Squirrel Sunday......

My little guy was all worn out from the Squirrel Olympics.

(This wonderful animated photo of one squirrel giving another a backrub ....(it didn't stay animated, but you get the idea)....came to me in an email and apparently was created by Happy Toast) While he's getting a backrub, we'll go visiting.

Across town at my in-laws they have Grey Squirrels as well as Fox Squirrels!
So even though he's a bit shy here, hiding behind his tail, we'll look in for a visit.

Maybe this is sort of like the story of the "Country Mouse and the Town Mouse"
The Country Squirrel lives with me, and the Town Squirrel lives in town (where else?)

He seemed a bit startled to have someone standing below the tree taking his picture, but posed very prettily for me.

......but he stayed on alert, all the same!

Ummm.....if he's going to be a guest star he needs to get a bit more active.

He really just didn't show much interest at all in stardom!

Oh, well......I tried. I'll visit him again some day and see if he's livened up any.

I know that my father-in-law feeds them very well. He was just a bit shy, being the first time I photographed him.

Butterfly Beauty from the Arboretum.....

I'm not good at identifying butterflies, so I will just post these for their beauty.

Sky Watch Friday......

(New nature posts below)

Time for another Steeple post .......#2 Light breaking through the clouds of darkness

This one has a clock

Modern

Anchor.......hope!

I like this one and have driven by and never noticed the anchor until I started collecting steeples :-)

For more Skywatch Friday posts click on the link of my sidebar. There is always something interesting in the sky to see......what do you see when you look up?

More bees than you ever wanted to see.....

I was really fascinated by these huge Carpenter Bees! Here the one with the short wings has them spread. Maybe they look short because it has such a big abdomen! I also included this because of the white passion flower. They rubbed under every anther of every passion flower there!
I learned that the faces are different....this one has that light spot and I think that makes it male.

This one's face is all black and I think that is female

They loved these pink flowers as much as the passion flowers.

Watching them hang all over them in different positions was really intersting.

I also like the way the wings sort of pick up the color of whichever type of flower they are on.....sometimes looking pinkish and sometimes purple.

This is a favorite.....I like how he "hugs" the bloosom while burying his face in it!

Pinkish looking wings

I probably took at least 50 pictures of these bees. I went there looking for butterflies...which I will post tomorow.....but the bees were far more fascinating for some reason!

Bee Question....wings

I took a zillion pictures at the Hartman Arboretum today of bees, butterflies, caterpillars, flowers. When I got to looking at the bees on the computer I wondered about their wings. This first bee seems to have very short dark wings....
.....these appear to be longer.

Here are two together. Is this just an illusion from the way they are folded, or is there a difference in the wing size? I know very little about bees. These guys were all over the flowers and particularly liked these Passion Flowers where they rubbed underneath the anthers and covered themselves with the pollen. Sort of a "bee" shower head :-)

Birds, bees, hopper, plants.....end of summer style

The downys still come every day.

OK....apparently Goldfinches eat ANYTHING! Now they are picking at the flowers on this Honeyvine.

If it has a seed.......they'll try it.

My Wren showed up briefly......a pleasant surprise! I hadn't seen any of them for awhile.

Obedience Plant......I used to have a lot of these, but they have gotten choked out by other stuff or died for some other reason, because now I only have one or two.

I like they way they twist and turn to get to the sun and appreciate their cheerful color in the late summer when everything else seems to be dying.

The Live-Forever is just beginning to turn color. They attract a lot of bees, butterflies and other critters, so this year I will be watching them with the heightened awareness that blogging has brought to me.

One little white butterfly found them already!

A pretty moth in the grass. Don't know its name.

Cicada shells everywhere! Even on the old rusty basketball goal pole!

I remember as a kid how we would go around collecting them. Somehow it wasn't as much fun today......must be because my "best friend", Vicky wasn't here to do it with me.

Hopper in the grass. I seem to stir them up everywhere I walk both at home and at the wetlands.

Ode to a Thistle in pictures....

What can I say? I'm indecisive and couldn't decide which pictures to post.

So, I'll just call this a tribute to the thistle. Mine at home is going to seed quickly and I loved the little fluffs!

The rest of these were from later at the wetlands.