No Waste Here!

Today’s post features a fun image I captured a few years ago on a dew-covered Dorsett Hill Prairie (west-central Missouri). The Thread-waisted Wasp is an interesting find. With it’s uniquely long and very slim “waist”, this is a larger and nonsocial wasp. The Thread-waisted Wasp is an ambush attacker, immobilizing insect prey with a swift […]

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Swallowtails in the Garden

Today’s post features a few of the many Swallowtail butterflies that have been busy in the Monarch butterfly garden I designed this spring at the Lake of the Ozarks: Although this butterfly garden is new, and small, it has been very successful this first year.  With more plantings planned for fall and again next spring, […]

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Keeping the Species Alive

As you may know, Monarch butterfly numbers have been declining the past few years. In the new butterfly garden that I put in at the Lake of the Ozarks this spring is flourishing with Monarchs.  Here are a few of my favorite images captured recently in this garden. Monarchs busy laying eggs: Monarch butterfly eggs […]

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Fun Friday: “Squid” Spider

Caution, Acracnoids … Spider Ahead!!! Today’s blog post features an unidentified species of spider I found on a Tropical Milkweed leaf, while photographing butterflies at the new butterfly garden at the Lake of the Ozarks (MO).  My first reaction was it looked like a very small, land-based squid! If you are an entomologist, or know […]

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Tropical Monarchs

Today’s post features some images I captured this past week at a new butterfly garden on the Lake of the Ozarks (MO). When this butterfly garden was set up earlier this year, several species of milkweed were grown/planted, to attract the Monarch butterfly. It is rare to walk through this garden and not see any […]

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Small, White Beauty

Today’s post features another wildflower I found along the trails of Ha Ha Tonka State Park (Missouri). I’m pretty sure this little, white beauty is Rue Anemone, but welcome any correction I may have made to this ID. While hiking the Natural Bridge Trail this spring, I found lots of different woodland wildflowers along the […]

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