Hummingbird and Hummingbird Moth

This evening I was sitting outside with my mom and dad when I spotted some activity at the hummingbird feeder. I was surprised to see two small hummingbird moths along with several hummingbirds. I was able to get pretty close to them but the pictures still didn't turn out too well since it was getting dark and I couldn't use the flash. The hummingbird moth almost landed on my camera a couple of times. I was surprised at how close I got, but it flits around so fast that it's nearly impossible to photograph. The hummingbird picture looks funny, almost fake, especially the wings, but that is how it turned out.I just lightened the shadows, cropped and sharpened it a bit.

Mother and I spent the night in Brown County and attempted to see Nashville and shop at the outlet mall in Edinburgh. I say attempted because her health isn't particularly good and the stifling heat was too much for her. So our trip was cut short but I still enjoyed the short time I had there.

Update on destructive moth post: (For some reason I can't use the title feature.)

On June 25th, I posted about my Dwarf Alberta Blue Spruce which had been infested with moths and cotton like masses, I was very concerned that the tree was dying. Here is the picture from June 25th.

I picked all of the eggs sacks off and have been using a strong jet spray from the water hose almost every evening to run the moths away, (and there have been quite a few of them flying out of the trees). I am seeing new growth on the tree now, and the brown needles are being knocked off by the spray. It's looking so much better and I think it is going to make it. Here is a picture of the tree today.Again, no chemicals were used at all, just picking the eggs sacks and bag worms off by hand and using the jet spray feature on the water hose. I think a lot of times people reach for chemicals when other things can be just as effective and certainly much safer for us and for the environment. I wanted to say thanks again to Lynne Eldridge M.D. Author, "Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time" http://www.avoidcancernow.com/ for taking the time to respond to my June 25th post and remind me of the dangers of using chemicals around my home.

Hummingbird Moth

I had a hummingbird moth visit my butterfly and hummingbird garden yesterday. It loved the purple verbena and spent quite a bit of time going to each tiny flower. It flitted around so fast it was impossible for me to get a good picture.

I had my usual two hummingbird visitors and finally got a picture of the male Ruby Throated hummingbird. He is quite a bit faster than the female and quickly flies away at the slightest movement, so he has been more difficult to capture. The red on his throat gleams so brightly when the sun hits it, like a big sparkly ruby.

Destructive Moths

I'd like for my garden journal to only show beautiful pictures of flowers, birds and butterflies. I'd like to portray only the successes and picture perfect flowerbeds, but that would not be realistic and would not be the complete picture of what I am dealing with as I attempt to transform this empty lot into the place I envision it to be. I don't mean to focus on the negative, but honestly, right now, it seems that between the weather and pests, I'm dealing with a lot of gardening negatives.

My daughter, (who is an indoor girl, just like I used to be), said this morning that she hated gardening, and that was why. It's too much work and there are so many problems. I told her it's kind of like having children, they are a lot of work, they can be a lot of trouble, they don't always behave the way you want them too, and at times can even cause heartache, but they are absolutely worth all of the trouble.

By nature I am a nurturer. I love tending to babies and children, animals, and plants. My full-time "job" right now is to take care of my family, my home and my yard, I have successes and failures. This is true no matter what our jobs are. Not every patient leaves the hospital with health restored, sometimes business deals fall through, firemen can't always save homes or lives, in fact sometimes they loose their own. This certainly puts silly gardening setbacks into perspective, doesn't it?

Getting back to the reason for this post, last evening I took a closer look at my Dwarf Spruce, I thought it was turning brown because of the drought we've had.

When I pulled the branches aside to look, it was all brown underneath.

I found quite a few cotton like sacks, some with eggs that were hatching.
I I also found several moths inside my trees.

I found these this morning on my arborvitae; they are infested too. I had no idea how destructive moths could be.

This is a bag worm I found on the arborvitae.
It looks like I have several pests attacking these trees. I'm not sure what to do. I don't use chemical pesticides, but I'm wondering if I need to. I don't want to loose these arborvitae to pests. I think one of the dwarf spruces is too far gone to save, I'm not sure about the other two. It is quite frustrating to say the least, but hopefully I will keep things in perspective and remember that this is but a small problem compared to what others are facing, and nothing worthwhile comes easy, at least not for me.