The Sulphur Butterfly Emerged Already!

If you read the blog over at Beautiful Wildlife Garden, you'll know in a recent article of mine I wrote about a caterpillar changing color based on the plant it was eating.

The cloudless sulphur caterpillar quickly turned into a beautiful butterfly. Here's a short, "From Caterpillar to Freedom", video slideshow:



It took considerably less time than I anticipated. Only 6 days from chrysalis to emerge. SPEEDY!

Bird in the Night

I recently had a visit from a Killdeer, my first encounter of this plover-type bird. I heard it before I saw it, and I haven't seen it since, but I know it still is around.

At night I let the dogs out for their last trip to potty around 10:00 p.m. There is a street light a couple of lots over which is more than enough light for this "Dark Sky" loving individual, but pretty much it is dark in my rural yard…VERY dark. The Irish Setter and Yellow Labrador are free to run on their own at this hour, but my English Setter, Tanner, needs to be on a leash, as he would never come back inside given the choice of searching out wildlife in the garden or coming back inside to sleep. He's a nature lover, as well.

Stomped down grasses with a "hole" at the fenceline from my neighbor's natural area is evidence that I have marsh rabbits that visit the pond at night. The sound of doves taking flight as we walk along the driveway also whets his appetite to stay outdoors. But, nothing has captured his interest as the killdeer (pictured top during the day). The alarm sound of this bird has created a monster in my English boy. At first he merely perked up his ears and got in a "set" position. Now he wakes me faithfully at 4:00 a.m. with pleas of needing to go out. He really doesn't need to go…he just wants to flush out and hear this bird that is using our meadow grasses as night cover. Although sleep deprived, I find it amusing.

I find it more interesting that the bird chooses to stay in the area that the dogs have access to 24/7. Just yards away, on the backyard side of a fence, is my bird "promotion" area which the dogs only have access to when I am with them. Perhaps the killdeer is lying in wait to be amused as well.

Butterfly of Winter

I saw another Common Buckeye today when not much else of the insect variety was showing itself in the cooler temperatures. Somehow "common" doesn't describe them at all...they are quite regal-looking with their numerous eyes on colorful wings.

The photo here is one from after the first freeze in December as I was not quick enough to capture today's brave soul with the camera. You can click the picture to see it full size.

Junonia coenia is the scientific name for this species which uses several different larval hosts in Florida which in my garden include: fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora); toadflax (Linaria spp.); plantain (Plantago spp.) twinflower (Dyschoriste spp.) and bluehearts (Buchnera americana). Based on this long list (there are other hosts too), the caterpillars aren't particularly fussy.

They are a little on the shy side...darting off if you cast a shadow too closely, but every now and again they will be so enthralled in a flower or hanging out in the gravel driveway that you'll get a good photo. And they sure do help brighten a winter day.

Be sure to visit over at beautifulwildlifegarden.com for great ideas on attracting wildlife to your own garden.

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™

It's been just about a month since the bluebirds were scouting the nesting box. Construction of the interior is well underway. I'm putting up a picture or two each day at Twitter under the hashtag #twigs2fledge...sort of a mini-blog...so you can see the progress from...well....twigs to fledge...when the babies leave the coop. I've decided to name Momma and Poppa "Twigs" and "Fledge", respectively.

I got involved in monitoring my bluebirds when I first moved here in 2006 and saw an article in the local paper by one of our extension agent experts. She wanted people to report where we saw bluebirds. I had them in the yard and was surprised that they were a rare occurrence. I reported in that they were always flitting around my yard and Eleanor Foeste (the extension agent) inquired if there were nesting boxes in the area. I never heard of a nesting box so I looked it up on the Internet, read up quite a bit on how bluebirds are dwindling in numbers due to habitat loss and decided that would be the perfect gift for Santa to bring me for Christmas 2006.

I put up my box in February/March 2007 and was surprised to have residents almost immediately. It is of cedar construction and was purchased at a local big box store. I had read that it can sometimes take years for the bluebirds to find and be comfortable enough to use a nesting box. I guess because I maintain a good deal of my yard as a natural landscape which is in a semi-remote rural location, the birds were happy to move in quickly. That first year I had two broods. In 2008 I had four broods (the last a mere two babies) and in 2009 I had three broods. I follow the tips I found on http://www.sialis.org/ and I do check the babies for parasites and last year provided meal worms to help momma when she had a rather large brood (6). It is a well written and informative site and I even asked a question one time and received immediate (less than a day) answer when I thought I had an early loss (apparently they were older than I had initially counted and fledged on time--I need to go back and relearn arithmetic).

Bluebirds are fascinating and fun to watch. They are tolerant of human help (although they will dive bomb your head...without making contact).

I hope, at the end of this first brood of 2010 venture, to put together a video slideshow containing all the pictures. You can follow along as I go by searching twitter.com for the keyword "twigs2fledge" or Google it...both Twitter and TwitPic feed the keywords into Google search. I hope you all enjoy the journey! I know I will!

August to December 2009 Butterflies in my yard

I wanted to see if I could put together a slideshow of my butterfly photos that was set to music. I'm rather pleased with my first attempt at doing this. Hope you like the results!