I have been so pleased with all the cats in my yard.  But now they keep disappearing. There had been 5 on my rue.  As of this morning I could only see one, then a couple hours later it couldn't be found.  There are two more tiny ones though. Out of 7 on the dill I could only find 5 this morning. They are still very small but at least are eating well! Looks like next season I need to set up my own little butterfly housing. the second photo, shows the black swallowtail cat sticking out its stink horn at me..you can see he whipped his head around too, as I just barely touched the end of the abdomen. Yes I touched his butt.  There is also supposed to be a nasty scent with that is to repel predators.

A female black swallowtail. So beautiful!

A purple aster.                                 

This is a new ant deterent on top of my hummingbird feeder. I really didn't believe it would work.  But apparently ants travel in one direction, even though it leads to certain doom.  It's quite a trip just to get to the inside, where there is water to drown them.  Anyhow, what I couldn't figure out at first is why all the ants end up in one big dead clump. Then I realized the one on top of the heap was still alive. Sooooo it appears that they try to climb onto other ants to try to save themselves?!   And there aren't any ants in the hummingbird feeder.  woohoo!

And here's the beauty of the day. A red spotted purple!   This was much more fun then the raking and shoveling of the silt covering part of my yard, and carrying buckets of sticks.

Another hummingbird moth photo. I can't help but be fascinated by them! Oh speaking of hummingbirds, while I'd not seen the territorial male for awhile, I have seen a female the past two days.  She doesn't hang out as much, but she quickly makes her round over the yard, taking quick sips at the flowers and the feeder.

A grackle. I get a few of those. I don't mind them as much as the DAMN startlings, cowbirds, and house sparrows.  Ugh. Sparrows...I've had flocks of sparrows, especially house sparrows in the yard lately. With a few young cowbirds among them.  

A goldfinch feeding on coneflower seeds. I've had these for a few years now, and they haven't always grown as well as they should. I think I'll plant more next Spring since the birds like them so much (and they ARE pretty). But I'll have to do more work to the ground, I suspect, for them to grow more reliably. And protect them when they are young from the other animals.  Seems some of them, like the groundhog, likes the tender leaves when they first start out of the ground. I had a few in the butterfly garden I'd planted this year that never got beyond the first few leaves because someone kept eating them.

Hate to tell this one that the punk look is out!

Even the birds give me attitude

A cardinal looking a bit ragged.  I think this is a young one coming into his colors. There's been a whole family of them visiting, usually in the afternoon and several of them look raggedy.

The other morning on my way home from work I happened to look up and saw a turkey vulture on a highway light, hsi wings spread out, catching the early morning sun. It was an awesome sight.  I wish there would have been a place to pull over and get a photo of it. 

Someone finally gave me some input and suggestions on what to do about the yard the eroding bank after the flash flooding. A few things I'd already figured out, but it's even nice having ones own thoughts confirmed.  And  some times having someone else's opinion really is helpful.  Now I need to figure out a way to talk some people into 'wanting' to help do some heavy duty manual labor.  Yea that'll happen, right?  But I've got to get a lot of rock moved.

My irises are still rather buried in sand and silt.  I wasn't sure if I was going to try to dig them up, and decided this morning to give it a try. It's near impossible since they are under more then a foot of sand/silt/pebbles, and as I dig around the plants, it all slides back into the hole.  Frustrating. Thought about giving up, and wondering if it was way too early to try this. But reading up on it seems like time is actually running out to do this as they should then be put back in the ground with a couple months before the first frost.  I promised my boss some of these so I guess I should try again!  :D

Seems the squirrel has the same problem. I was watching the female trying to bury peanuts today.  While squirrels generally aren't picky about where they bury their goods, and are known to do a poor job of it, this new layer on the yard seems to concern even her.  She'll dig a hole, look at it, and scamper to another area, dig again, and abandon that one.  Usually by the third time she'll bury it.  Poor overworked momma squirrel!