It’s a Zoo Out There, Part 2

By Jim | Published July 26, 2017




In the previous post, I highlighted one of the wonderful “zoo butterflies” visiting the purple coneflowers in my rural Missouri butterfly garden over the past week (if you missed that post, you can find it at this link: “It’s a Zoo Out There, Part 1”). Today’s post features another “zoo creature”, the beautiful Zebra Swallowtail […]

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It’s a Zoo Out There, Part 1

By Jim | Published July 24, 2017




I was hoping to have some new images of dragonflies to post today, but I’ve not seen any around my rural Missouri butterfly garden over the past few days. I don’t know if the extremely hot temperatures are causing them to lay low, or I’ve just not been in the garden at the right time. […]

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Fun Friday: Pollinator at Work

By Jim | Published July 21, 2017




With our extremely hot temperatures, I have not been out much for photography lately. But I do manage to make an occasional walk-through of my butterfly garden, right outside my front door and in beautiful bloom right now! During my walk-through yesterday, I did find some pollinators busy at work: I’ve also seen a couple […]

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A Cat in the Garden

By Jim | Published July 19, 2017




Today I’m featuring another notable find from my recent butterfly garden tour at a wonderful butterfly garden near Paola, Kansas. A couple of butterfly caterpillars (“cats”) were busy feeding on one of the garden plants as I walked the path through the garden. These caterpillars will soon become beautiful Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) butterflies: In […]

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A Cautious Widow Skimmer

By Jim | Published July 17, 2017




While touring a wonderful butterfly garden near Paola, Kansas last week, I found a somewhat wary Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa) dragonfly, “hiding” behind a stem on the plant he was perched in: Moving slowly, I was able to move to my right to get an image from a slightly different angle: A short time later, […]

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Fun Friday: Monarch & Rattlesnake Interaction

By Jim | Published July 14, 2017




The local Missouri Master Gardener group I’m a member of had a great week. On Wednesday morning we met and drove to a wonderful butterfly garden that a nearby Kansas Master Gardener established many years ago. We had a very educational tour from the local butterfly expert, learning much about the butterflies and the plants. […]

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Fun Friday: Beautiful in Black

By Jim | Published June 30, 2017




While in Des Moines last weekend for the annual art show, I made some time to drive to the nearby Neil Smith NWR to photograph wildflowers and wildlife. One of the highlights was finding and photographing Ebony Jewell-winged Damselflies. I had found a ton of these beauties when in town last year; this year there […]

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Do the Dew!

By Jim | Published June 28, 2017




Back from Des Moines. It was a mixed bag. Spent a day at the Neil Smith NWR, with the highlight of capturing images of some Ebony Jewel-Wing Damselflies … a blog post with some images is forthcoming. Then, wonderful weather! After a rather warm day on Thursday, a cold front passed overnight and Friday thru […]

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Fun Friday: How Bees Make Honey

By Jim | Published May 19, 2017




Yesterday morning, I decided to go check out Snowball Hill Prairie, a wonderful prairie remnant near my rural Missouri home. This past winter, the Missouri Prairie Foundation (MPF) did a controlled burn on the remaining half of the prairie (the first half was burned in the winter of 2016) and I wanted to see what […]

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Fun Friday … From the Vault

By Jim | Published April 28, 2017




Today’s “Fun Friday” post comes from the “vault”, and features a wonderful, Green Metallic Bee that is busy pollinating one of my favorite prairie wildflowers … the Spiderwort. I have been away from blogging for about a week, due to a very hectic schedule.  Last weekend I had a booth in the Stillwater Art Show […]

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