On the Road in Texas - Bees and Butterflies

I am now back in Virginia, but still publishing photos taken on my just completed visit to Texas. When I took this first photo, I was only interested in the sunflower, the bee arrival was simply an accident.
These two butterflies were taken in the Henderson Drive Habitat. The first butterfly is a Pearl Crescent Butterfly, the small butterfly type photographed earlier in the Colvin Run Habitat. There is clearly some significant wear and tear seen in the trailing edges of this one's wings.
I am unable to identify the second butterfly, whose most interesting features are that when it lands on a branch, it brings its wings together as one and the underside visible when the two wings are together are tan. The result is a fully camouflaged butterfly - can you see it on the branch? Hint: it is hanging upside down, below and to the right of the green leaves (as always click to get an enlarged photo).

Tigers in the Habitat

Imagine my surprise - there I was stalking a squirrel or woodpecker, when there before me was a tiger! No, not that kind of tiger - rather a tiger lily - the dark orange variety of day lilies found this time of year growing throughout the mid-Atlantic states.
About 14 years ago - when the Habitat was just a backyard - we had hundreds of day lilies blooming from late-June through late July. And then something sad happened - the food chain was experienced - the then small deer population discovered our day lilies. The deer, who are habitual eaters (they come back and back to the same place), totally destroyed the lilies within two years - first eating the blooms, then the leaves, then the stems down to the ground. Then in the following year, the deer seemed to be waiting for the lilies to just break through the ground - and when the lilies did, the deer eat them. In those years the Habitat was known simply as the Deer's Private Salad Bar.

The lilies were so numerous that if they were still alive and well, any photo of the Habitat would include their bright yellow, orange, and even purpose colors. The photo shown here is one of the remaining lilies from that time - I move a few plants around each year, keep them close to the house, sometimes they last a day or two, but most times the deer find them anyway. It is rare that one plant can actually produce a bloom this nice.

Oh yes, for those of you looking for a real tiger, here is one that lives about 15 miles away in the National Zoo.

Colvin Run Habitat Blooms

Let me provide a quick tour of this week’s blooms. These are from the side rhododendron, which is now 15 feet high and about 10 feet wide.

Continuing, here are this week’s iris blooms.
Continuing, some pansy blooms remain. They’ll wilt as soon as the summer heat arrives in June.

Spring Snow

Just when you think that winter is over and spring is in full swing…it snows!
The cold temperatures visiting the Mid-Atlantic States for the last week were joined by about an inch of snow during the last weekend. In the Colvin Run Habitat, the snow accented the fully blooming daffodils and pansies.