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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Mexican sunflowers
Catch of the Day
It's early morning and the spider is hungry. It snares a honey bee foraging for pollen and nectar in a patch of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifola) in a Vacaville pollinator garden. The spider slides down the sticky web, kills its prey with a venomous bite, and begins to...
An orbweaver snares a honey bee in its sticky web in a patch of Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tiny freeloader flies (family Milichiidae) grab their share. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
So Bee It...
The honey bees love it. So do the long-horned bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, European paper wasps, syrphid flies, butterflies, blister beetles, spotted cucumber beetles, crab spiders, praying mantids, and assorted other insects. The Mexican sunflower...
A honey bee heads toward a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ah, this Mexican sunflower is all mine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It pays to keep a lookout while you're foraging on the ever-popular Mexican sunflower, genus Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Joy of Rearing Monarchs Is Releasing Them
Oh, the joy of rearing monarchs...from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to an adult... However, the ultimate joy is not in rearing them, but releasing them--from their confined and well-protected indoor habitat to that Spectacular Spacious World Without Boundaries. Some soar majestically 80...
This newly eclosed female monarch just wants to linger. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A newly released monarch nectaring on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) next to a bird house, a replica of a barn. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch butterfly has its choice of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a newly released monarch nectaring on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Fisheye View of the Garden
When I was teaching photography, I encouraged my students to go for the angles--from a bug's eye view to a bird's eye view. Holding a camera chest-high or at eye level renders the "same-o, same o" photos. Yet another creative way to see the world is through a fisheye lens. With its...
Fisheye of Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee foraging on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
'Tiger' in the Tithonia
Sometimes you can't get within 20 feet of a Western tiger swallowtail butterfly (Papillo rutulus). Sometimes it's a matter of inches.That was the case this morning at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis, when a lone Western tiger swallowtail...
Western tiger swallowtail nectaring Mexican sunflowers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Western tiger swallowtail atop a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
