The not so lucky Gulf Fritillary caterpillars
Yesterday I posted the life cycle of a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, the first one we spotted on the passionflower vine. It is currently...
The Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar
As you know from earlier posts, we have a passionflower plant growing above one of the gates to the backyard and patio. It is a...
Anna's hummingbird and the salvia
Here is an Anna's hummingbird approaching one of the salvia plants in the afternoon. As you can see, it gets very bright here in the...
California Carpenter Bee visiting Coreopsis Grandiflora patch
I'm starting to see more carpenter bees visiting the garden. This California Carpenter Bee female Xylocopa californica was very...
Summer Long Horned Bee sleeping in the sunflower
Last week when I came home from work in the early evening I discovered this Summer Long-Horned male bee Melissodes robustior sleeping on...
Hover flies and cosmos blossoms
Sometimes those hover flies just seem to be everywhere I look in the native garden. They are very attracted to the cosmos blossoms. And...
Climbing aster is growing
The Carolina climbing aster Aster carolinianus is growing very well. We planted it, as a seedling, this year in March (see image below),...
Little skipper on a buckwheat flower head
I spotted this lovely little male common checkered-skipper pyrgus communis on one of the buckwheat plant flower heads. It is a very...
Rolling in the California Poppy
Ah, here is another yellow-faced bumble bee bombus vosnesenskii collecting pollen from a California poppy. These bees are so much fun to...
Inspiring UK video about attractiveness of garden plants to bees and other insects
Very inspiring UK video! So true about lambs ears - I always observe mostly wool carder bees on the flowers, and the males are VERY...
