Small Wonders

It’s July, and my garden is in full bloom.   This is the time of year when the zoom lens comes off my camera, and the macro lens goes on.   The bigger birds and animals are quiet now, and hiding in the thick leaves of the bush and forest.   Now it’s time to focus on the small wonders of the world.

Come take a walk in my garden.

My flower garden has been designed specifically in order to attract wildlife.   Flowers such as these rudbeckia provide seeds for birds in the fall.

Purple coneflowers attract bees and butterflies in the summer, and goldfinches in the fall, who devour their seeds.

Here’s a new purple coneflower, just coming out.

I get all kinds of tiny visitors to the garden.  Last week,  little fresh grasshoppers were all over the place.

I even found a skin that one had moulted.

Meet the assassin bug, who lies in wait until an unsuspecting insect crosses its path, then captures it and uses its long proboscis to ingest its prey.

I have a number of vines around the garden, including honeysuckle.  Hummingbirds love them!   Their tendrils curve and wrap around anything they can climb up.  They also hold a drop of water in spectacular fashion.

This is coreopsis, or tickseed.   The seeds are another favourite of birds in the fall.   I love the colours, and how it blooms all summer.

Summer.  A time to enjoy the small wonders just out the back door.  Look closely, you never know what you might find.