Blog Action Day - WATER!

I just found out it is Blog Action Day 2010 and the subject is water. A very important subject, I might add, especially here in Florida where we rely on the aquifer for our drinking water and every other kind of water. As can be seen in this 30 second video, during rainy season water isn't much of an issue.


However, I just was out in the yard and the pond is lower. We haven't had measurable rain for days. Dry season arrived suddenly and early this year. Soon the four-foot deep section of the pond will be empty, luckily the 15-foot deep section never has run dry...but it always is a concern. Once the four-foot section empties out there really isn't enough circumference for me to paddle the kayak around any longer and these days the extent of my paddling capabilities is limited to my backyard pond. Hopefully rain will arrive soon to replenish so I can continue to get this exercise. It serves a reminder that we really shouldn’t be using our potable water for gardening. It can all to quickly disappear.

I keep rain barrels and rain buckets and I took a scoop today to rinse out the compost container I use to transfer coffee grounds, veggie peels, fruit stems and my daily sudoku page from my kitchen into the compost bin, strategically located next to my brush pile in a corner of my property. I always make use of the collected rainwater whenever possible.

The compost was drier than it should have been, but is now revived with beautiful rainwater...water that is perfect for bringing it back to life. You should consider rainbarrels in your own garden. It is great for watering your container plants or your veggie garden. It's free and easily maintains itself…running down the teacup rain chain from the gutters all on its own. Leave the water from your tap for drinking and make use of mother nature's wonder for your garden. The plants will appreciate not having additives and the aquifer will appreciate not being overtaxed. Reduce, reuse, recycle…it makes sense for water use too!

Ceraunus Blue FINALLY return

It's been a long time since I've seen a Ceraunus Blue Butterfly (Hemiargus ceraunus).  As a matter of fact, it was last winter when a week long freeze made them all disappear.  I've been watching daily and finally their return has come.

 

This is a fabulous time in Central Florida.  The White Peacock butterflies are back in abundance.  I looked out today mesmerized by 7 all at once sipping nectar from the Frogfruit (Phyla nordiflora) which also serves as one of their larval hosts, although I'm pretty sure mine use the bacopa.  The buckeyes are abundant as well.  The Green Lynx spiders are becoming more and more plentiful and I've seen several females guarding egg sacs which can only mean more on the way.  Cooler nights and warm but breezy days makes it a great place to observe nature when the north is getting ready for the gardens to go to sleep.  My garden is just beginning to reawaken from the hot summer.  Stayed tuned!

A new venture!

I've been invited by beautifulwildlifegarden.com to be a voice from Florida with a weekly blog post on Fridays on providing for wildlife. I'm an eternal procrastinator as you can see by the lack of recent posts here. Given a deadline I meet the challenge and maybe it will inspire me to keep up a little more often here as well. It is a grand group of bloggers and tweeters who all care about wildlife and I'm honored to be a part. Click on their logo on the left side of my page to go read the fabulous information on gardening for wildlife that has already been posted. I've picked up great tips from these environmentally conscious writers and I'm sure you'll learn a thing or two from every post no matter what area of the country you live.

Twigs2Fledge™ the Sequel -- Not as good as the original

Well, only two of the four eggs hatch and the two babies are getting big and fat.  This brood was by far the strangest I've ever monitored.  Mom spent a good deal of incubation time with her nose out the hole of the box....something I never encountered before.  I wonder if the heat caused this and thus had to do with the eggs that didn't hatch. 

 

The two seem quite content and it definitely makes a difference in behavior when mom and dad only need to provide enough for two.  Well fed babies are boring.  I peak every day but they don't do anything.  When the brood is larger, there is always at least one who gapes or peeps looking for food any time you get near the nest box.  These two are asleep every day that I have checked, mostly because I check after I see Mom do a feeding in the morning.  I pause for a minute to make sure they are breathing....but I know they are active at some point because their positions change ever so slightly each day.  There also isn't the constant back and forth of mom and dad entering the box to feed and again to clean up.  Not as good as the original 2010 brood, but still rewarding.  Hard to believe it is already Live Day 11.  Two more days and no more peaking.  Just will wait and use the binoculars to try and approximate when fledge day will be.  I've yet to see the birds hop out...maybe this time!

Twigs2Fledge™ the Sequel

My kitchen windows overlook the backyard where the blue bird nesting box is set up. Currently I am monitoring the progress of brood number two of the 2010 season.  There were four eggs and incubation has be ongoing over the past couple of weeks.  I've pretty much been ignoring the box so that momma is not disturbed as she was spending many hours cooped up "cooking" the eggs. 

 

Today, after finishing up breakfast I noticed momma exit the box and my camera was within reach, so I quickly headed out back, grabbed the step ladder and took a quick peak.  Based on the timeline I have been following, I knew that they should hatch sometime this week.  I was thrilled that I caught the event when a single baby has hatched.  Pappa has been checking in pretty regularly today...and I hadn't seen him in quite some time.  Now I will check again tomorrow and see if we have progress with the other three eggs.  Stay tuned!

Batting a thousand!

A few days ago I noticed a mockingbird quietly leaving a groundsel bush in the front corner of my yard.  They are usually so noisy that I decided I needed to go check what was up.  Lo and behold, I discovered a nest.  Now mind you, I couldn't see into the nest, I could barely see the nest as they are very adept at disguising and blending in.  I reached my point and shoot camera in between the leaves and took a shot.  I checked the camera and saw that there were four eggs inside the nest. 

 

Since Momma chose to build it in the "dog area", instead of the back where the dogs are fenced out, I figured I better put up a temporary fence so the setters don't have wings for lunch. I did that early yesterday. Today, as I passed by to see if mom was keeping the eggs warm, I noticed a small beak sticking up.  Again, I stuck my hand in between the leaves and clicked.  Looks like 4 healthy babies.  4 for 4. 

 

I'm a little amazed that I only found the nest a few days ago.  It has to have been there for quite some time.  Nature certainly knows how to protect itself.

Lacking common "scents" or how I learned from nature

I was walking around the backyard taking pictures like I do every day. The batteries had just gone dead so I wasn't looking too closely at things because I hate missing a "once in a lifetime" photo. I passed by a small sapling that a bird planted a year or so ago. I always assumed it was some sort of holly since it retained its leaves through winter and there is a dahoon right close by in my neighbors scrub area. I really never gave it much thought until today, when I was surprised to see a large caterpillar resting square in the middle of a leaf. Now, I've learned to identify some caterpillars and this one obviously was in the swallowtail family but I thought...what the heck is it doing on a holly? I ran inside to get the spare set of rechargeables when suddenly........... DUHHHHHHH! A lightbulb went off in my non-working brain. I returned to the tree and immediately snapped off a lower leaf. I was intoxicated by the spicey smell brought forth when I crushed the leaf between my fingers. The tree is a RED BAY! Florida native persea borbonia with it's lovely smell and leathery, glossy leaves. Mind you, the tree is not even my height (about 5 foot) and is one of the "bloom where God planted you" additions to my yard bought on when I I had little luck in buying and planting things around my yard.

Since that time I learned about the Florida Native Plant Society and joined the Pine Lily Chapter (Osceola County). I studied up on ecosystems, "right plant, right place", the importance of choosing native over exotic and about two years ago I started letting various sections of my yard just grow to see what had been chopped prior to my buying the property. Once again I have been rewarded by my new "garden addition" attitude. I also learned today that I should snap a leaf off of the things I'm not sure of the identification and take a whiff.....or maybe I'll just wait to see what creature of nature can clue me in. In this case, I initially thought spicebush butterfly, but a check on the internet clued me in to its relative, the Palamedes Swallowtail (Papilio palamedes) this guy will grow up to be.