This weekend was full of unexpected visitors. Our first visitor was rather unwelcome, a large red fox that snatched three chickens out of the yard in the middle of the day. The rest of the chickens are now locked in the pen indefinitely, until the fox decides to move on and eat someone else's chickens.
Our next visitor was this big fat toad, that seemed quite happy to munch bugs in my flower beds. i've been hearing him in there for a while, but he just finally made his appearance this weekend.
The kids love toads and frogs, and Sage insisted this one was a froggy. After correcting her several times and explaining that it was actually a toad, i finally gave up and called it a froggy. She looked up at me and replied, a froggy-toad? lol. The toads around here are all a pretty rust red color, and i'm guessing they might be stained from the red clay soil. It stains everything. :)
We were also visited by a lovely Buckeye butterfly. i don't see these very often, and this is only the second one i've ever photographed. It hung around for quite a while, sunning itself in the driveway.
Another visitor was this lovely Painted lady butterfly. We tend to see a lot of these during the summer, but this was one of the first i've seen recently. Now that we have had rain, the butterflies have begun to swarm. We've been seeing a ton of fritillaries, and the swallowtails and brushfoots have just begun to show up. We haven't seen the monarchs yet, but they should be coming soon. The milkweed and orange butterfly weed is in full bloom everywhere.
Our last visitors were honeybees. Lots and lots of them. Buzzing about the garden, pollinating our squashes and pumpkins and cucumbers. With all the talk of disappearing honeybees, we were very happy to see so many happily buzzing about. These busy bees were packed inside a female zucchini flower, hopefully ensuring pollination and lots of tasty zucchini. Unlike the fox, these are the visitors that we welcome.
Our next visitor was this big fat toad, that seemed quite happy to munch bugs in my flower beds. i've been hearing him in there for a while, but he just finally made his appearance this weekend.
The kids love toads and frogs, and Sage insisted this one was a froggy. After correcting her several times and explaining that it was actually a toad, i finally gave up and called it a froggy. She looked up at me and replied, a froggy-toad? lol. The toads around here are all a pretty rust red color, and i'm guessing they might be stained from the red clay soil. It stains everything. :)
We were also visited by a lovely Buckeye butterfly. i don't see these very often, and this is only the second one i've ever photographed. It hung around for quite a while, sunning itself in the driveway.
Another visitor was this lovely Painted lady butterfly. We tend to see a lot of these during the summer, but this was one of the first i've seen recently. Now that we have had rain, the butterflies have begun to swarm. We've been seeing a ton of fritillaries, and the swallowtails and brushfoots have just begun to show up. We haven't seen the monarchs yet, but they should be coming soon. The milkweed and orange butterfly weed is in full bloom everywhere.
Our last visitors were honeybees. Lots and lots of them. Buzzing about the garden, pollinating our squashes and pumpkins and cucumbers. With all the talk of disappearing honeybees, we were very happy to see so many happily buzzing about. These busy bees were packed inside a female zucchini flower, hopefully ensuring pollination and lots of tasty zucchini. Unlike the fox, these are the visitors that we welcome.
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