting a picture of my favorite little mini rose. It’s pink and orange and yellow and so beautiful!

Monarch caterpillars

June 8, 2007 - I found about seven very large Monarch caterpillars on one milkweed plant today, and several more on another! So I guess the assassin bugs aren’t eating caterpillars…or at least, they missed a few! Here’s a shot of one of the biggest. He looks like he has eyes on both ends of his body. He was […]

First hydrangea bloom

June 6, 2007 - The Bobwhite was back tonight! First we saw him scurrying across the back yard, then we were greeted with his distinct “bob-white!” call. Yay, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen him. The cardinals have also been slightly less frequent visitors, although we still see the male and female – separately – occasionally. The […]

‘Peace’ rose

June 3, 2007 - My ‘Peace’ rose had a bloom that started to open tonight. It has a beautiful mix of orange, yellow, and hot pink! I don’t recall the fully open flower being this beautiful.

The Queen butterfly was back

June 2, 2007 - The Queen was back today, and she (he?) brought a friend along as well. (Rich pointed out that the male Queens probably have some gender issues!) I got this dorsal shot while the butterfly posed on my Black-Eyed Susan. Poor butterflies, they sure got blown around in the wind today!

New backyard visitor: Queen butterfly

June 1, 2007 - We started the month with a new visitor to our backyard. This is a Queen butterfly. From far off he looks like a Monarch, but upon closer inspection he’s much smaller, darker, and in my opinion, prettier! Here is is shown nectaring on my hummingbird bush.

New miniature roses

May 27, 2007 - The miniature roses at the garden center were so pretty that they just had to come home with me. I planted them in with my floribundas to add even more color to what is turning out to be a gorgeous flower bed. :)

Happy birthday, Squirt

May 24, 2007 - We celebrated Squirt’s birthday by planting flowers! He sat on the grill and supervised as we dug grass beside the patio. More pictures to come, but here’s what the car looked like as I got home from Lukas…