Berry Brunch

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Tina

This arching, medium-sized shrub, an American Beautyberry, Calicarpa americana, is laden with luscious purple berries, though the berries won’t be on their stems for long.

Beautyberries are food for a host of critters, but in my garden, it’s mostly mammals and birds who love these ridiculously purple fruits. Recently I watched as a couple of young, peckish male House Finches spent time enjoying the fruits of the shrub’s labors.

As I observed their brunch munching, I didn’t think they were particularly messy eaters, but I guess berry parts and juice will get stuck on beaks.

I like this shot. It looks like the berry is speared onto the bottom of the bird’s beak. Well, who hasn’t had that problem?

Late summer, moving toward autumn, many berrying native plants here in Central Texas reach their zenith in food production and beauty. I grow only one beautyberry shrub, but two Roughleaf Dogwood trees, Cornus drummondii, have their homes in my garden. The older, larger tree’s berries ripened in August and were quickly made into meals, stems now reaching out as if they miss their spherical hats.

The younger, smaller tree still offers a few clusters of creamy fruits.

I find it challenging to get clear photos of birds as they dine at the dogwoods. Birds tend to stay in the center of the trees, reaching up or out to snatch the fruits. Plenty of foliage for hiding and nervous bird movements mean that the trees have their fruits stripped, while birds are relatively safe from prying eyes (and cameras) as they eat. This year, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, and European Starlings were the most frequent diners of the dogwoods’ treats

While it’s a win to catch decent photos of nibbling birds, I’m content to observe wildlife eating healthy, native berries from my garden. After all, feeding the wild things is why I plant what I plant!

Hot August Pollinators

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Tina

It’s been good, this summer of 2024, with less extreme heat and drought than summers of the past decade. With only brief flirtations of over 100 F (searing, but of relatively short duration), plus bouts of welcomed rain in between, the garden and its inhabitants have flourished. August is always hot, dog-days and such, but pollinators are in their prime, busily working the hot August blooms.

My last post profiled the emergence of newly adult Black Swallowtail butterflies from my garden’s supply of the host plant, fennel. I also grow White-veined Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia fimbriata, which is an excellent host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor.

This beauty drifted from flower to flower, settling on a fiery Pride of Barbados for this nectaring session. The snowy Frostweed in the background also saw visits from the Pipevine.

Spring bloomers are nearly done and those that are hanging on into late summer are tired, much like this cluster of Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. Their weariness didn’t lessen the attraction for a Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, though. It sipped, then flit–as butterflies will–before moving on to its next snack.

Most of the sunny summer sunflowers are spent, having segued from providing rich nectar and plenty of pollen, to offerings for birds and mammals in the form of seeds. There are a few flowers open for pollinator business and our honeybees never miss a trick when it comes to open flowers.

My Rock Rose, Pavonia lasiopetala, shrubs have flowered non-stop since early May. A garish, Barbie-pink bloom, some gardeners don’t care for the flowers, but I love this plant, as do a wide variety of pollinators, like this Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus,

…and this Clouded Skipper, Lerema accius.

Bordered Patch, Chlosyne lacinia, are everywhere this latter part of summer! Since I grow many plants in the Aster family, these cuties have plenty of host plant material to nurture their young into adulthood. The adults, like many butterfly species, will nectar on scores of flowers. The garden is a win for this showy winged thing!

Recently, Queen butterflies, Danaus gilippus, have re-appeared in spades after an early summer lull. This one, along with several of its look-alike buddies, enjoyed the bounty of the Mexican Orchid tree blooms.

A cousin butterfly, one single Monarch butterfly, also visited my garden. I only spotted it for one day; I assume it’s an early migrant, headed to its winter quarters in Mexico. In the next months, I will see more of both kinds of butterflies as autumn approaches.

Summer brings breeding hummingbirds to Central Texas, and the females and juveniles remain until serial cool fronts encourage the tiny birds southward. There’s a good deal of zooming and chasing happening now, territorial disputes that are entertaining, but frustrating to photograph.

This female Black-chinned Hummingbird, Archilochus alexandri, stopped to re-fuel with some Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii. Stopped is not the correct word; maybe slowed down is a better description of the hovering motion as it fed from the crimson cap.

Busy as the pollinators are, buzzing, flying, or floating through the garden, sometimes pollinators need a rest.

As September is just around the corner, summer is rapidly closing its oven doors. Oh sure, there are warm days ahead–plenty of those to come–but days are shorter, rain chances are greater, and the first cool fronts, fleeting though they are, are merely weeks away. The garden, the gardener, and the wildlife will appreciate the changes that the season brings.

A New Day

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Tina

My new day starts before light with coffee in the catio, as the cats keep me company. They sniff the humid, warm morning while I sip and watch the dark sky turn pink and yellow at the horizon, beyond my oak trees. Then it’s play time inside with the cats, all wands-with-fluffy-feathers, jingly bells, and happy purrs. At some point, I’m in the back garden for the first round of look-sees in the morning sun, feeding the pond fish, and hanging a couple of bird feeders. Then, it’s time for the dog’s walk.

On a recent morning, if I’d been more alert during that first round in the garden, I would have seen two Black Swallowtail butterflies emerging from their temporary homes, the homes where they morphed from worms to wings. Alas, it was later in the morning, as their wings dried the the bright sun, and before take-off for their new day as adults, that I noticed and appreciated, their beauty.

The butterfly situated at the top of a fennel stem caught my attention first.

I neglected to include the whole of its now-open chrysalis in this photo, just like I neglected to take any photos of both chrysalises in the two weeks they were in chemical flux. That was my bad to miss documenting those jewels. The chrysalises are stunning and look like they are lit from within. Maybe they are.

I like this view of the same insect. It’s rare that a butterfly demonstrates the whole of its underside in my presence, without my having to twist and turn and crane my neck for a glimpse or photograph.

The second butterfly and its worm-to-wing home were stationed two stems over from the first.

You can see two drops of liquid settled on the stem, which spurted from the butterfly just before I snapped the photo. I assume this liquid is part of the chemical transformation from a caterpillar to a winged insect, and the reason why butterflies, after emergence from their chrysalises, must sit in the sun, opening and closing their wings until dry.

Shortly after I snapped photo, the butterfly took flight, to nectar and mate, to continue the cycle.