I saw this rather large black butterfly in the back yard. I believe it is the black form of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
We are having waves of light rain coming in from Tropical Storm Beryl, and I was surprised to see this butterfly.
It caught my eye because it was so big. The yellow Tiger Swallowtails have a wingspan of about 5” and this one was about that size.
It has started raining again…I’ll have to check later when the band of rain clouds pass.
What a nice “welcome home”.
I save Babe’s (our Love bird) seed and give it to the squirrels at home…but while on a trip to NY I spotted this little Chipmunk in the backyard, behind a friend’s garage. We have our camper parked there and each morning I watched him scurry around.
I put a nice heap of seed on a woodpile and watched it work. At first, I thought it was looking for a specific seed…nope…it was filling up it’s pouches, but the action reminded me of a vacuum cleaner….sweeping back and forth over them……therefore….”Hoover”.
You can see the difference in his pouches….
Looks like a bad case of the mumps.
In the pictures above, he is checking to see if the way is clear for him to head to the storage area. He scooted thru the garden and under a cinder block.
Notice how sleek his cheeks look now.
It made several more trips until the pile of seeds was gone.
According to Wikipedia.com they are omnivorous. They will eat grain, nuts, fruits & berries. Sometimes even birds eggs and small baby mice. Frogs, worms and fungi can also be part of it’s diet.
My Grandmother had several over the years that would come up and take peanuts from her hand.
This one would be easy to tame. The second day I was able stand within 3’ of the seed and it would come up and start filling it’s pouches. I spoke to it each time as I walked to the area, and while I was there so as not to scare it away. By the end of the week it was coming within minutes of hearing my voice.
The only info I could find on Chipmunks in Florida mentioned the panhandle. We’ve never seen any in our area in Central Florida. We live in a hammock and most of the year it is pretty wet….so I will just have to enjoy them here in the North.
This pair of Indigo Buntings has been at the feeders a lot lately. I think they are preparing for migration north. They have a pretty pattern on their wing tips and tail feathers.
This feeder hangs on a cable between two palm trees, which cause it to sway a bit with the breeze. Very hard to focus on them at a distance.
They eat mostly the white millet. I’ve counted at least 2 brightly colored males and 3 brown ones like the one on the R. That could be a female or an adolescent.
They don’t come in as early as the Painted Buntings. I usually see them by November…but the Indigos don’t usually show up until around February. They all seem to leave at the same time. It is so colorful here during the winter…..add several red Cardinals and it can be spectacular.
This is one of my favorites. It’s wingspan can be up to 5”. This one is not quite that large.
The L “swallowtail” is missing on this one. She posed so well I took a second picture. Very distinct pattern on her wings.
I believe this is a male….see the blue ringed with orange near the tail? And it has both tails.
This one is missing the R tail. Looks like I had 3 visit the Bottlebrush Bush today.
We spent over a week on the boat. If you like gators….check out the boating blog… www.alwayslingerawhile.blogspot.com
I have video of a Gator, Manatees and Swallowtail Kites…but unable to publish them. If you go to www.youtube.com and put CmyBirds2 in the “search” it will bring up all the videos I have posted on both blogs.
If anyone one knows why the sudden problem with attaching videos to the blog..please let me know.
Each trip to NY, VT and back, Jim had to patch up the old Award camper. It looked fine inside and out…but Jim saw all the places that were disintegrating.
It doesn’t look too bad from here….but inside the walls on the L front corner and the R rear corner…the wood foundation was quickly rotting out.
It’s only 23’ long, including the hitch….and Jim used everything he could from the interior and walls for the car hauler/ camper.
All the doors, windows, cupboards, toilet, shower,sinks and closets were used.
The kitchen area is from the camper…The fridge quit so we used the little one that came with the car hauler. The furnace also was giving trouble so Jim added a propane heater on the wall over the counter top stove. (2 burners over the fridge).
Some of the outside wall was used to make the fold up bed. Even the little rail trim was from the camper. He used 5 windows from the camper and the door. (We needed a way out of the car part and it has a screen door.)
So….we now have this.
and this…… our old camper is now a flat bed. Jim loaded all the stuff he couldn’t use. Sorted out the clean aluminum, brass, steel and other metal, and it all went to the local recycle station.
We still have 3 windows left…..hummmmm…I wonder what he can make with them?
This is the view from the screen room. Last winter we added a woodstove to it and heat with wood. We set our thermostat at 61 but so far, it hasn’t come on.
Cool mornings we start a fire and enjoy our coffee. When the day warms up….we just open the doors.
Cardinals, Painted Buntings, Indigo Buntings, Gold Finches and Titmice come to the feeders. Northern Parula Warblers feed on the bottlebrush and Catbirds bath in the birdbath. Carolina Wrens climb over everything looking for insects. Squirrels and Doves come to the hanging platform feeder.
We have our coffee and enjoy the action. When it starts to warm up outside..we just open the sliding doors.
The white objects in the back are beehives. The tallest one is a hollow tree we cut in pieces, glued and restacked for a hive. No bees yet. Waiting for a swarm.
I had honeybees last year but wax moths invaded them and the bees left. So I have to start over. I don’t use chemicals, and they were new hives …one from a swarm and one a package of bees. They were just getting started and hadn’t built up strong enough to protect the hive from the wax moth larva, which destroy honeycomb and sometimes feed on bee larva.
I am starting to see a few more Painted Buntings at the feeders. I’ve seen 3 males at the feeder at one time. There may be more but that is the way I have to count them for http://www.paintedbuntings.org/ They record all the sightings. This prevents you from counting the same bird several times.
Aren’t they beautiful? They show up around Nov and leave by April.
The greenie could be an adolescent male…or a female
The feeder pole is PVC pipe in concrete. There are several scratch marks where the Raccoons have tried to climb it…but they have to let go with one foot to reach the feeders….and down they go.
The birdbath’s automatic drip runs into the tray beneath the Giant Milkweed. If I just sat the pots on the ground, fire ants would make a home in them and kill off the plants. This way they get a little water when it doesn’t rain.
I have a small swarm trap hive on a stand in the front yard by the Bottlebrush bushes. I have it as close to their line of flight, as possible, without it sitting in the driveway.
The Bottlebrush are just starting to bloom. We had a little rain and that will help.
When the bushes are in full bloom they just hum with honeybees.
They are also a favorite of the butterflies.
At one time this feeder was in the back yard. I’ve moved it to this area because it provides more shelter during storms. It has a hot wire running over it to keep the raccoons out. They used to climb across the cable and empty the feeder.
The big ball is a Staghorn Fern. My sister gave it to us when she moved. It hangs on a thick chain between the two Cabbage Palms. A heavy frost did a lot of damage but it is coming back.
Since Smokey, (the grey female cat, that took over our back porch) came to stay ……she added a couple of kittens to the family.
They are definitely outdoor cats. We are allowed to pet “Smokey” and “Lightening”, when they are eating, but don’t let them see your hand moving towards them or they will run.
“Bolt” wont even come to the plate if we are close to it.
Jim gave the kittens their names because of the lightening like pattern on their legs. This is Bolt. You can see his marking on the R front leg.
This is Lightening. His mark is on a hind leg. Don’t you just love that little butterfly mark on his mouth?
Since we go boating for a week or two and camping for as long or longer, we needed a way to help keep them fed, even though they are not pets.
I did some research on “feral” cats and how they feed colonies of them without raccoons robbing the feed. This is the type of feeder some were having good luck with.
It’s a bit over 3’ off the ground and the same distance from the deck. The heat pump is to the left of the feeder and about the same distance. I’ve seen them jump from the ground up and from the deck.
The aluminum around the base is to prevent raccoons from climbing up the post. Supposedly, Raccoons cant jump. It’s been in place a few days and so far we’ve not noticed any robbing by them. I put Vaseline around the top of the post, up under the skirting, to prevent ants from getting into the food.
It has too openings so they can’t get trapped in there by another cat or critter.
The only thing we had to buy was the feeder inside. Everything else Jim recycled from something else. The skirting around the base is from the old camper…. the wood from the car hauler and he made the brackets for the post from camper parts.
The enclosed corner is towards the west where many of our storms come from. The two open sides face the deck/screen room and the mobile home. That should keep most of the hard rain out. A neighbor will check the food to be sure it hasn’t gotten wet or spoiled or empty.
We could have put it in the woods…but then we wouldn’t be able to watch the cats and harder for our friend to check on it. Not the prettiest thing around but we’ll live with it.
Smokey has been spayed and the kittens neutered. That will help keep the feral or stray cat population down…and if they decide they want to stay….they have a home.
Smokey must like us….she presented us with a nice big fat rat a few days ago. She’s a keeper.
