common_nature | Entries tagged with summer

The only birds of prey I see here in my tiny town in south-eastern Sweden are Red Kites (Milvus milvus). They're usually soaring far too high up and away over the forest to get acceptable photos of. This morning however a pair was kind enough to come down low enough I could take ( these... )

Current Mood: satisfied

blackcatofmisery

My mom's garden has a vigorous knock out rosebush just beside it, and various bees adore it. Although I'm severely allergic to bites and stings, I will still follow honey and bumble bees; they're too busy to care about me.

_{Fun fact about me: I cannot smell typical roses. Knockouts are the only roses I can smell.}

( Photos beneath the cut. )

Current Mood: relaxed

full_metal_ox

Taken on 21 June 2024 at 20:33 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time, as I hurried up the street through the break in the rain.

My limited equipment does the scene nothing even remotely resembling justice: neither the multi-layered gauzy rainbow-sherbet luminosity nor the grand theatricality of the skyscape, with the air of a vintage book illustration or a meticulously painted film backdrop. A detail I particularly like is the small dark cumulus cloud at bottom center that suggests a person astride a charging (pig? bear? huge dog?)

full_metal_ox

Taken on 16 July 2023 at 19:27 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Bunnies are of course going to favor weedy green lawns over elegant stone yards punctuated with waxy sculptural ornamentals. This one looks like an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus); Marsh Rabbits (S. palustris) (1), tend to have shorter ears, and my neighborhood strikes me as a bit too far from the water to attract them during the dry season.

It’s on alert, reacting sensibly to the arrival of a member of the deadliest of the Thousand, and so this was the only shot I was able to get before it went PATWINNNG! under the seagrape bed (the round-leaved shrub at center right, bordered by white river rocks.)

(1) Today I Learned the scientific name of the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvilagus_palustris_hefneri

Yes; that Hugh Hefner funded endangered rabbit research, and was commemorated accordingly.

ysabetwordsmith

I found a giant silk moth caterpillar crawling around a can on the patio. I love Saturniid moths. They get huge, and many look spectacular. Even their caterpillars are big and interesting. This one is about the size of my pinky finger, so it's probably a middle instar and still has a lot of growing to do. I'm really excited to see one of these guys. I expect the birds will be excited too -- these are the Polish sausages of the caterpillar pantry.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

blackcatofmisery

I'm hoping for some confirmation and/or information on this dude that's growing in my yard again. A tree used to be where it grows, but the tree never had visible fungi on it. When I did a Google search, other users shared similar photos that were said to be some kind of granadula.

( A bit of a close-up. )

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: United States Marine Band - The President's Own

turlough

Not far from where I live there's a dry, sunny slope and right now it's completely filled with bright orange Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale). It's an old garden flower here in southern Sweden and occasionally it seems to thrive in the wild too.

Click to enlarge:

sunny slope filled with large orange flowers

( more photos... )

Current Mood: good

nanila

We had a gorgeous and very obliging visitor in the house about a week ago. It took kindly to being gently shepherded back outside.

turlough

Butterflies usually move around too much to get good photos of them but this male Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) was nice enough to keep sitting on this flower long enough for me to get several nice photos of him. You can even see his proboscis, both curled up and straightened out.

Click to enlarge pictures:

small golden-brown butterfly on pale-striped flower

( one more picture... )

Current Mood: productive

turlough

The parents were circling suspiciously when I stopped and took this photo of three Common Gull chicks (Larus canus). Not that I could have reached them even if I had wanted to, they were high up on a roof, but try telling parents that!

Click to enlarge:

Current Mood: relaxed

nanila

Some people might call this "failing to mow the lawn properly". I like to call it "ensuring the local finch population has an adequate supply of thistle seed so I can take nice photos from just inside the back door".

nanila

We came across these mating brown argus butterflies with their furry butts smooshed together on our daily walk across the fields in Norfolk, UK. They seemed quite peaceful until...

Mating brown argus butterflies - with interloper!

...someone came along and tried to make it a threesome! The advances were firmly rebuffed.

earthspirits

( Light into Darkness )

nanila

I'm hopeful that someone with better knowledge of butterfly behaviour can tell me what's going on here. I think these two are going through a mating ritual. The female (below in this photo) is sitting quite still on the grass with her wings flat and abdomen raised perpendicular to the ground. The male was repeatedly bombarding her from above. I was trying to photograph them with quite a high shutter speed but because his "attacks" tended to buffet her, I lost focus 95% of the time. This was the best I could do. They tumbled off over a hedgerow before I could come to any certain conclusions about what was going on. So, er, are they preparing to mate? Or is something else going on?

Current Mood: puzzled

nanila

Today I spotted a new (to me) butterfly in our garden! At first I thought it was another gatekeeper, of which we have many, but then I realised that the sides of its wings had multiple spots rather than the single eye that gatekeepers' wings have.

Small coppers are not uncommon, but I've never seen one here (rural Worcestershire) before. I was under the impression their territory was further south. It makes sense with the unusually warm weather that they'd be spreading north. This one was a particularly vibrant specimen. \o/

nanila

We've got a newcomer in our garden! I know that painted lady butterflies do occasionally visit the UK Midlands, but I don't believe I've ever had more than a fleeting glimpse of one. I presume the prolonged heat wave is helping them to expand their range, as this one seems to have staked a claim here. Along with two very combative commas, a peacock, and a lot of cabbage whites, gatekeepers, and small tortoiseshells.

Current Mood: excited

nanila

Went for a long walk by the canal today and spotted these delicate blue bellflowers sprouting from a brick wall.

nanila

[Two ducklings, one facing the camera and one showing us its fluffy backside.]

Someone left the top gate on our canal lock open today and these two plus their four siblings got stuck at the far end of the lock next to the closed gate. They couldn't scramble out to meet their momma standing on the lock edge. I went out to chivvy her back toward the open gate, and luckily the ducklings trapped in the lock followed her all the way out the gate, which I shut behind them. All seem to be okay if a little peeved with me, and I can take it!

Profile

Common Nature

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Fall Leaves for ColorSide by branchandroot
Resources: Stock.XCHNG

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jan. 3rd, 2026 06:09 pm

Common Nature

wonder and joy and mystery in everyday things

Entries tagged with summer

kites in the sky

Knock Out Honey Bees

Sunset between storm fronts, en route to Publix and Walgreen’s.

Bunny caught in passing on the lawn.

Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar

Granadula Mushroom(?)

a profusion of poppies

Dragonfly

large skipper

fuzzy gull chicks

Goldfinch and thistle seed

Mating brown argus butterflies

Summer Solstice

Cabbage whites (mating?)

Small copper butterfly

Painted lady butterfly

Campanula (bellflower)

Ducklings

Profile

January 2026

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags