#late boneset

A couple of tiny 🦋 from this weekend—each no bigger than about a thumbnail. Both are perched on the late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), one of the late summer and early fall’s prodigious bloomers, which was abuzz with activity. Summer azure on the left and red-banded hairstreak on the right.

A couple of fun photos this afternoon of red-banded hairstreaks 🦋

A trio of them chilling on one of the late bonesets…and then a pair of them doing…well, you get the picture…in the grass.

It’s like the Universe was eavesdropping on @evilpenguinrika and I last night, for lo and behold, this afternoon this young hawk zoomed by me on the deck not six feet away, and then I heard the sound of something being dropped! (Alas 😢)

This appears to be a young hawk, both by size (only about half as bulky as the ones who visit usually appear) and the fact it let me get within ~12 feet to take these pictures (max digital zoom, but still cool to look at). And perhaps also that it seemed to have dropped its prey. I’m not great at hawk ID, but my best guess is a Cooper’s hawk. (Cooper’s and red-shouldered are common here, and I’ve seen a red-tailed once, as well.)

After apparently dropping its prey, it landed on the deck railing opposite of me, then flew out and up a few feet into the maple tree for a better vantage point at the area where it dropped its (very lucky) prey. It was making some very brief chirping noises that Merlin’s Sound ID couldn’t even decipher. After that, it flew over to the fence and awkwardly traversed 2-3 panels before taking off and landing in the neighbor’s pear tree (takeoff and landing in the pear tree shown in the video…is there no way to set alt text on a video?)

It’s October 1st and “only” 80°F, so summer should be coming to an end soon. The season’s blooms are mostly gone, but I thought I would have a look around the yard to see what was still blooming; this is one of just about everything—and some bonus fauna.

Gardenia, black-eyed Susans, Chinese forget-me-not, phlox, crape myrtle, vervain, marigold, zinnias, beefsteak plant, camphorweed (yellow) and late boneset (white), vinca, spider flower (cleome) with bonus gulf fritillary butterfly, brown-eyed Susans, “volunteer” yellow cherry tomato plant.

And bonus full-sized (red-shouldered, probably) hawk, ~20 feet in the air in a pecan tree, from ~50 ft away through the screen of my bathroom window, max digital zoom. Terrible photo, fun visitor! (This hawk is 3x to 4x the size of the hawk I posted yesterday!)

Lovely specimen of yellow-morph eastern tiger swallowtail 🦋 (especially for late season—all wings fully intact) hanging out on the late boneset, as is its wont.