What you don't see

There are a lot of things coming to our yard that I haven't managed to get a picture of, honestly, I don't even always see them. My son is the one that spots most of the stuff first, and if it hangs around, then he points it out to me. He has spotted egrets by the pond, at night we have a opossum coming to get a drink, the opossum also eats the star fruit from the tree behind our yard. I have been trying to get a picture of an adult giant swallowtail, but so far no luck, though we have several of the caterpillars. We also get sulphur butterflies but they are so quick, no pictures yet. Hopefully we will see more of them and some caterpillars since we have planted a few host plants for them

This morning, a grey catbird and a painted bunting were in our yard, the catbird was getting a drink from one of the bird baths, and the bunting was hiding in a shrub and eating some beach sunflower seeds. These sunflowers really are a a great plant for our native garden, they are spreading wonderfully, they don't need any additional water once established and we have spotted several small birds enjoying the tiny seeds. We are getting dragonflies in our small pond, they eat a few of our smaller guppies, but the way they breed, that isn't a problem. We aren't sure if the birds are eating any, but so far we still have a good population of fish in it. It really is a wonderful experience to just be out in the yard and see what is hanging around. While working on some stuff the other day, I was able to watch a monarch, a gulf fritillary and a zebra longwing all feeding in the butterfly garden at the same time. It is such a beautiful day, I am out there now to enjoy.