A lovely shot of this tiny (3-4mm) lady beetle on Queen Anne's Lace, photographed by Barry. This little brown and yellow beetle is not most people's idea of a lady beetle, but that's what it is.

This industrious bee is absolutely covered with pollen from the mallow flowers.

Barry photographed this series of black swallowtail caterpillars on wild parsnip at the garden on July 29th. The four early instar caterpillars he found on one plant a few days previously, had, he reports, been reduced to two on Friday, and none on Sunday. Hopefully they have moved on to another plant... but they are prey for other creatures.

A shot from underneath showing the caterpillar's fat little feet!

The muskrat was close to shore this morning. I watched it for a little while, until it swam off, carrying a mouthful of flowering rush!

This eastern kingbird was perched on the downed maple tree overhanging the pond, and making forays to catch insects, and also to chase off any other birds!

Such an exotic looking moth! That bright pink is an improbable colour and set against the yellow the evening primrose flowers, it is quite captivating! Now is the time to look for these moths. I have found several at the FWG so far, all stuck well into the primrose flowers.

The red of this gorgeous native wildflower is vibrant, even on an overcast morning. It is so exotic looking that it appears to be an elegant garden plant gone wild.

Back in June, Diane and I found a question mark caterpillar on nettle. Today this adult was flying around, a bit worse for wear.

Although I haven't seen any adult black swallowtails at the FWG, they have clearly been around! Today I found 7 caterpillars. All were on the wild parsnip plant (Pastinaca sativa). Five were tiny, like this one, early instars, and two were very large, and thus late instars. It is the most I have seen at the FWG at one time and was encouraging. I hope they all survive!

These triangular moths with their bold markings are amongst my favourites. Their caterpillars are seen frequently in late April-May and by mid-July the adults are flying. They are called confused haploa because their pattern varies, and I don't think they are confused, it is us, when we see such dissimilar patterns and try to ID them!

A very nicely detailed shot of this gnarly insect by Barry. This is THE time to find these odd looking bugs, as they are abundant now and will be for the next month or more, lurking in flowers waiting for unsuspecting prey!

The mallard youngster is growing apace and seems to be thriving. Thank goodness. Barry took this photo today at the pond.

Banded hairstreaks seem to pretty common at the moment, including at the FWG, where Diane photographed this one in the BYG.

Diane found this stunning caterpillar at FWG today on a cherry tree (what else, given its name!)

These flies are superb bumblebee mimics, and even buzz and fly like a Bombus sp.

This pretty metallic green sweat bee was photographed by Barry on yarrow in the BYG.

Barry photographed this ghostly moth on a plastic bird feeder left at the centre. One of the most un-moth-like critters!

This was my first eastern tailed blue at the FWG this year. In fact, I have just started to see them in recent days in other areas too.

Along with its mother, this little mallard likes to sit on the overhanging tree at the pond, where it can rest in safety.

I was really happy to see this odd and exotic looking little larva of the Clavate tortoise beetle (the adult of which, Diane photographed for the June 2011 blog at the FWG). I have been checking the Physalis often for this sort of thing, and finally today I found two. They are minuscule, perhaps a couple of mm. That black blob on top is scat which it holds over its body for protection and camouflage!

There were three green herons in the pond today, and they were catching frogs! The poor green frogs were sitting and calling, that lovely sonorous summer sound, oblivious to the danger stalking the pond.

These guys, both juveniles and adults, are around in numbers now, lurking on flowering plants for unsuspecting insects!

One of the best places to see any quantity of milkweed is the field directly in front of the southern end of the Ash Woods. WHile milkweeds are growing elsewhere in the garden, they are not in any good numbers. Some of the biggest and most flourishing populations of milkweed have entirely vanished. But in this field, which is not, technically, part of the FWG, they are growing well.

It is a busy time for this little muskrat in the pond. Back and forth she goes, back and forth, busily cutting down the cattail stems from the shore. As well, I was tickled to see her working away on the flowering rush (Butomus) and ferry large mouthfuls of that to her den too.

This little guy really likes this thick stand of Decodon (water willow), along the edge of the pond. It provides cover and safety, and allows him to peer into the pond for frogs without being seen.

Our little self-seeded tulip tree is flourishing. Not sure what will happen if we get a very severe winter, but hopefully this tree will thrive.

One of the prettiest and most distinctive native grasses.

The pond was a busy place this morning when Diane and I stopped by. First we saw this mother mallard with her enchanting little youngster. She didn't seem very bothered by us standing on the bridge and photographing her, but clearly she was keeping a wary eye out nonetheless. I was surprised to see a duckling here. There have been a couple of mallards on the pond from spring right on through, but they've always hung out together and showed no signs of having a nest. Well, just shows how things can happen right under our eyes.

I was too busy trying to photograph the muskrat to pay much attention to the green heron that flew in and landed by the pond. But when I did focus on him I saw that he was a juvenile. A second heron, perhaps an adult, perhaps another juvenile, flew in to a shrub a bit further down the pond.

After another heavy deluge, things cleared up again and I took a quick walk into the Backyard Garden. YOu can see how much rain fell in a few minutes!

The new path around one section of the Butterfly Meadow is almost finished. The main goal is to create a barrier between the planted meadow and the dog-strangling vine.