Back in the middle of August I could
not stop watching and taking pictures of the Painted Lady butterflies that
covered the butterfly bush in my garden.
Although I've had this white flowering shrub for a number of years, I
have never had these visitors. The
Painted Lady butterfly is orange with black and white markings. It has a wingspan of about two inches. I read about them and learned that they are
migratory, wintering in the south and flying north and throughout the country
in spring. Some years their population
reaches great numbers and we see an influx of them. Other years there are very few seen in New
York and New England. Weather conditions
can also affect their arrival. Perhaps
our mild winter and early spring enticed them up here this summer.
The Painted Lady caterpillars feed
on plants such as mallows, hollyhocks, and thistles. The butterflies get their nectar from many
plant sources. They not only loved my
butterfly bush but also covered Theo and Laurie's, Jean Sweet's, the bush by
Alumni Hall, and the one at the library.
Monarchs, Tiger Swallowtails, Clear-wing Hummingbird moths, and
Ruby-throated hummingbirds all vied for nectar on the bushes. A small Brown Elfin butterfly enjoyed the
overripe banana I put out on my butterfly feeder. The Painted Lady show lasted for a couple of
weeks and then they were gone.
Hummingbirds stayed through the first week of September. Monarchs continue to drift by, taking nectar
from the now blooming asters and butterfly bush.
I've paddled down Round Lake's
outlet several times in the last month.
Two out of three times I've seen a Bald Eagle perched in a treetop on
the eastern shore. I have spotted half a
dozen Great Blue Herons either fishing quietly or flying low over the marshy
areas. Belted Kingfishers are on the
outlet too. Last week, Judy Selig and I
paddled around a bend and came across one sitting atop a small dead tree next
to the water. We quietly paddled toward
it. I suddenly noticed a hawk flying
fast up behind the kingfisher. At that
exact moment our paddling disturbed the kingfisher. In the nick of time he left
his post, gave his rattle call and just avoided being attacked by the
hawk. The hawk flew on and the kingfisher
flew low into the vegetation. Wow! Better than the nature channel.
A dozen three to five year olds
successfully prepared the ground, planted, tended, and picked vegetables at the
Round Lake library this summer. We
called it our Pizza Garden: dirt to pizza in four months. We grew tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, garlic,
basil, oregano, thyme, and lettuce. The
young gardeners especially liked watering and picking the giant cherry
tomatoes. We enjoyed a tomato buffet and
zucchini bread tasting. Everyone loved
the zucchini bread but not so much the tomatoes. We learned how to make sauce with our roma
tomatoes. We tasted salsa made from our
big boy tomatoes. We ended with a
homemade pizza party. The sauce for the
pies had herbs and garlic from the garden.
The adult pie had garden pepper, zucchini, and the roma tomato
sauce. Delicious! Great job gardeners!!
Lastly, my husband called while on
his way to work last week, to tell me of a pig sighting. By now I'm sure many of you heard and/or saw
the news about the huge pig on the exit 11 entrance ramp. Dan and I had fun wondering if it was a wild
boar living in the woods on top of the hill, disturbed by construction workers. But it was just a sauntering swine from a
Sweet Road farm. You really never know
what you'll see out and about!
