The blue ones

"The blue ones are very good you know,"  this little tree frog seems to say as he finishes his morning meal of damsel fly.  I was surprised to find one eating in the morning. They are typically sleeping or positioning a spot to manage the heat of the day.

Swallowtail with no tail

Here is the Red-spotted Purple Swallowtail.  It has all the look of a typical swallowtail without the long tails on the hind wings.

This one has the specific Eastern US characteristic of the red orange spots on the forward wing top edges.
The underside has plenty of red spots and is a show on it's own.

So pretty, especially so on my Beauty Berry bush.

Leopard frogs

Maybe the wet summer brought them in, but we are loaded with Leopard frogs.  They are especially fond of the herbs and greens.  Just walk by and they start jumping!

Here is one trying to bury itself in the cool soil of an empty bed.  Maybe just for the day, like a mud bath at a spa!

And another in the bed of Field Crest.  My herbs and greens are frog approved!

Butterflies

So busy this morning, but I made it out to dead head my flowers before lunch time.  I was so captivated by the sheer numbers of butterflies that I traded in my clippers for my camera.

Skippers, the large swallow tails, fritillaries, painted ladies, sulfurs and more!  Newest fav is the long tailed skipper shown below.  Gorgeous blue back on this large skipper!

I have so many zinnias, a result from regular dead heading of the flowers through the summer.

A swallowtail hangs on the salvia.

Another sits on a bright zinnia.

 Two battle out for this pink zinnia's offerings.

So many swallowtails!  And of course the fall standard, the sulfur, on my false dragons..

Seagull Time

I know the season is changing because the birds are changing.  Ospreys have long fledged and moved on, Crows that love the Osprey fish scrap are plying other opportunities.  Grackles, Barn Swallows, and Blackbirds are no longer heard.  The high perch is still visited by a Kingfisher, a year round resident.  Today it was occupied by a Seagull.  The Seagulls are absent in the summer but show up in the fall, probably scavenging far and wide from the regular course.
Large gulls fly in and you look hard trying to make out an Osprey that is not there, an Egret that no longer moves back and forth across the sound. 
When the Gulls show up Fall is nigh.  They are here.  On the bright side my winter favorites are planning their trip down.  I can't wait to hear the honks!

The New Kids!

The young male hummers are feeling their 'wheaties', so to speak.  The fighting or play fighting has begun.  I have a feeder at my kitchen window and my breakfast was served with a live play of sword fighting, bump and run,  and plenty of tiny screams!
I ventured out just to make sure the other feeder was full (it was) so I found a hiding spot nearby to try to catch a few shots.
Near the kitchen window is a flower garden.  I caught this young male resting between bouts on the climbing rose.

You can see a few red feathers poking through, he's a fine mess! Here's a crop.

The view through the vines.

Lavender

I've been growing Lavender for a few years.  Letting the bees enjoy and cutting stems for friends.  It spreads! and I needed to do something with the lavender besides letting it just go!  I harvested it in the dried stage for use in sachet.  (I let it dry on the live stem after the flowering.)
The fragrance is super powerful.
I am making sachet packets out of cotton for my lavender.  And of course I am painting them up, what else I  would do?  The packets are about 4.5 inches square, filled with about 2 heaping tablespoons of dried lavender, hand painted!, and with a ribbon loop for hanging if you want.

A closer look at one of my favs, the sandpiper!

I need to grow more lavender!  I have more ideas for painting that I do dried lavender.