Back from Baltimore
In order to escape from the heat, I went to my sister’s in Baltimore. Going from New York to Baltimore might not make sense on the surface, but my sister lives in a suburban neighborhood and she has trees and central air-conditioning. While I was down there, I took some pictures. I also saw a Short Tailed Shrew, but I was unable to get a picture.
The plant is a swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) but I’m not certain of the butterfly. It’s a skipper of some sort. I’d say an Indian Skipper (Hesperia Sassacus), but I’m not sure.
These are the flowers in the neighbor’s yard. He does such a great job with the garden.
The flowers attract a lot of both bumble bees and honey bees.
Not the world’s clearest picture, but there is a Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) in the lavender.
We have a lot of Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) around.
Originally, I thought this was a Spicebush Swallowtail, but on closer inspection I think it is a black form of the Tiger Swallowtail.
A Spicebush butterfly would have made me happy because we planted a Spicebush (Lindera benzoin). Planting flowers that attract butterflies is nice, but if you really want more butterflies, it helps to also plant host plants, the plants on which the butterflies lay their eggs. They can be quite picky and different butterflies prefer different plants.
This squirrel was getting friendly.
I was trying to get a photo of the chipmunk when the squirrel chased him away. The animals like to hang out under the birdfeeder and wait for seeds to drop.
The picture is a little blurry and not so great, but this is a juvenile Red Bellied Woodpecker.
The rabbit was enjoying a dirt bath.
We also have lots of Silver Spotted Skippers.
fojap 