Dead Bat

I found this dead bat right outside our backdoor Friday morning I think it was. Dh disposed of the poor critter, I have no idea what killed it except we did have exceptionally high winds and really hard rains. I'm not sure if it is a male or a female so included a shot of it's belly. We have bats clining to the north side of our house just under the eaves and STILL have mosquito's everywhere.

Blue Vervain

I've never seen this plant with white blossoms before, normally they are lavender to purple, this year, however, mosthave white blossoms. This leaves me wondering if the excess rain has something to with this.

NOTE: (08/20/08) It would appear that blue vervain has a rare white varient this year is a flood year and almost all the blue vervain in my area has white blossoms!

Butterflly Weed

Asclepias tuberosa (Asclepiadaceae) or Butterfly Weed

Name that Plant

Rattlesnake Master or Eryngium yuccifolium

Canada Anemone or Anemone canadensis

I took these plant pics in a prairie reclaimation area that was recently under water due to all of the flooding.

Butterfly Garden

My mullien and milkweed are both close to six foot tall in height. I'm amazed as I transplanted them from the neighbors yard to mine this spring - right before the flooding began. I really didn't expect them, or anything else in my garden, to survive.

I've been working on expanding my butterfly garden with more natives. Currently I have milkweed - the red variety, purple coneflower, mullien, phlox, bellflower, and bee balm.

Bee's Bee Balm

The bumble bees were going after my bee balm like crazy tonight. I tried to get a picture of the pollen pockets, most of them had full to almost full pockets, but the bees weren't cooperating with me.

Saw a few honey bees yesterday and a box bee earlier in the afternoon but not this evening.

Lily on Fire

Or so it would seem, the sun was shining at such an angle to make the lily look as if it was on fire.

Sunset

Wild Flowers

Purple Cone fFower

Daisy Flea Bane

Yellow Coneflower amongst other names.

Photographed a bunch of native prairie plants while out picking berries this evening, some are greatly inspiring to say the least!

Snail on Leaf

Not sure what type of snail this is we have several here in the state of Iowa, but it was munching away on the leaf.

Black Raspberries