The hummingbird clearwing moth would hardly stay still long enough for a photo. Darting left, zipping right, zooming up, swooping down—he was always in a hurry looking for the next sip of nectar. His long skinny proboscis was busy probing the bee balm blossoms that abounded around us.
I had photographed clearwing moths several times before, and they are always a delight. I do not see them often.
Large bumblebees crawled all over the blossoms, as did small bees, a small skipper, and the larger silver-spotted skipper. Cabbage white and clouded sulphur butterflies flitted about. Dragonflies darted all around a little pond. Birds sang everywhere, all the time.
That happened yesterday. Bethany and I were visiting Birdsong Pleasure Garden near Luray, Virginia, as part of our 32nd wedding anniversary vacation.
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Mack began converting a three-acre property, largely a field, into a lush garden. Actually, it is a dozen little gardens—bonsai garden, orchard and native garden, cutting garden, daylilies and natives garden, to name a few. They thought, Why mow, when you can convert the space into a fun garden?
That was back in 1992. By 2015, their property became Birdsong Pleasure Garden. To begin with, they planted anything fun. However, in time, they transitioned away from domestic plants in favor of native plants.
We were welcomed by Mrs. Lesley Mack, who promptly showed us multiple kinds of non-deet insect spray and invited us to use any we wanted. She gave a brief history of everything, and then we were on our own. It could have been a guided tour, but we wished to take our time, photographing insects in particular.
One of the highlights I’m mentioning last, actually was the first feature we enjoyed—a water garden. The water lilies were just gorgeous. Around the edges grew carnivorous plants. I had never thought of using a pond like that to grow plants like that. It was beautiful!
When we left, I told Mrs. Mack that we may be back on our 64th wedding anniversary. Come to think of it, I’m hoping it is a lot sooner than that.
Yes, Mrs. Mack, we DID see a red fox just down the road a mile or two. It saw us and darted from the roadside ditch into the cornfield.