A Stormy Afterglow at Flower Hill Farm Retreat

It was a tempest shaking trees, tossing small branches and pouring down buckets of rain that only lasted for about ten minutes. Once the storm passed a completely arched rainbow stretched across the sky and the afterglow was a spectacle to behold. You can see more over at my Garden Blog.

A singing Veery caught in the middle of a trill. It was a thrill for this observer and you can learn more over at my garden blog. 

Milking Milkweed

A few of the wonderful creatures that milk milkweed are featured over at my garden blog.

A Bestiary: Tales from a Wildlife Garden Still Grows

Synchronicity and the Scarlet Tanager 

It is happening over at my garden blog and Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. 

Singing in the Rain Yellow Warbler Welcomes June

Singing for the rain. Finally. Happy June and may moisture lighten your load. 

Another sweet Yellow Warbler sings over at Flower Hill Farm Retreat

American Coppers Flying at Flower Hill Farm

I love seeing the tiny and brilliantly colored upper wings of the American Copper butterfly. They have a small habitat of cinquefoil for nectar and their host plant sheep-sorrell growing in our south field.

Please visit my garden blog to see more photos and read more of the story. Goodbye May. Happy June to everyone.

Native Bees and Wasps in the Gardens

I have pulled together a compilation of native bees and wasps sighted in the gardens of Flower Hill Farm from 2014 just as this years bees are about to begin buzzing around the unfurling blooms on our hillside habitat. 

The collection is a diverse one of beneficial native pollinators and you can see it over at my website's garden blog. Along with photos and identification, I have shared a few interesting tales of survival unique to some of the species of the Apidae family. 

Butterflies in the Gardens of Flower Hill Farm 2014

The butterfly season of twenty-fourteen was great but a bit down from the previous years. I did sight a few new species and added them to my list. I hope you can visit my main blog to see some of the families of  butterflies that visited our gardens last year. Cheers to a great butterfly season for 2015!

Bronze Copper 

Metamorphosis of Monarchs and Swallowtails from 2014

I hope you can visit my blog and scroll through last summer's memories of metamorphosis.

http://caroldukeflowers.com/metamorphosis-of-butterflies-from-2014/

Nighttime Beauties ~ Barred Owl

The more often nighttime stirring Barred Owls Strix varia, may have been howling and hooting as year-round residents on this Western Massachusetts hillside for more than 11,000 years . . .  

Dear Readers, if you would like to see more photos and continue reading the story about this Barred Owl encounter, please visit my main  wildlife and garden blog.