Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

A yellow and red-striped goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia, Araignée crabe) with its meal. She was hiding, well camouflaged, beneath the petals of a black eyed Susan. It was obviously a very clean strike, between the head and the thorax, and probably happened so fast the fly would not have a seen it coming.

A monarch butterfly (Monarque, Danaus plexippus) feeding on echinacea flowers.

A mourning cloak butterfly (le morio, Nymphalis antiopa), resting, wings closed.

A resting bee.

Heart to heart. "And therewithal sweetly did me kiss, And softly said 'dear heart, how like you this'?" (T. Wyatt).

Flowers of a buttonbush (cephalanthus-occidentalis) in the woods- a native shrub from Eastern N. America. They look like golf balls (or, more sinisterly, like virus particles with protruding spikes). The bees love them. So do I, and if I had a bigger garden they would go straight in.

A clearwing moth hanging in mid-air while feeding on nectar.

A small, low plant, growing in an opening in the woods, the sundrop (Sundrop à petites fleurs; Oenethera perennis). A relative of the evening primrose.

Water lily (nénuphar).

Black Cohosh, (also called Actaea racemosa, black bugbane, black snakeroot, or fairy candle) grows in the woods. It is particularly attractive to bees. The stem reaches about 2 metres tall (6 feet) with the flowers forming towers about 40-50 cm long.

Not the most "glamorous" pose spread-wing in the dirt; a Mourning Cloak (or Camberwell Beauty, Nymphalis antiopa. le morio) butterfly. They hibernate through the winter and are the first large butterflies on the wing in Spring.

Monarda, is a wildflower of North America, although this is a garden cultivar. It is supposed to be pollenated by hummingbirds but we have grown it for years and I have yet to see a humming bird go near it, although it is popular with bumble bees. Its common names include bee balm, horsemint, Oswego tea, and bergamot, due to the fragrance of the leaves, which is reminiscent of bergamot orange. It was used as medicinal plant by the indigenous North Americans (Wikipedia). It is also the favorite food for caterpillars of the Raspberry Pyrausta, a small, vividly pink moth.

Growing at a wooded lakeside, Piraea alba, white meadowsweet, narrowleaf meadowsweet, pale bridewort or pipestem is a native plant of Eastern North America.

Face to face, two frogs in a pond.

Sunset with powerlines.

A large bumble bee in-flight feeding among lupins. (Bombus fervidus, the golden northern bumble bee or yellow bumblebee).

Tradescantia is a a native plant to Eastern North America (although these are garden varieties). The flowers are open in the morning but close in sunlight. The name comes from two English botanists, John Tradescant the Elder (c. 1570s – 1638) and John Tradescant the Younger (1608–1662), who were gardeners to King Charles 1st (from Wiki). They are very reliable and basically look after themselves, so great for a lazy gardener.