The day the evergreen sumac was in bloom, it was covered with bees, so many that the bush hummed and buzzed from yards away.

That afternoon, migrating monarch butterflies swarmed the sumac too, flicking their wings to shoo the bees off the flowers they wanted nectar from.

Meanwhile, another milkweed butterfly and monarch relative, the queen butterflies, were also fluttering around the sumac and nectaring on the flower clusters. Often several butterflies would be on the same small cluster. In addition to monarchs and queens, I saw buckeyes and hairstreaks, but none of those pictures came out well.

In the grass garden nearby, goldenrod was in full bloom, and eryngo had turned deep purple.

Peach leaves turned every shade from gold to deep red.

And the desert firetail damselflies are still laying eggs in the lily pond.

Back to Archive