Wednesday, August 23, 2017,
Another Monarch Butterfly on another flower. And yet another time that Sue Avery has come through and identified the flower here. Trust me, without Sue’s help this is just an orange bug on a yellow flower. Check out her blog, The Tangled Wood. She writes very well, without any of that wiseguy stuff you find at other blogs, namely this one. JK.
Monday, August 21, 2017,
This is, I think, a Bumblebee. It’s hovering over some Lavender. I am not crazy about Lavender. It’s pretty but it smells too much like laundry detergent for my tastes. JK
Tuesday, August 15, 2017,
This is a Monarch Butterfly. That was the easy part: Even I know what a Monarch Butterfly looks like. What I needed help with was the identification of those cool orange flowers. Luckily, I know an expert in all things green and growing. My friend Sue Avery, writer of the blog The Tangled Wood, identified this plant as Butterfly Weed. Apparently, these flowers attract all sorts of butterflies, not just Monarchs. They’re a real crowd pleaser. JK
Saturday, July 29, 2017,
This bad boy is not a boy. It’s a female Halloween Pennant. How do I know this? Am I an expert on dragonflies? No, but I do know someone who is. Three years ago I needed help identifying a dragonfly I had seen on the south shore.A friend of mine put me in touch with an expert from the New York Dragonfly and Damselfly Survey. Annette made the identification and I came out sounding informed. This is not an easy trick. I reached out to her after I took this photo and Annette was gracious enough to help me out again. When she’s not bailing out clueless photographers, Annette is involved with the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society as well as writing several blogs, one of which has to do with dragonflies. I invite all of you to visit her at Dragonfly Dazed. She takes wonderful photographs of these very cool insects. JK
Monday, June 19, 2017,
This is a White Slant-line Moth on a Dame’s Rocket. I am not making that up. I mean, White Slant-line? For real? How boring is that? I looked up the guy that named this beautiful moth and it turns out he was a lawyer, so maybe that explains it. Hard to say.
Now, Dame’s Rocket, that’s a moniker and a half. I got nothing to say about that, except maybe, Vrrooom! Clearly, the person that named this pretty little flower is much more interesting than the moth guy.
I’d like to thank my good friend Sue Avery for identifying both the moth and the purple flowers. Sue has been my main go-to expert for anything botanical for the past year. Sue has her own blog, The Tangled Wood, which is really beautifully written. Check her out, you won’t be disappointed. None of that wiseguy stuff that you find here, Just wonderful prose and some very nice photographs. JK