Around 2:00 this afternoon while working on a project, I glanced at the window of my second-floor office and saw a tiny odonate hovering outside looking in. The abdomen was very slender, and the creature had the delicate appearance of a damselfly. Face, thorax, and abdomen all looked yellow-orange. I looked closely at the thorax and face thinking it might be a Citrine, but those parts of the body were the same color, or close to the same color, as the abdomen. I didn’t notice black on the segments, but there might have been some. The tip of the abdomen was slightly clubbed and looked slightly more intensely colored than the rest.
Butterflies
My first yard Pearl Crescent and a Tiger Swallowtail (yellow form) were flying in the garden. The swallowtail nectared on the several Swamp Milkweed plants.
There was a Checkered White in the yard late this morning. I almost missed it. Chuck and I were listening to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” when I saw a white butterfly come into the yard. I always pick up the binoculars to check what always turns out to be a Cabbage White, and I thought “another Cabbage White—do I really need to use the binoculars on this one?” But I used them, it wasn’t what I thought, and here it is:
Two weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be watering my hardy native perennials. Most of the plants seemed to be tolerating the extreme heat well, but when the Monarda fistulosa blooms began turning brown only a few days after blooming, I gave in and turned on the sprinkler.
On June 24, there were two Great Spangled Fritillaries in the yard nectaring on Echinacea purpurea. This morning there was another (or one of the two I saw three days ago), also nectaring on the coneflower.
What’s blooming
Flowers, wild and not
Alcea sp.
Aquilegia sp. (just barely!)
Asclepias syriaca
Asclepias tuberosa
Blephilia ciliata
Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’
Coreopsis verticillata (unknown variety)
Echinacea paradoxa
Echinacea purpurea
Erysimum capitatum
Glandularia canadensis
Monarda fistulosa
Monarda sp. (red ornamental variety)
Oenothera speciosa (pink)
Penstemon digitalis
Pontederia cordata
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
Senna marilandica
Talinum calycinum
Tradescantia sp.
feral petunia
Shrubs
Hibiscus syriacus
Grasses
Chasmanthium latifolium
Elymus (virginicus? hystrix?)
Panicum virgatum
Getting ready to bloom
The button bush has six buds on it (I had resigned myself to waiting another year for it to bloom). Joe Pye has buds, as do Swamp and Purples Milkweeds.
