Butterflies and Cosmos - Just Pictures

A silver-spotted skipper on the zinnia.

We are in a newer subdivision and there isn't much variety in the birds here since there are so few mature trees. We have plenty of sparrows and doves, a few eastern bluebirds and robins in the spring, and these beautiful goldfinches. Most of the year I just see sparrows so I'm very pleased when the colorful goldfinches show up at my feeders. I love to hear them sing.
I have the sock feeder and a nicer finch feeder in the same tree, but they prefer to eat their thistle seed from the sock feeder.

I didn't realize that doves like thistle seed, but they obviously do, because the doves are always coming to this feeder to eat. Maybe that's why the finches prefer the sock feeder, no doves to share with.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are getting large. The largest one has become quite restless and has been climbing up and down the vase onto the sticks that are propped in the container. Tonight I noticed that it appears to have settled on a stick. I expect to see a chrysalis soon.

Preying Mantis

The praying mantis are getting pretty big and are no longer content to eat the small bugs in the garden. Now they are after larger prey. This one above keeps getting on the hummingbird feeder in the front yard, (yes, I'm still feeding the hummingbirds, but now I have two feeders, story to come later). I've knocked it off with the broom three times already today and it keeps climbing back up. I've seen it actually grabbing at the unsuspecting hummingbirds. Thankfully they are too fast and so far it hasn't harmed any. I had seen a story about a praying mantis eating a hummingbird, I guess it may be more common than I thought for the mantis to eat something as large as a hummingbird. I'm very glad that no hummers were eaten here today. Now if I can just keep deterring those pesky mantids until the hummingbirds fly south.
This one is in the backyard and stayed very still under the verbena stalking butterflies and hummingbirds. I knocked it down after it almost caught a silver spotted skipper.
I've been glad to have the mantis in my garden, and really felt that it was a beneficial insect. Now that it's larger it is becoming a pest and try to eat things that I consider to be more beneficial, the pollinators. Not a good trade off as far as I'm concerned.

I also saw this really large hawk, I believe it may be a Coopers hawk, since we have had those around before. It was diving in my back neighbors shrubs and trees looking for smaller birds.

Window Shots With a New Toy

I have a Sony Alpha-100 DSLR camera that I've hardly used because I only had the accessories that came with the camera, which consisted of one 18-70mm lens. Yesterday I stopped at an electronics store and they had the Sony 75-300mm lens on sale, plus I had a 12% off coupon and a $100 gift card from my husband's business credit card rewards program. So I only had to spend about $100 for this lens . This same range Canon and Nikon lens sales for $699.00. WOW! I was very pleased with my new purchase. These are a few of the first pictures I took this morning with my new lens.

I love to sit in front of the open window and watch the birds, butterflies and whatever other creatures I might happen to see. Now it will be a little easier to photograph things that are farther away.

Oldfields-Lilly House and Gardens

My daughter had Friday off, so she and I went to see the Oldfields-Lilly house and gardens. She had been once before with a group of girls from church. I hadn't even known it was there until she told me about it. This property has recently become a national historic landmark. The property was once owned by the Lilly family of Eli-Lilly Pharmaceuticals. They donated the land to the Art Association of Indianapolis which used the property to build the Indianapolis museum of Art.

This is a 26-acre estate with beautiful gardens, which is open to the public and free. We didn't tour the house because we didn't have enough time, but I can't wait to go back and see the inside of this striking home.

This is the side view of the house and this wonderful path leads to...

this stunning garden area with the fountain and arbors.

We saw quite a few butterflies.

This fountain is in front of the art museum.

This bridge is across the canal.

There is a lake behind the house.

There were several nice shady places to sit and rest. I'm very glad I wore practical shoes since there were some really steep stairs with no hand rails and this is a huge property.
These pictures of the Ravine Garden were taken from the back terrace.

A very active hornets nest.

I am already planning a fall visit to this property; I'm sure the view from the terrace will be breathtaking when the leaves turn.