Honey Bees around the yard 11.8.15

When there is lots of stuff blooming I don’t see many bees on the plants in the yard…but when pickings get lean…here they come.

This is one of our Bottlebrush trees. There are two in the front yard and this one and two small ones in the backyard. The bush next to it is a Jathropa. The hives are behind them.

The Bottlebrush is humming with bees.

at least 4 on this bloom.

The Jathropa attracts bees all summer …for pollen.

It’s also a Butterfly favorite.

This is my Pagoda Bush….I have never seen bees on this till now…Swallowtail Butterflies love it.

It might be tricky with the long stamens but they’ve figured it out.

 

The Wild Asters are just starting to bloom back here…blooming along the canal down the road for a few weeks. My main stand still isn’t blooming so they will have something for later.

Whenever I find a plant the bees like I dig up a few and get them started back here. I forget the name of this blue fluffy plant but the bees seem to like it.

I only have a little of this but it grows wild through the tree farms.

Powder Puff bush….looks like raspberries then they fluff out.

This is another one I hardly ever see bees on…

The Pepperbush is done and the bushes down the road have passed also…the wild Asters grow throughout the tree farm and those that are not in full sun will still be blooming….after that…guess we wait till Dec and the Red Maple trees start blooming.

Raccoons at the “Frog Pond” 11.3.15

I have a cement frog pond that sits on the end of the deck. The rain water and condensation keep it full. It was intended for the cats and the Honey Bees but since it has been dry the Raccoons are using it.

There is lattice around the deck and they climb up it…here comes the first one.

guzzling away….

I am sitting in the screen room with the door open for pictures…I think he just noticed me.

here comes the next one….

Normally there is standing water all around us…but I checked when I saw they were using this and it is dry out there now.

There are 3 young Raccoons that come up for water…

https://youtu.be/Iz90o6Pqkws   short video

I have a birdbath with a continual drip so it stays full….the Honey Bees, Birds, Squirrels and Cats use it. There is a birdbath on the ground that catches the overflow and some of the Raccoons drink there.

Here is the squirrel.

I have Giant Milkweed and Tropical Milkweed in pots around it on the ground. I pull the algae over the side and it drips into the plants.

My first Painted Bunting of the year….been coming in for about 2 weeks.

Always interesting when I have my morning coffee on the porch….the cats and I sit and watch the Raccoons, Birds, Squirrels and Doves.

Big Swallowtail Caterpillars and newly hatched 10.23.15

My original 3 are almost full size. I keep expecting to see them gone but they are eating away like crazy…wont be long. I hope I can find a chrysalis.

I’ve been watching and today was the first time I saw something that looked like a newly hatched caterpillar. There are 3 in this picture…2 in the next.

 

I love watching the changes in them as they shed and grow.

This is my first experience with these so it’s going to be fun watching them.

Caterpillars….10.18.15

I saw a Black Swallowtail flying around the yard one day so I bought a couple Parsley Plants for it to lay on. Only had one caterpillar so there must have been an egg on the plant when I bought them. They were small plants and it ate one almost completely up.

The second one had time to grow.

We got back from our boat trip (www.alwayslingerawhile.blogspot.com)   and I spotted 3 caterpillars on it. Here are two.

We also found several eggs…looks like I may have to buy more caterpillar food. I counted 10 just on this part of the plant.

I have some sprouting in my milkweed bed but they are tiny.

I took this 2 days later….they are growing up.

I have 2 Passion Flower plants for the Zebra Longwings and Gulf Fritillary's. This is a Longwing.

She lays her eggs on the tips of the vine. …in large clusters. There are 4 0r 5 that have already hatched.

This is what it looks like when they all hatch. I think there are at least 20.

  They tend to stay together.

Even at this stage they are in a group. 

This one is almost ready to find a place to become a chrysalis.

Not a very good photo but this is what it will become.

It is really  a beautiful Chrysalis.

This is the Gulf Fritillary.

This is the underside…it’s beautiful…painted kind of like a clown face.

She lays one egg on a leaf…sometimes 2 but never in a cluster like the Zebra Longwing. This one is almost grown.

 

4 small ones.

They hang in a “J” …then shed their skin and end up a Chrysalis.

and this is their Chrysalis…similar to the Longwing’s

 

I like having all the butterflies…but I love the caterpillars more.

I grow Tropical milkweed and Giant milkweed for the Monarchs and Queens….Passion Flower Vine for the Zebra Longwings and Gulf Fritillaries…and now I’ve added Parsley for the Black Swallowtails.

Bat 10.8.15

We spent some time on the Arkansas River, OK. When we got home it was early evening and I noticed something on the bat house.

Thought it was a bat waiting for us to get the boat out of the way so it could come out.

It was there the next day and the next…couldn’t see what it was with the binoculars so I took a picture and cropped it.

It definitely looks like a bat. Figured it must be dead since it had been in the same spot for a week.

Today we took the 14’ step ladder and an extendable limb  trimmer…I climbed up and caught it with the tip and knocked it down.

It was definitely a bat and it has a hole in it’s throat.

I took a couple pictures by a tape measure. It looks like it is about 3” long or 3 1/8”.  I don’t know if this would be a Big Brown or a Little Brown Bat.  It was outside the 7/8” chamber…Jim made the outside for the Big Browns and the inside chamber is 1/2” for Little Browns….maybe this is a young one? 

I had on a pair of latex gloves..the ones I wear when working with the Honey Bees…

It’s a bit fuzzy since I cropped it more but here is a close up of the hole.

No idea what happened to it…could have been a fight or maybe ants got to it after it died.

We had a bat move into this 2 weeks after we put it up…we knew a bat soared around this area…it used to fly over the roof when Mom was alive…she called him “Billy” so Billy it has been….he’s been there all year…before we went boating I counted 2 bats..I sure hope this isn’t Billy. If it is then he most likely died of old age. I think they can live up to 20 years…Mom has been gone 10 years and her Billy kept her company for several years. She enjoyed sitting outside in the evening and watching him zip back and forth.

The bat house looks pretty tall but that palm behind it is about twice as tall. I’m just standing near the bat house.

If you can tell which kind of bat it is or what may have killed it..let me know.