Dry Autumn

Very dry here... we've had 2 hurricanes and a tropical storm blow through, and haven't seen any precipitation from any of it...

I  visited a butterfly garden a couple months ago, and snuck out with a seed head or two...

The seeds came up readily from this seasons plants....

I count 6 butterflies in this pic...

The cosmos seems to have attracted a couple of migrants... monarch and long wing zebra... first time seeing either this year.... Unfortunately, neither stuck around long...

I do have a few other flowers....

Bee visits prenanthes

Buckeye butterfly visiting daisy mum.

Another pic of the daisy mums

What's funny, is this mexican clover (Richardia scabra), at the foot of the daisy mums... actually seems like the bigger attraction... as far as the butterflies are concerned!

camellia oleifera in bed next to house

First year crop from the black walnuts... Wish I'd recorded what year I planted the seeds.

Sunflower growing through the sassafrass....

The beetles are killing the pines...

Wildflower season

Every autumn, we finally get a wildflower season when all the weeds out in the un-tilled places bloom... and sadly... just as the butterflies are finding them, the roadside crews get busy turning a riot of colour into brown stubble. 

Seems to be nothing I can do about the road side, but enjoy the flowers at my house... And for God's sake... Don't mow anything!

I planted these ironweeds in the vegetable garden multiple times only to have them die. too dry.
This ironweed is planted next to the house where it gets extra water off the roof. the butterflies are happy that I kept trying...

A twofer... gotta look close, (or enlarge), not the best light for shooting butterflies.

Agalinis in the rear-view mirror.

 Spotted these caterpillars on the scratch daisies...cucullia alfarata...

 camphorweed cucullia... Camphorweed Owlet Moth.

Incidentally... I also spotted A couple Selenisa sueroides on the sesbania... but couldn't locate them again when I finally brought back the camera.... gotta be quick or miss out. That caterpillar was very cool... and online pics do not capture it at all.
Edit...
Here's the Selenisa sueroides...

 I kept checking the sesbania... and suddenly a new batch of caterpillars. they're not waving their tails like the first one did... but still... neat cat.

oenonthra filipes

 Blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum)

 Camphor weed and golden aster

Also the golden aster buds seem picture worthy

eupatorium serotinum

 Southern Oak leech (aureolaria pectinata)

While we're doing "southern"... This is southern joint weed...

I've also got Dixie whitetop aster...

Wasn't easy identifying this...

http://garden.org/thread/view/41697/Another-eupatorium/

Pretty interesting how many unusual plants I have here that Nobody recognizes... 

How about an american lady on a wood sunflower?

Last year I took video of a goldfinch chewing the seeds out of this clump of wild sunflower...
Speaking of gold....

In this day and age of Zika, everybody should have these guys in all their water features.... they spend all their time vacuuming the surface of the water!

And... Finally.... Check the garden spider that decided to be a bedroom spider... 

Dusk

August was all about the tomato moth... after the cats caught and ate them.... nothing left at dusk but the tersas...

 Tersa moths

Tersa laying eggs on Mexican clover (richardia scabra)

Moonflowers are blooming...

And the tephrosia spicata

Well.... maybe the cats didn't get all the tomato moths...

Looks like they killed a watermelon...

Caught the sesbania in a breeze... 

These gourds also bloom at dusk...

danger and butterflies

2 green lynx spiders and a bumble bee, bad day to be a pollinator. 

They're not helping the watermelon vine much either...

 A coupla black widow spiders... I spotted the top one while picking watermelon, the bottom one is nesting among the potted plants...

And... this guy.

I was walking to the house from the garden, and heard a cicada... only...

the buzzing didn't change tones... just didn't sound quite right...

looked around, saw that the cats had this guy surrounded!

I gathered up cats, tossed them in the house and shut the door... 

gave this big guy time to get out of dodge.

Had a heck of a butterfly hatch, they're crawling over everything!

If I stood back and shot the entire lantana bush, I could probably get 20 or 30 in the pic... unfortunately, they'd be difficult to spot without enlarging and getting a magnifying glass.

I watched this gulf fritillary lay an egg on the passionflower vine and then make a fuel stop at the flower... wonder what the passiflora thought.

 You don't get butterflies without caterpillars, but what's this guy doing on a blackberry bush?
Should be on a cassia...

Buckeye caterpillar on agalinis.

Buckeye visiting eupatorium hyssopifolium.

Armyworms eating amaranth

gulf fritillary visits cucumber vine.

Checkered frit visits dune sunflower