Fiery Orange Rising Reflecting Giving Life

Unusual July Sunrise Just As It Was

Middle Meadow Garden

American Painted Lady sipping Echinacea 

Healing Flames

Long Awaited FIRST SIGHTING MONARCH BUTTERFLY!!! July 14, 2011

Laying Eggs on Young Milkweed Along the Paths! 

Milkweed Bugs and Monarch Share Milkweed 

Sunset Glow

Viburnum at Dusk

Full Moon 

Sunrise Solitary Red-eyed Vireo 

Beloved by Birds Viburnum Berries Soon to Vanish

Second Day More Eggs to Lay.  First . . . Morning Milkweed Nectaring 

Red Clover Elixir Energy Boost For Laying 300 - 500 Eggs!

Every New Day a Fresh Daylily Face Unfurls

Fiery Days and Colors of July

Oh Joy for Monarchs!
rain rain never went away
early flights detoured


For now dry hot days
timing right for egg planting
Milkweed stands ready


A wild garden smiles
no mimic here true monarch
soars as no other


Tired and tattered
strength to fulfill destiny
select plants of choice


Promise of new life
mother fastening last egg
flies away to die


A Painted Lady
tiny darts of fiery heat
Echinacea sweet


Sun moon rise and set
daylilies open and close
life is a moment

Warmth in Petals and Plumage

Yellow-orange warms the spirit shrouded in winter's icy mantle. I love the similarity in color and markings of the daylily and the female Baltimore Oriole. She was so cleverly stripping these reeds of grass, for finer fibers just right for her nest, when I took the photograph above looking through glass.

Her head is brownish black and speckled . . .

while her dapper partner dons a pure black hood.

            Summer sun rays fill a chalice of Hemerocallis.

Parents bend over backwards to care for their young.

Life is a challenge as little ones grow, playing catch up with adult size toes . . . wearing feathery crowns just above the ground . . .  while dangers throughout the gardens abound.

Papa flares up fanning out looming larger letting other males know. . . "This garden is not big enough for both of us!"

Thus I continue my offerings from this past summers bird count here at Flower Hill Farm. You can see the original posts by clicking on Baltimore Oriole in my labels to the right. I hope these bright colorful shots bring warmth to your spirits. May the hard freeze that has been bearing down on my southern blogging friends lift soon and leave you and your gardens to your usual temperate days and nights.