The birds and the bees

Without the birds...
... or the bees...

But we have bugs!

I was out poking around in the gardens, dead-heading my roses when I came across this little beetle tucked away in one of the dying roses.

I think it's a Japenese Beetle and from what I'm reading, I better go out and kill it quick if I want to keep my roses...

Too bad, because he is pretty and I don't like killing bugs unless I have to (unless they are earwigs - I squish those suckers in a heartbeat!)

While I was photographing the pretty-but-evil-rose-eating beetle, I could hear Rocky chattering away. I turned to find him very intent on the bird feeder.

Can you see what he's looking at? Here's a closer view.

Thanks to the internet-sleuthing of some friends, we've determined that he is a Red Admiral. He wanted something in my yard pretty bad because he flitted about for quite a while

Rocky wanted him pretty bad too!

One of the plants I was hoping to get this year was a butterfly bush - sadly it wasn't in the cards, but at least I'm still getting the butterflies!