Great Golden Digger Wasp

My Tropical Milkweed plants are not just popular with the butterflies.  The Great Golden Digger Wasp has been busy most of the afternoon. I’ve seen two of them working hard on the flowers.

The adults drink nectar.

They are a beneficial insect for the garden. They don’t have hives like other wasps…they paralyze an insect and put it in a burrow..then lay an egg in it. It becomes food for the young.

They didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures of them…they weren't aggressive towards me…

They are really quite pretty.

Gopher Tortoise

Jim drove in the yard..blowing the horn…and yelling “get your camera!!”.  There is a big turtle walking down the road.

We live on a dead-end dirt road. I don’t know where it came from…but it was on a mission and it didn’t want to stop and visit.

Here is a close up of the boney structures under its neck.  I read that males use this when battling another male …they use it to try and  flip the opponent over onto it’s back.

It just kept walking…look at the claws!  No wonder they can dig burrows.

I kept trying to figure out a place for it on our property…..but it is illegal to remove them from their home range. 

It looks as if it wanted to see what the camera was and headed right towards me.

Jim took this picture of us so you could see how big it is.

After the photo op it just kept on walking….

There are tree farms on both sides of this road and on both sides after the cross road. Perhaps it has a mate or knows of one and is headed that way. They can have and use several burrows and may be headed to one of those.  I hope so. I would love to have it stay in the area….and be free to roam.

Eastern Phoebe

It’s may be hard to believe….but I started this blog because of the Painted Buntings that were coming to my feeders. I was so intrigued by their beautiful colors that I had to share them…….from there I’ve gone to anything living in our little space in the hammock.

This Eastern Phoebe has been hanging around for a couple of weeks. In the past I saw it only once. Now I am watching it catch insects near the boat…off the awning of the camper and flying down to scoop them up in the yard.

The Brazillian Pepper trees are blooming and they are buzzing with Honey Bees. I hope we have enough insects to keep it away from them.

Since we use no insect sprays in our area…..we probably have plenty.

As you can see….most of the leaves have fallen from the tree….it is fall in the Hammock.

I think it has fallen in love with the awing on the camper. It sits there most of the time and has a great view of the yard.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Many people put out fake Owls to keep the birds off their boats….I don’t have to…

It looks like it’s trying to fly off with the boat.

It saw something in the grass …..

Then it looked at the tree….and decided to sit up there awhile….

What a beautiful bird.

It wasn’t afraid of me….but kept an eye on me as I walked around to get better pictures.

It moved onto the feeder hangers and I decided to discourage that for a sitting spot and chased it away. I hated to see it leave…but I had no choice…..

Look at this face….such a handsome bird….and such a sharp beak.

Nine Monarchs….10.26.10

By 9 am….9 Monarchs had emerged.

We’ve another beautiful day, here in the hammock. All my windows and doors are open to the fresh air….and a good day for releasing butterflies.

3 of the Monarchs made their chrysalis on a leaf

and the first one emerged today. You can see part of another one in the upper L under the leaf.

  It was before daylight and the artificial light doesn’t work well with the camera and the screen in the background, but I will post the video anyways. I think you will see at least 3 emerge.

If you watch closely….you can see the one on the leaf and the one at the back of the house…rolling and unrolling their proboscis….this is like a straw that they use to sip nectar from the flowers. I hadn’t noticed them do this before.

Then watch the one on the leaf….you can see it’s thorax (belly) flex and unflex as it pumps the fluid into the wings.

The end of the video shows them getting their exercise before I  let  them go.   This will be my biggest release….I’ve only 8 chrysalis left….they will be out before the other 5 caterpillars are ready.

4 Monarchs & 1 Queen emerge today 10.25.10

I was up at 6:45 and enjoying my coffee in the screen room. The full moon had the landscape lit up …I could see better than with a flashlight. I was waiting for the birds to get up. The half hour before daylight they are the most vocal. I had already tossed corn and a couple of carrots for the bunnies. The squirrels show up long after sun up.

I was expecting 4 Butterflies to emerge today, but not until after 11:00.

At 7:00 I glanced at the Butterfly House and saw 2 butterflies out of the Chrysalis.  By 9:00 there were 5.

I only had one Queen in a Chrysalis

I could see the vivid colors and knew it wouldn’t be long….it wasn’t

The video of it’s emerging was too blurry to post……

You can see the difference in color….the Monarch is actually much brighter…the flash washes out it’s color

Here are the 4 Monarchs..

It was fun watching them exercise….  

This isn’t the last of them…I have 17 more….and another 6 caterpillars. 1 is in the “J” and should pupate tomorrow….

Two Striped Giant Walking Stick

My husband headed to the “Potting Shed” this morning, where he spotted this very large insect.

I was pretty sure it was a Walking Stick, but it wasn’t the kind I was used to seeing. I grabbed my camera…took a bunch of pictures and a short video…then looked it up on the internet.   www.bugguide.net  is pretty easy to find things on.

After looking at several Walking Stick photos I settled on the Two Striped. 

The male is the smaller, lighter colored one on her back.

Once it moved into the sunlight…I was surprised to see that it did in deed look like wood…polished wood. It was beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice.

 

Quick update on the Monarchs…..number 3 emerged and was released today.

Isn’t she beautiful? The colors and polka dots are so vivid.

No more expected for a couple of days….but they could surprise me.