A white peacock and a red admiral

Today's post has a variety of different things going on, but I'll first focus on the flying things.  

There were two pretty butterflies that visited today, one an occasional visitor and one which is very rare.  The first is the white peacock .  I was a little bit misleading in the title because it is a white peacock butterfly and not a bird!  I see them once in a while, and today one flitted all around the backyard and finally rested on some of the yellow wedelia flowers in my neighbor's lawn. They aren't big butterflies, but I find them very pretty.

Side view shows her pretty pattern of colors.

View from the top.

The other butterfly which stopped by today is rather a rare one that I've seen maybe one other time.  It is a red admiral, which has the same coloration as a monarch but in a different pattern.  It stopped on the ferns near a dock post which seems like an odd place as there was no nectar available there.  It was also a bad place to try to take a photo, so this picture is not the best.  The other time I saw one, it also stopped on a place with no flowers.

Red admiral takes a rest on the ferns.

 

Two other colorful flying insects visited today, but these were dragonflies instead of butterflies.  One of my favorites was a Scarlet Skimmer which is so bright that you can's miss it.  The other was a common visitor, a little Eastern amberwing male.  The female looks nothing at all like the male!  I see the amberwings zipping around near the canal and over the water all the time and they are almost always males.  They are only about an inch long.

Bright red dragon stops on a twig over the water.

Tiny eastern amberwing stops in the grass.

Across the canal, the gallinule babies were again out with their mom and dad.  There still seems to be five of them,  Also across the canal, an egret and an iguana got together to survey the scene.  They were not the least bit interested in each other.

Together but not really.

In the canal, a messy mossy turtle poked his head up to see what I was doing (I was taking his picture).  They often submerge when they see me on the canal bank, but this one kept swimming around and looking up.  He was a curious fellow.

What's happening up there?

In the alcove in the canal, the coconut that has been resting there sprouting looked like it was about to make its escape into the canal to float to its new home.
 

Heading for open water and his next adventure.

Beneath all the canal activity, a large bowfin swam quietly and minded his own business.

Not bothering anyone

Along the canal bank, a bird must have dropped a millet seed from the daily feedings and a robust plant sprouted that has now thrown up a long stalk full of ripening millet seeds.  The birds can feast of that fresh produce instead of the bagged variety.

Ripening into some yummy fresh millet

Today I was happy to see that the monarch eggs on one of the milkweed plants in the enclosure have hatched and two tiny caterpillars are munching on the flowers.  Hopefully they will fatten up and some new monarchs will be on the way soon.

Finally, I am officially obsessed with the pretty petunias blooming in the kitty planter on the patio.  I'm just taken with the kitty's smile, so here are some more pictures.

A close-up of a pretty petunia flower

This kitty is happy to be wearing a blanket of petunias.