Nope, haven’t disappeared, just taking a small break. I’ve also been getting home later than normal during the week, and working hard on maintaining the yard on the weekends.

Here’s what new or changed as of July 27, 2010.

The Purple Martins have all fled the nest. They come by and sing in the mornings, but they no longer stay over night.
Lots of the young Cardinals and starting to get in their colored feathers, so they look a little ratty right now.
The Aphids and Milkweed bugs are really making their presence known on all the Milkweed. I’m spraying them off all the time.
We occasionally see a Giant Swallowtail laying eggs by the fruit trees.
We also have just barely seen any Gulf Fritilliaries.
A few Skipper Butterflies stop briefly on the nectar flowers from time to time.
Doves, Cardinals, and Bluejay’s spend the most time at the feeders.
Starting to see a few Frogs, but not as much as I would expect with all this rain. No sign of Michael Jane, the big Bullfrog in many months.
Lots of Dragonflies, all day and evening. Some are getting huge.
Hummingbirds. We have 3, two female and 1 male
Last, but not least Mosquitoes. They are all over the place with these rains and moist ground we’ve been having

I really need to get out somewhere and go shoot for a day. Everything seems to be non-stop lately. Perhaps I’ll revisit Houston Arboretum, or the park in Kingwood, or some place entirely new. Just need to get out somewhere with the camera and some time.

How about some of you reading the blog. Seeing lots of butterflies where you are?

In these first 2 pictures there was a Hummingbird somewhat distracted by this Milkweed Bug on the feeder.

He/She quickly got over the bug and went about drinking nectar.

In this next set, I used a little Lightroom creativity because I didn’t care for the background so much.  However, I did feel kinda lucky to get this picture of a Hummingbird sipping nectar from a Purple Coneflower.  Honestly, I didn’t even realize they would even attempt to go to these plants to get nectar.

Last shot of the night.

The second pest I’m going to highlight is the very common Milkweed Bug.  If you have Milkweed to attract Monarchs you are going to have these bugs as well.  They don’t do any specific harm to the Monarch caterpillars, but they do tend to suck the juice out of the Milkweed plants.

Just like for the Assassin bug, I squash these guys with long tweezers.  It’s my own version of Organic Pest Control.