Bugs attracted to milkweed

I love when the milkweed begins to attract bugs. Every year I see insects I've never seen before. Here are some spotted in June 2017. The milkweed has buds but has not yet begun to bloom. Shouldn't be too long now though!

Various insects found in the garden

Continuing photos from recent scouting out in the back and front yards. Photos of creepy crawlies spotted.

Spiders lurking in the garden

Been hunting out spiders and webs in recent weeks. Finding some neat ones lurking about. They seem to really love spinning webs between flower stems and the fence.

Spider on sunflower leaf

Spider and web

Another view of spider on sunflower leaf

Spider in the grass (this one was not taken at home)

Bees and other critters buzzing in the garden

So thrilled to see so many bees returning this year. I was getting worried. Every day there are plenty of photo opportunities of different flying critters just in my own yard. Here are some from this past week.

I wish I knew what this bug is. It is a super tiny critter and I see them every year anywhere I go to take photos in Virginia. They seem to love the rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans) in my yard.

Honey bee lands on the rudbeckia.

Bumble bee on yellow flowers. I do not know what they are called but I believe they are one of the flowers considered to be native for Northern Virginia.  They spread like crazy, grow in both dry and flooded conditions and attract lots of flying critters. 

 Peek-a-boo bumble bee

Sunflower blooms in the garden

The flying critters sure love the sunflowers. Last year I planted some organic sunflower seeds and I think this plant is a carry-over or a little birdie or furry critter planted it last fall. It is far ahead of schedule and much larger than the seeds I planted this year. The other plants are much smaller and some of them are just now getting small buds. This large plant has about 10 blooms on it; I took a variety of shots of the different blooms and in the background you can see some of the others. 

 

Photos of my spider neighbor

These two spiders live in the yard in different corners of the space. They like to spin their webs between wildflowers and the fences. Every few days I like to go out and try to capture some shots. (I have no idea what type of spider it is). Here are some June photos.

Daisies are in full bloom in Northern Virginia (2017)

Nice to see these lovely flowers blooming. Fortunately, they usually go straight through summer. I especially like to look at the daisies after a nice rain. Here are some June 2017 photos from my wildflower garden.