Crouching Bunny, Hidden Rodent

My darling hubby took some pics in the garden this weekend, and I thought you'd like to see them.  He focused on the animals that enjoy the backyard.  We have a lot of different kinds of plants, and having a varied habitat attracts a wide range of insects and other animals.  At least, that's what I try to tell myself when I don't manage to get out there and weed, lol.

Here's the famous "Crouching Bunny, Hidden Rodent.  He gets those beautifully shiny eyes from all the flowers he eats.  Lots of vitamins.

Do you like Autumn Joy sedum?  The bees and butterflies sure do.  Here's a little bee enjoying his morning nectar.  In my opinion, nectar's got nothing on a steaming cup o' joe, but to each their own.

This amazing butterfly has such beautiful markings.  I would have thought it was a kind of moth, but I would be wrong.  I never have figured out the distinction between moths and butterflies, outside of the fact that butterflies don't wreck havoc  with my winter wardrobe.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my garden. 

Crown Imperial Fritillaria -- Lutea

This is the first year I've grown this plant. Last fall, I planted three of them. They are grown from bulbs, and the bulbs were huge, about the size of a medium orange, and an ivory color.
They're a very distinctive looking plant, the variety Lutea is a lovely lemony yellow, which blends well with the other colors in the spring garden. Crown Imperial Fritillaria also comes in an orange color, but I would imagine that would be hard to incorporate successfully into most spring gardens color scheme, although it would really snap with blues. There is also a red, which to me looks more like a red-orange.
The main reason I planted Crown Imperial was that it's reputed to be a vole deterrent. I've had trouble with voles, and other rodents, eating my bulbs. So I'm hoping it repels our resident voles. One thing it doesn't repel is squirrel. One climbed up the plant pictured above, soon after that photo was taken, and snapped the plant off at the base.

Praying Squirrel

My husband won a squirrel feeder at a drawing at a local garden supply store (winning drawings seems to be a trend, lol), and mounted it on a tree in our backyard. It's ironic, since the squirrels are a nuisance, digging up bulbs, knocking over sunflowers to get the seeds, so feeding them intentionally is a bit of a stretch for us.
This squirrel was so adorable. He sat down on his little chair, you can see his tiny toes curving over his chair, then put his paws together on the 'tabletop' where the corncob is fastened, bowed his head, and looked like he was saying grace, before he began to eat.
I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch him in prayer, but did get this cute shot of him eating.