The activity in my own backyard continues!  It’s been great fun to have such great photographic opportunities right outside my back door.  The nice weather is helping too, as I wouldn’t be sitting outside reading if it were still so hot and humid.

This time, it was the male eastern black swallowtail butterfly visiting the flowers.  I’d noticed him earlier in the day on the trumpet vines, but he was gone by the time I got my camera off the kitchen table.  A little while later, he landed on the lantana’s, which was much closer to the deck and enabled me to get a better picture anyhow.

There were actually at least two male swallowtails in the yard – the other one had more yellow than this and was just slightly smaller.  I did not get pictures of the second one though.  It’s not a surprise to have the male butterflies after the female was hanging around the other weekend.

In the meantime, the bees were going nuts on the basil.  I love trying to catch them in flight and actually got a good one!  Unfortunately, this was not as innocuous as it looked.  The bee on the right kept challenging the one on the left.  After a few more seconds, they flew off together and then locked in combat.  I have no idea why the one was so aggressive to the other one, but I made sure to not get too close.

In the meantime, the dog entertainment center was in full swing.  He now has the miniature pinscher chasing bees too!  Thankfully neither of them have caught one this year, although a few flys have been caught and swallowed.  The one above swallowed a bee last year, but didn’t seem to get stung.  He did make a number of yukky faces though from the bee fur on his tongue.

Lastly, I changed my header photo.  I took this picture earlier this summer when we were doing some weekend wandering.  I don’t go out in sailboats myself, but to me they are a symbol of summer.

Have a good week!

Nature Virginia bees black swallowtail butterfly butterflies carpenter bees dog entertainment center lantana