Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies ... hundreds!

School is out so it is back to work on our farm.  A few pictures to get the summer started ...  We have had hundreds of Great Spangled Fritilliaries over the past two weeks on our farm.  They love our butterfly weed ... and Chloes poop!  This weekend I saw two Monarch butterflies ... a male and a female ... both in hurry gliding in a large colony of common milkweed ... which is beginning to bloom.

We are seeing the first worker bumble bees working the hairy vetch and dutch clover in the field behind our house and milkweed.

Below ... our little yard rabbit, Tennessee coneflower blooming and a Silvery Checkerspot.

We support:
Round House, Jeans and Workware, Made in the USA for 112 years.
http://www.round-house.com/
Red Pig Tools, Garden tools, Made in the USA.
http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/StoreFront
FEDCO, Co-op Garden Supplies, Seeds, Trees and Bulbs
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
Johnny's Selected Seeds and Garden Tools
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Roundstone Native Seed ... A Kentucky Company!
https://www.roundstoneseed.com/
Prairie Moon Nursery, Native Seeds and Plants
https://www.prairiemoon.com/
Kelley's Beeskeeping ... A Kentucky Company! ... at least for now.
http://www.kelleybees.com/
and these organizations ...
Xerces Society
Journey North
Monarch Watch
Firefly Watch - Museum of Science, Boston
Sierra Club

Blackberry winter, Tulip Poplars and Yarrow

Wildflower Update: This evening I was able to get a few pictures of tulip poplar blooms ... first with a ladybird beetle ...

 

Ir was a blackberry winter last week with lows in the 40's.  A heavy blackberry bloom this year in areas where I did not bushhog earlier in the spring.

 







The yarrow is blooming ... I love their fern-like foliage.

We have some large patches of a non-native plant, ox-eye daisies.  I have used their seed pattern in class as an example of fibonacci numbers in nature.

Pollinators and Wildlife:  We saw our first fireflies this week.  I am not sure we have any first generation bumble bees yet.  Lots of swallowtails but still no Monarchs sighted and no sign of larva on our milkweed plants (one colony below).  I have seen a few kingbirds working near our house.

Work on the Farm: I have put more supers on our honeybee hives.  We planted seven acres of wildflowers near Long Creek.  It is part of a ten year pollinator program with the Fish and Wildlife Department.  It took two evenings because it was a five foot no-till drill.  We are needing rain but it appears it is on the way this weekend.

Star-of-Bethlehem in our front yard around some trees ... left over from an old homestead.

We support:
Round House, Jeans and Workware, Made in the USA for 112 years.
http://www.round-house.com/
Red Pig Tools, Garden tools, Made in the USA.
http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/StoreFront
FEDCO, Co-op Garden Supplies, Seeds, Trees and Bulbs
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
Johnny's Selected Seeds and Garden Tools
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Roundstone Native Seed ... A Kentucky Company!
https://www.roundstoneseed.com/
Prairie Moon Nursery, Native Seeds and Plants
https://www.prairiemoon.com/
Kelley's Beeskeeping ... A Kentucky Company! ... at least for now.
http://www.kelleybees.com/
and these organizations ...
Xerces Society
Journey North
Monarch Watch
Firefly Watch - Museum of Science, Boston
Sierra Club