Garden Anole

Cute little baby anole climbing around in my patio garden.  In this picture he's in the lavender plant which has been flowering all summer long.  Just have to keep it happy.

When one of our friends from the Netherlands came to visit we had a much bigger anole hanging around.  She had named him Clouse. At least that's how I'd spell it.  No telling how she would have spelled it. Unfortunately Clouse didn't hang around for very long and there were none to be seen for quite a while.  When this guy appeared I knew that my little garden was still a fairly active place for critters to visit.

Another of the critters are the wasps that come drink from the pots and soil.  I never would have though about insects drinking from dirt but I guess they have more of an ability to pull out the water from different sources.  One wasp really liked the dirt around the moss rose and would come several times in just an hour and return to the exact same spot to refresh himself.

The toads haven't been seen in a while but I'm still hopeful that they will return once the heat lets up.  It's been too hot for many of the usual creatures to come out and play.  The bunnies as well haven't made their nightly appearances so often.  Before I'd see them just hanging out on the grass looking around.  Now I only see then moving across the lawn areas heading to either eat or go home.

Temps are showing a downward trend though and things should pick up for wildlife viewing.

Rustic Sphinx

This guy was just hanging out on the breezeway of the apartments.  I didn't see him when I went by later so he either flew away or one of the toads ate him.

I wasn't sure at first what kind of moth this was, not an expert on bugs, but a friend recently told me about the identify function on my iPhone.   If the picture is good enough the photos will have an "i" over the picture and when tapped on will do a search of similar images and can tell you even before that what it thinks it is. This works with bugs, plants, animals, and other objects.  As you can see in the image, I was pretty close when I took the picture. That's the shadow of my phone.

I did see a toad in the area as well, possibly eyeing him for dinner.  The toads are one more reason to water regularly.  They really like the humidity it makes.  Another resident in the area, wasps, also like it when the pots are watered and some of the water collects in the trays.  I've seen three at a time drinking from the water and coming back regularly.  Temps in the mid 100's will do that to any animal.

The plants of course also want regular water and it hasn't rained in weeks.  Maybe a sprinkle here or there but nothing to make the water gauges register anything.  Can't wait for cooler weather and more tomatoes.  The plants are still looking good.

Viceroy Butterfly

This little cutie was fluttering around the garden the other day.  Most people think these are monarchs but the black band across the back wings is an easy way to tell the difference.  I think people are used to monarchs as a name because they get so much of the news about butterflies and these guys really do look so similar.

Other visitors to the garden are toads.  We've had multiple toads at a time hopping around looking for bugs.  I keep the garden well watered and thus attract insects like mad.  The spiders know this too and often I have to knock down a web just so I can get to all of the plants.  Sorry, not sorry?

Maybe I'll get some toad pics up soon.