silhouette

This red bellied woodpecker was working its way up a dead tree.  Looking for bugs maybe.

 

More Fall flowers

Some late summer/fall flowers are bright but smaller like this cardinal flower.

And this Jewelweed.

 

Fall flowers

There are plenty of late summer/fall flowers blooming.  

Some are bright and large and hard to miss.  This one is called Spanish Needles.

This beauty is called Partridge pea.

Passion

This purple passion flower seems very exotic.  But it's native to North Carolina.

The fruit is not quite ready to pick.

 

Do not hook turtles!

This sign was posted on the fishing pier at Durant Nature Park.  You'd think that you wouldn't need to be told that, but the turtles hang out around the pier.  Probably looking for a hand out.

 

Is it a bird? or is it a moth?

I really did think it was a hummingbird at first.  And then it just looked so scary I didn't want to get near it.

It's a Hummingbird Moth (see here)

 

Mean trees

I can see where JRR Tolkien got the idea for the Ents.  These trees look like very crabby old men...

 

Dragoncopter

This dragonfly sat waiting to take off like a helicopter on a landing pad.  She's an Eastern Pondhawk (see here).  

 

Grasshopper

This guy looks like Jimminy Cricket to me.  Even though he's a grasshopper not a cricket.  

 

Inside looking out

The view from inside the Lathe house at the J C Raulston Arboretum.

 

Halloween already?

The Halloween decorations are out at Home Depot already. 

Some of them are cute.

Some are not so cute.

This one growls and threatens anyone walking by.

 

Sidewalk art

Art can be found anywhere.

These lovely pictures appeared on the neighborhood sidewalks

     

This one's my favorite.

 

Tithonia

 

I'm beginning to love Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia. see here)   This one is so tall that I see the underside of the flower instead of the top.  It's nice either way.

Which way is up?

The pond was so still that it was hard to tell which was the reflection and which was the original.  Flip it over and see what you think...

 

Folded umbrellas

The observation platforms overlooking the pond at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation look lonely.

 

Nature power

The Prairie Ridge Ecostation has a little solar/wind farm.  40 panels and one turbine might power the office if they're conservative.  Every little bit helps.

 

Berries

I've never been able to capture the exact color of the berries on the American Beautyberry bush.  They almost glow with purple.

See here.

Supposedly the Poke weed plant is poisonous, with the berries being especially toxic.  The forest service website then says they're an important food source for birds.  How does that work?

See here.

 

Late summer fly-away

Late summer fades into early fall.  The flowers of summer become the seeds flying in the fall.

 

Brown-headed Nuthatch

This tiny little nuthatch was busily moving up and down the birdfeeder.  (see here)

 

Plant help

PlantNet is a great app that helps identify plants.  Take a picture, load it up and it searches for the closest match.

This beauty is a native hibiscus called Rose Mallow.

 

Geocache

Almost anything can go in a geocache.  The snakeskin was an added surprise.

 

Bumble

We see a lot of bumble bees in the garden, but not many honey bees.  This guy was chowing down on a Mexican sunflower.

 

Football season at the grocery store

These semi-scary displays were ready at the grocery store for all the chips, pretzels and cheese balls that make up football season.  

 

Invaders vs invasive

Suddenly, I'm seeing these beautiful bugs on my butterfly milkweed.  They're everywhere on it, crawling all over the seedpods I've been watching, hoping for seeds to extend my milkweed patch.  It turns out they're Milkweed bugs (see here).  They don't hurt the plant.  They don't damage any monarch eggs.  Their sole purpose is to destroy the seeds of the milkweed.  In nature, that keeps the potentially invasive milkweed seeds from spreading everywhere.  I hope they leave enough for me.

Patterns

The agave above and the yucca below look like mathematical patterns.  I'll bet if you could count each spiral it would match the Fibonacci series. 

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,...

Anyone want to count?

 

Grandfather Crepe Myrtle

This Japanese Crepe Myrtle is one of the first ever planted outside of Japan.  It was planted in the 1950's.

 

More Butterflies

Monarch

Black swallowtail

 

All of a sudden, butterflies

Walking through the arboretum, we saw a lot of bees and flowers.

But no butterflies.  When we came to the native plant section, the butterflies were everywhere.

 

Alien?

As the bud of this hydrangea opened it looked like some kind of alien with slitted eyes and a big jaw.

The opened flowers were a bit other worldly too.

 

Agave

I was looking for plants to show off the wall behind.  But this agave is beautiful all on its own.  I liked the shape.

 

Weathered

I really liked the weathered wooden wall.