Plenty of activity on this warm afternoon; the flowers were popular.







The Little Wood-Satyr preferred the leaf litter.



I decided to take a short hike to check for caterpillars on the Antelope Horn milkweeds. No cats yet, but plenty of other guests:

Oak Hairstreaks,



Gray Hairstreaks,





Juniper Hairstreak,



Bees,



and all of the above plus a beetle and a well-hidden spider.



Welcome Spring!!!

Beautiful! I do enjoy your walks!

Thank you @Rose1656 . I enjoy sharing them with you.

Wow love these pics! Makes me want to be in Texas!

Great pics!! All I have seen is one black bumblebee and one swallowtail so far. There's a buffet waiting for them.

I have a plum tree that gets literally covered in ladybugs and eggs and larva. I will definitely show pictures!!

🐞

Mindi

Wonderful pictures, Char! You are warming up a little quicker in you neck of the woods than we are over here.

I always enjoy seeing your photos.

For honey bees, plant anything blue! I didn't get pictures of the bees because they are not posing, but they are fighting over the borage and rhaphiolepis in my front flower bed. Picture taken last week. that borage plant in the center is about 6' across now.

Lovely garden, Carol.

Thanks! Trying to go low water this year as we've only had 1.69" of rain for the season. The poppies and borage have self seeded, but it color and the bees love them.

Where oh where have my honey bees gone?? Seriously. I haven't seen one. I see these mini yellowjacket looking things but I think they are eating aphids off of the plumb tree. I don't think they are into pollen. Then there are the mosquito eaters. Lots of them. Two ladybugs 🐞 laying eggs on the plumb tree and one big black bumblebee. And one yellow swallowtail. All I have seen in total!!

😀

Mindi

I think the bees are all in my front flower bed right now. Seriously though, plant blue for bees. They love blue flowers. That's the color they see.

I have blue pansys, lobelia, and petunias. Come on over 🐝 bees!! It's like a pollen bar!!



😀

Mindi

My cherry tree is in full bloom and it is usually humming with bees at this point. I've only seen a random few. Hope all is well in bee-world.

Last year there were very few honey bees here, but it's looking better this year, in spite of them aerial spraying for phyllids in the neighborhood.

Plenty of bees here. The Mason bees have already used a few of the bamboo tubes in the bee houses and soon the Leaf Cutters will arrive.



Most of the butterflies seem late to arrive this year. The cool spring must be keeping them more to the south. No worries, they'll be here soon. A pipevine swallowtail enjoying prairie verbena today:

Bees are lovin my bolted onions




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