Facebook
X (Twitter)
Reddit
Pinterest
Tumblr
Delicious
LinkedIn
StumbleUpon
Posts Tagged: garden
A Monarch Kind of Day
What we've been waiting for all season... A migratory monarch butterfly fluttered into our Vacaville garden at noon today (Tuesday, Sept. 17)...
A female monarch nectaring on Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotunifola, in a Vacaville garden at noon, Sept. 17, 2024. At left is a territorial male longhorned bee, probably Melissodes agilis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The female monarch butterfly lifts off the Tithonia. This image was taken with a Nikon D500 with a 200mm macro lens. Settings: 1/4000 of a second; f-stop, 5.6; ISO 640.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The monarch descends, ready to head to another blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
She lifts up and away she goes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's Friday Fly Day: How About a Mexican Cactus Fly?
It's Friday Fly Day, when folks post images of flies. Flies seem to the entomological equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield's...
A black syrphid fly, a Mexican cactus fly, Copestylum mexicanum, foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Jackie-in-the-Box
In your childhood, somebody probably gave you a jack-in-the-box toy, a music box that you crank up, and then the lid springs opens and out pops...
A female praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, pops up between the petals of a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Surprise! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Halloween Surprise: A Migratory Monarch
It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween. If you haven't noticed, stores are gearing up for Halloween with assorted ghosts, goblins and ghouls...
A migrating monarch butterfly stops on Halloween, Oct. 31 to sip nectar from a milkweed in a Vacaville garden. She was on her way to an overwintering site in coastal California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The female monarch spreads her wings. She stopped in Vacaville on Halloween 2023 for some flight fuel while on her way to an overwintering site in coastal California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Battle Between a Butterfly and a Bee
So, here you are, a newly eclosed Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, eager to sip some nectar from a Mexican sunflower,...
A Western tiger swallowtail, aware that a territorial bee is about to attack, raises its tails to ward off the intruder. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Western tiger swallowtail begins to take flight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Western tiger swallowtail leaps off as the bee draws closer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Western tiger swallowtail escapes a hit by the longhorned bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
