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.

2nd Monarch Emerged today 10.21.10

I noticed last evening the Chrysalis was getting darker and clear. I was surprised this morning when it emerged at almost the same time as the first one.  I missed the initial splitting of the Chrysalis. It was outside and the wings were still folded up. That was at 11:55…

This is one end of the house and you can see 8 more waiting.

I think I will keep her in until morning. I have a potted Plumbago in the house and  I made an arrangement of Jatropha, Pentas and Buddleia. She has a choice of pink, red and blue.   So far she’s shown  no interest in them.  My research said they didn’t need to be fed until the next day…and that is most likely why.

For now she is content to hang on the screen and slowly exercise her wings.

I expect another in 2 days…another 2 days later and 2 days after that there could be 4.   After that I had 8 pupate in one day and 8 more the next day….so those 2 days could be interesting.

You’ve probably seen enough Monarchs and caterpillars for awhile…

Emerging Monarch Butterfly……10.18.10 (my first)

This photo of the Chrysalis was taken at 2 pm  yesterday…you can see the outline of the butterfly and it’s color,  but the Chrysalis is still green.

This was taken at 0845 this morning….the Chrysalis is clear and the colors are more vivid.

This was taken a few hours later…at 11:11.  I started watching very closely at this point.

At 11:42 it started to split the Chrysalis. The body is full of fluid that will be pumped into the wings. Notice how fat it’s thorax is now. These were snapshots taken from the video and are not very clear.

 

It looks like some kind of weird bug …… It’s hard to imagine it all fit into that little shell.

Now that the wings are full of fluid…notice the thorax is about normal size. 

It stayed by the empty Chrysalis for over an hour letting the wings dry…

It then  traveled around the cage for awhile ….finally settling on the flowers.

I don’t see any black dots on the hind wings….and the black webbing is thick. Both are signs it’s a female. Perhaps she’ll be back next year and lay eggs on  my milkweed plants. 

I am planting all the ones used to raise the caterpillars….and starting seeds in pots to add to the area. I also purchased Swamp Milkweed seeds from Karen at          www.glorious-butterfly.com         I will be starting them after refrigerating them for a few weeks ( cold stratification). It’s amazing all the new stuff you learn.                                 

Isn’t she beautiful?

I moved her  out of the Butterfly House into the screen room….after a few minutes she started fluttering against the window as though wanting to get out. I placed her back on the bush and moved it outdoors…..a few minutes later she  flew up into a tree. I hope she spends the night there and then makes the rounds of the flowers in the yard in the morning.

Watch the video to see her emerge, pump the fluid from her  body into the wings, get a little exercise….and then her first flight……. to freedom.

What an interesting day!!!