Jazmin Climbs a Tree and Other Photos

You may recall me mentioning Jazmin, our newest cat that we found starving and injured back in March. She is healing pretty well and has gained a lot of weight. She is incredibly active and agile, and she jumps up onto the top of kitchen wall cabinets, about 7 ft above the floor, and bounds around the upper reaches of the kitchen. We decided to keep her as a mostly indoor cat, with only brief, supervised, excursions to the out-of-doors. I took her out today for a bit and she chased a female cardinal all the way up a tree. Below is the picture I took of her 25 feet up the tree, looking somewhat concerned about where she wound up and how to get down. She managed a controlled crash to get back down on her own.

I had a comment that my previous "spider at meal" post was a little "gruesome". It was, wasn't it? So that readers don't get the wrong idea about me, I have some prettier, less gory , shots below. ;-)

A couple of weeks ago, I took some pictures of bumblebees in the garden. This one, and many of its friends and relatives, were feeding on the pink monardas and purple coneflowers. It is a real stretch for them to reach the nectar in the monarda, but it must be an abundance of the good stuff because they sure do go after it.

No problem reaching the goodies in the coneflower, but they move so quickly from floret to floret that the amounts of nectar at each must be miniscule.

I need help ID'ing this butterfly that I shot on the Zumbro River path. It is a Fritillary, but which one - the Great Spangled, Aphrodite, or Atlantis? All three are found here. I don't think it is the Atlantis because it is lacking the black band at the edge of the hindwing. I'm leaning toward the Great Spangled, but can't really tell for sure. Help appreciated!

It was very cooperative and let me take its picture from above and below before it flew off. The "below" shots meant I was belly down in the brambles beside the path. I did get some strange looks from joggers passing by. They aren't the only ones to whom "no pain, no gain" applies. ;-)