One of my favorite places to photograph at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge is the Bayscape Garden behind the old visitor center, near the Bayview Butterfly Trail. A Bayscape Garden is designed to benefit people, wildlife and the Chesapeake Bay.

On my most recent visit to the Bayscape Garden, I photographed some beautiful monkshood (aconitum carmichaelii) flowers. I loved the deep purple flowers that I photographed. And all you have to do is take one look at the shape of the flowers to know why it is names monkshood. Here are some of my photos of the monkshood at Eastern Neck NWR.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I only made it to Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge a couple of times this year. Each time, I found wonderful things to photograph. I think I’m going to try to get there more often next year. 🙂