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| Despite an atypically mild winter and early spring, it seems like it took longer this year to find color; but as this pickerelweed demonstrates, the summer colors of the marsh have arrived |
As promised, here are some additional shots of color from my photo-monitoring this past week. The theme seemed to be bright blooms, deep greens, and vibrant pollinators. This little camera is pretty good at catching about everything but the sometimes oppressive heat and humidity!
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| If this doesn't scream summer, I don't know what does -- a monarch on (swamp) milkweed; sadly, this is getting to be a much less common sight; monarch numbers are down as much as 90% globally |
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| This butterfly -- the red admiral -- is one of Ohio's most common; while conservation strives to improve the plight of endangered and threatened species, it also needs to provide safe havens to keep "common" species common |
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| I don't know my bumblebees, but I do know that even they are starting to receive attention due to new research that shows dramatic declines in many populations regionally, nationally, and globally -- never underestimate the importance of our pollinators (this one finds a home on chicory, a Mediterranean relative of the dandelion) |
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| I need help identifying this water lily; I'm confident that it is an introduced species, but the good news is (1) it is isolated to a small area on one of our ponds adjacent to the marsh (it doesn't seem aggressive), (2) it is beautiful, and (3) the bees seemed to be loving it in the heat of the afternoon sunshine |
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| As this great golden digger wasp demonstrates, it's not just monarch butterflies that are attracted to milkweed; this docile and vibrant critter seemed to prefer the underside of every cluster of blooms |