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applestar
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2019 Backyard Birds, etc. Wildlife Watching

— starting the annual thread for backyard/neighborhood wildlife watching — :D

...I heard an unusual chirping sound outside and started looking, first without aid, then with my binoculars. I spotted a Junco, but that couldn’t be it.... I was about to give up when I noticed an odd blurry lump near the base of the eastern redbud in the front yard and directed my binoculars that-a-way ... ah ha! It was a yellow-shafted flicker. Not a common visitor, but I see them once in a while.
Northern flicker - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_flicker

eastern yellow-shafted flicker (C. a. auratus) resides in eastern North America. They are yellow under the tail and underwings and have yellow shafts on their primaries. They have a grey cap, a beige face, and a red bar at the napeof the neck.

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The flicker is pretty common in my area. They won't feed from my hand yet. Actually that might be a good thing. With those beaks, I make one wrong move and they could take both my eyes out before I had a chance to blink.lol

I'll stick with my downy woodpecker buddies.

I'm pleased that I have partridges coming to my yard again, it's been a couple years.

A female downy last week, enjoying the suet block they know I have.
P1060105.JPG

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applestar
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Is it a more northerly range bird? Maybe it has come down further south this year. This might mean I will be seeing Pine Siskins and even Red Poles this winter. They only come around when we are experiencing especially cold winter.

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Hello applestar, your links says that the flicker should be year round in your area and summer only in mine. Well I guess they are wrong then. lol

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applestar
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I posted this in 2013:

Subject: Goldfinches eat DANDELION SEEDS
Sat May 11, 2013 8:12 am
applestar wrote:I just saw goldfinches enthusiastically tearing open unopened dandelion seed heads and eating the seeds. :o

[...]

BTW, while I was watching the goldfinches, I saw an unusual visitor -- an Indigo Bunting :() Does anyone know if Indigo Buntings hang out with Goldfinches? This is the second time I've seen Indigo Bunting while I was noticing a flock/harem of goldfinches arrive and do something in my garden. ...or maybe it's just a coincidence. :?

Today, around 3PM, I happened to casually look out of the window and noticed a blob of bright blue in my Luther Sweet corn bed. I grabbed the binoculars, thinking a wrapper of some sort had blown in... and realized it was an Indigo Bunting !!

I couldn’t get my iPhone fast enough. I took a quick pic while grabbing the clip on telephoto lens, then took some LivePhotos.(though I can’t post those here — LivePhoto mode lets me capture multiple frames and often yield that one good shot that I might have missed otherwise) It was pecking around the ground picking things up and gobbling them down.

Image

...I thought it was alone, but then it flew into the Rose of Sharon hedge and was joined by a Song Sparrow, then a Wren flew into the branches, but they might have been trying to chase it away.

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applestar
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...listening...

It’s 2am — I hear a Great Horned Owl hooting somewhere nearby :D

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applestar
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An excerpt from a post yesterday —
Subject: My pond project is under way
applestar wrote: Image
...it’s not a steady fountain since what comes out is a lot of air and occasional gurgle and burst of excess water (every 5-20 seconds with pretty good sized spray once in a while). It does make enough watery, drippy noises and spray bursts of water that I think it will be attractive to the hummingbirds
[...]

Here’s the pond now, viewed from upstairs window:
Image
[...]
—- so I was admiring my handiwork from the window this morning, and saw a blur in the rain. It hovered in the Kitchen Garden - to my surprise, in front of the overwintered mini cabbage in the top of the strawberry pot that has bolted and is blooming.

Grab the binocs — Can it be a hummingbird? Do they actually drink nectar from cabbage flowers? — YES!! it was a MALE with gorgeous red gorgette ... stockier than the females I’m more used to seeing. No way to tell if the little fountain did attract the hummer male, but I was happy.

(Nope, sorry no pics)

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applestar
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A pair of chickadees have moved into one of the birdhouses, and I think house wrens have moved into the one two fence posts over facing the other side.

I’m seeing a female hummingbird starting regular visits to the trumpet honeysuckle covered gate arbor :D

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Yesterday, one of the chickadee pair that is nesting in a birdhouse was carrying on. I could hear it “Dee Dee Dee”-ing incessantly.

I picked up my binocs to see that it had come around the corner of the house to the backyard, and it was hopping from branch to branch, “Dee Dee Dee”-ing — this is typically a behavior I see when there is an intruder, so I started looking around the yard, but I didn’t see anything. I looked back at the bird, and saw that it was making all this racket while STILL CARRYING THE WHITE BABY POOP PACKET — most likely the male on “taking out the baby poop” duty.

I saw him bee-line toward the other side of the house, and a white cat with black tail — a newcomer stray that I hadn’t seen before — ran to the back of the yard/shed corner, where there is cat-sized access to the next door neighbor’s yard — she has a tarp-covered converted playfort where she shelters strays and feeds them in that corner (she also catches and takes them to the vet, and finds homes for them).

I yelled after that cat to shoo it out of my yard and told him to make sure to go to the NEXT house over from now on. :roll: :wink:

Once the cat had disappeared behind the shed and out, the chickadee quieted down and presumably went back to his important task of keeping his house clean :D

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applestar
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LOLOL Just now, a chickadee was way too loud at my bedroom window. When I went to look, there it was, clinging to the screen and yelling in. It might have been a fledgling. It flew off once, but came back again. O:)

...yeah — I’m hearing more activity than usual, the babies might’ve fledged. :D



...either that or it’s come to tell me there’s another intruder — get out there and help... :-()

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applestar
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Do you know how I could tell for sure this morning that the chickadees did fledge yesterday?

— a HOUSE WREN is singing at their birdhouse, going in and out, enticing a lady Wren inside to inspect the premises! :()

I believe once the babies fledge, chickadees fly around as a family, and I guess don’t come back to the birdhouse?

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applestar
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Subject: 2019 Backyard Birds, etc. Wildlife Watching
Fri May 24, 2019
applestar wrote:Yesterday, one of the chickadee pair that is nesting in a birdhouse was carrying on. I could hear it “Dee Dee Dee”-ing incessantly.

I picked up my binocs to see that it had come around the corner of the house to the backyard, and it was hopping from branch to branch, “Dee Dee Dee”-ing — this is typically a behavior I see when there is an intruder, so I started looking around the yard, but I didn’t see anything. I looked back at the bird, and saw that it was making all this racket while STILL CARRYING THE WHITE BABY POOP PACKET — most likely the male on “taking out the baby poop” duty.

I saw him bee-line toward the other side of the house, and a white cat with black tail — a newcomer stray that I hadn’t seen before — ran to the back of the yard/shed corner, where there is cat-sized access to the next door neighbor’s yard — she has a tarp-covered converted playfort where she shelters strays and feeds them in that corner (she also catches and takes them to the vet, and finds homes for them).

I yelled after that cat to shoo it out of my yard and told him her? to make sure to go to the NEXT house over from now on. :roll: :wink:

Once the cat had disappeared behind the shed and out, the chickadee quieted down and presumably went back to his important task of keeping his house clean :D
...apparently, that cat was NOT listening...

I looked out of the window as usual, and saw these KITTENS! At first we only saw three, then 4th one joined the group.
Image
...can’t tell if one of them is an adult/the Mama cat...

WHY do they look like they are so comfortable here? I look out of my window day and night and this is the first time I’ve ever seen them....

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applestar
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Mama cat IS the white with black tail, LOL
Image
She came back and let them suckle for a little bit, then LEFT THEM ON MY PATIO AGAIN.

Looked one more time, just before it got too dark to see, and I could just see two of the kittens out there ...presumably the other two somewhere out of line of sight from the windows as well. :roll:

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applestar
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Saw the first firefly of the season — just one slowly blinking and wandering around the backyard.

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applestar
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I forgot to mention — a couple of days ago when I was pulling weeds and generally getting my Kitchen Garden back in shape, I accidentally dug up a firefly larva — I gently patted it back under approximately same amount of soil.

Earthworms everywhere, too. Soil life / activity is looking good.

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applestar
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I saw this gorgeous green legged spider with metallic abdomen on the garden gate:

Image

I believe it’s an — Orchard Spider (Leucauge venusta)
...looks like the photos here :arrow: https://www.decemberized.com/ribugs/index.php?ID=247

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PraticalGardener
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Admittedly I usually don't actively bird watch, but I though I would share this yarn from yesterday. I was hand-weeding and tying up pea plants in the garden for a good hour, while two wrens (or something similar) of some kind kept chirping at me and wouldn't leave the garden for long. :? What I didn't quite figure out at the time was that they had a fledgling chick in the middle of the garden. It was perched on a pea trellis, hiding underneath one of the pea plant branches. Surprisingly, it stayed put, even when I unwittingly walked right up to it! :shock: I didn't see any obvious signs of injury, so I left the garden shortly afterwards. I secretely watched while one of the parents fed it again a short while later. I didn't see it when I went to check on it late this morning. It presumably moved to a new location or was eaten.
Fledgling wren perched on 'cattle panel' pea trellis
Fledgling wren perched on 'cattle panel' pea trellis
Half grown wren perched on pea trellis.jpg (153.9 KiB) Viewed 16011 times
Fledgling wren hiding on pea trellis
Fledgling wren hiding on pea trellis
Half grown wren on pea trellis.jpg (145.06 KiB) Viewed 16011 times
I noticed that both parents had a distinctly lighter brown on the top of their heads in the shape of a 'pointed oval'/lens, and I think also white chests speckled throughout with darker feathers. They seem to most closely resemble wrens when I attempted to look them up today. Their warning call was like 'DEEET DAAT', in key of A (La) then F (Fa), each part at an eighth music note long. (I apologize for not being able to describe it any better, pretend you are whistling it), very distinct, and very unhappy at my presence. :roll:

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The usual summer birds in my yard, Sparrows, Grackles, Red Wing Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Goldfinch, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Crows, and those pesky Magpies.

I finally got around to those birdhouse gourds I grew last summer. Cleaned and painted several.
These are the best ones, the rest I won't show because after my paint job, they look absolutely horrible.
P1060427.JPG
Attachments
P1060432.JPG
P1060433.JPG

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applestar
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Beautiful! You’re not hanging them outside to weather away are you?

...

First Monarch butterfly sighting of the season :()

Image

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applestar
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I’ve seen Monarch butterflies in my garden practically every day since, although most of the sightings have been from the windows, and I haven’t had good photo-ops.

- Females are landing and touching the underside of the milkweed leaves to lay eggs. I have been peeking underneath leaves with holes, and finding caterpillars on the milkweeds, so they have been busy.

- I also see the typical male territorial flight patterns as they meticulously trace the perimeter of the garden, and two mid-air entanglements a few times (these are typically males fighting). One time I saw three in a tangled flight — I think those were probably two males and a female caught in the middle.

Image
... BOTTOM RIGHT : this Red Admiral butterfly let me take photos as a consolation for not being able to approach the Monarchs. This one landed right in front of me and posed for several good shots. :D


Are you seeing Monarch Butterflies in your area? :-()

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applestar
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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Image

...I saw a Monarch butterfly (maybe more than one) too, but it was shy. I do feel like they have been more skittish this year — maybe because I hadn’t been out in the garden much during the first 2 weeks of July when they started to visit.

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Anna's are big drinkers during the winter months.

Image

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applestar
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So cute! We only have Ruby Throated visiting during the summer months here, so it’s always fun to see the other species where they visit.

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applestar
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After realizing I can make animated gif from live photo using one of the apps, I tried it with this one ;)
...a Robin...
Robin bathing in pond
Robin bathing in pond
316A5A98-A4BE-4475-877D-C0152673F84B.gif (1.85 MiB) Viewed 15917 times
And this one
... a Catbird ...
Catbird bathing in pond
Catbird bathing in pond
1C878EAF-106A-4CB8-9DE6-74B75EF3E7C7.gif (1.97 MiB) Viewed 15917 times

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applestar
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Big butterflies like Monarch, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Image

Image


…the low res gifs don’t do them justice…
Image

Garden pest butterflies, too —
...cabbage whites (of course), silver spotted skippers (soybeans/edamame pest), smaller skippers...

- I’m also seeing big black butterflies that are too big to be black swallowtail. Last year, I decided it’s probably the black form of the tiger swallowtail.

- Red spotted purples are in the plum trees again — they are after the damaged/spoiled fruits.

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applestar
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- TL - This tiny tree frog was on squash vine that I was rearranging to stay in its bed. I was absent-reaching for what I thought was a dried up debris — my fingertip was inches from the frog.
- TR - this tiny praying mantis was on a cucumber vine
Image
- BOTTOM - next time I saw it, it was doing something — is it in a convoluted position? Did it catch a prey? I couldn’t tell.

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applestar
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Red-spotted Purple butterflies are frequent visitors in my garden, especially when the plum begins to ripen and the wounded diseased and the insect-infested fruits as well as half squirrel eaten fruits begin to spoil in July.

Recently, I saw a similar-looking butterfly that had a white-band on the outer wings that I couldn’t identify. Each time it landed and spread its wings in leisurely way, I would see the brilliant blue inner wing that marked the Red-spotted Purple. It was very confusing.

But I finally found the answer — and to my delight, I was right and wrong at the same time. The name given to the different form — “White Admiral” (the one I saw was probably a hybrid) is fun to know, too, since another regular — Red Admiral butterflies — are showing up near the Nettle patch.

As if to underscore and confirm my ID, someone else from this general area had posted a photo for identification last month! :D

Red-spotted Purple or White Admiral Limenitis arthemis (Drury, 1773) | Butterflies and Moths of North America
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/spe ... s-arthemis
Identification: These two very different forms had once been considered separate species.

...The two forms hybridize where their ranges overlap, creating various intermediate forms

...The White Admiral form usually occurs north of a line through north central New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota. The Red-spotted Purple form is usually found south of this line.


Observation date: Jul 01, 2019
Submitted by: tom nolan
Region: Burlington County, New Jersey, United States
Verified by: Will Kerling
Verified date: Jul 10, 2019

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applestar
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I saw a Red Spotted Purple today! It wouldn’t let me get close enough for a good enough LivePhoto to turn into a GIF (I have one of its shadow, fluttering around over the garden bed :lol:), but I was able to zoom in when it finally landed on the apple tree —

Image

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applestar
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This time, a Red-spotted Purple landed on a nearby cucumber leaf, and I got a decent shot of the red spots on the outer hind-wing :D

Image

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applestar
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This approximately 1.5 inch wasp came struggling up from the deep grass/weeds by the rain barrel. It was flexing what I think might be an ovipositor, rather than a stinger, so that sometimes it looked black — the sheath? And sometimes flashed yellow.

Based on the size and lack of thread-waist, which as far as I know is an identifying physiology for the only other similar sized wasp around here, I think this is a Cicada Killer.

What I couldn’t tell is whether this is a female with a nest burrow under all the grass, maybe even under the bottom rim of the barrel which might provide a good overhang — and she just came back up from stuffing a cicada in a chamber, or whether this is a new freshly emerged adult.

Image

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applestar
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I’m on groundHOG watch at an upstairs window this morning.

Shortly after sun rose over the intervening landscape and houses around 6:30am, there was a commotion in the Redbud tree or the Tulip Poplar tree, sort of gear teeth grinding and an extra-loud buzzing like a cicada, then a white-looking body — much too big to be a cicada — flew hurtling out and into the mulberry tree branches. It was too quick for me to see what it was, but there was a lot of chirping and then whatever it was, flew back into the redbud/tulip branches, then back into the mulberry.

I was bummed because I still couldn’t tell what it had been. With all the chirping, it had to be a bird, but which one? Looking with the binocs didn’t help since it was deep in the foliage. Then it started to trill in a familiar song that escaped me.

I had my face nearly plastered against the screen trying to see better, when the bird took pity on my frustration and deigned to fly over and land on the edge of the single story roof next to this window — it was a Carolina Wren, clutching something whitish and greenish and bleeding in its beaks. I think it might have been a just hatched cicada. Nice tasty morsel for the babies.

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Hahaha! I had read somewhere that they do eat cicadas in Japan, particularly the larvae that come out of the ground before they emerge as adult.

Look what I found — there is a club and this is in Tokyo I think? All you have to do is register by email to join the fun :lol:

Apparently, the adult cicadas are either dusted in flour first or tossed straight into hot oil. According to this article, best way to eat the larvae is to marinate in Japanese noodle sauce (it’s a basic stock mixture of dried seafood/veg, soy sauce, maybe mirin (seasoned cooking wine) or sugar), then SMOKED.

Didn’t check how much is translated on Chrome, but lots of photos following a cartoon-style journal of the day’s events.

セミをみんなで食べちゃおう! セミをその場でキャッチ&イートする「東京セミ会」に潜入! - ぐるなび みんなのごはん
( Let’s all eat Cicadas! | Snuck into the “Tokyo Cicada Club” to catch and eat cicadas on site | GourNavi Everyone’s Meals ) <— my translation —>
https://r.gnavi.co.jp/g-interview/entry/1539


* I was reading through the comic journal and she mentioned she awoke to idea of learning to eat insects 5 years ago (as of 2014 writing) and as she became more adventurous, tried other bugs including calling a friend who was having STINKBUG invasion problems to ship her some — if You like CILANTRO, that’s what they tasted like … according to her. :twisted:

…therefore, STINKBUGS are not recommended for those of you who have “cilantro tastes like soap” reaction — a friendly reminder. ;)

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rainbowgardener
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ummm ...., I can imagine eating grubs (if I were starving and they were fried crisp?). I cannot imagine eating stink bugs under any circumstances.
On a lighter note: we have a volunteer sunflower that has bloomed and bloomed. Now all those flowers are setting seed and the goldfinches love them. You have to look closely, because they are exactly the same color. Bright yellow bird with dark cap, sitting on a bright yellow flower with dark center.

IMG_2918.JPG

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applestar
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Love goldfinches! Males are striking in their breeding colors and intriguing that they turn into the olive drab non-breeding colors. Funny to watch in flight, the way they bob up and down because they don’t keep flapping to maintain level altitude.... :D

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applestar
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Common Buckeye Butterfly. But this one has a stunted right hindwing. DD immediately said — it’s a “NEMO” Butterfly — so we call it NEMO. :wink:

Image

Image


:arrow: Common Buckeye Junonia coenia Hübner, [1822] | Butterflies and Moths of North America
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/spe ... nia-coenia

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rainbowgardener
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I was out watching my backyard yesterday late afternoon. Chickens were out walking around. Hummingbirds were active at the feeders and also the cypress vine and other flowers that are blooming now. Goldfinches were coming to the sunflowers and also the black eyed susans that are starting to go to seed now (and if you look up close at those, they are swarming with lots of tiny flying things). Sulphur butterflies and yellow swallowtails and black swallowtails drift through as well as skippers and dragonflies. Carolina wrens nest in the brush pile, mockingbirds are frequent visitors and other birds come to the seed feeders. Hawks come by occasionally to scare the chickens. Squirrels run around as soon as the dogs go inside -- they always know!

When we bought this place four years ago, the backyard was nothing but a grass monoculture and nothing living came there. Now it is so full of life. Even though none of it would be considered exciting, in the sense of a rare thing to spot, it makes me happy. :)
Last edited by rainbowgardener on Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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applestar
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What can I say *I* find them fascinating :>

... Question Mark butterfly caterpillars*, Braconid wasps, Potter wasp, Cicada...
Image



* found the post from 2012 when we tried raising some of these ugly caterpillars to see what they grow up to be
...you can see why I switched to making collages...
:arrow: Subject: 2012 butterfly project commentary
applestar wrote:I finally took some photos of the Question Marks :D

-- alarming-looking, like I said... :shock:
Image

They have been transforming into chrysalises (7 so far)
ImageImage

Look at the fancy schmancy silvery spots:
(They actually look like liquid silver)
Image

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applestar
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I’ve mentioned this before, but, yesterday, I watched a Monarch male flying territorial sweep patterns over my garden again.

They are strong flyers, so unlike the cabbage whites that flutter and flit, Monarch soars and glides. Usually there is a definite flight pattern and I imagine if I could take a time lapse from directly overhead, the I could obtain an Orange/Black tracing of same route with minor variations. It’s hard to watch continuously since the “territory” he is tracing covers both my side yard/NE garden, back yard/S garden, and SW garden — all three sides of the house — and I have to go from window to window to see.

Sometimes, they also fly across the front of the house and are essentially maintaining territory over my enter garden which delights me since I have my garden registered as a Monarch Butterfly Waystation as well as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat, and try to plant the entire space as a butterfly garden every year.

Yesterday, this one was flying over the fence to my neighbor’s side yard or over the fence to the front yard, and then come back... and I realized he was claiming the entire front and back of our Rose of Sharon privacy hedge and also the stand of Blue Mistflower that have taken over the Front Yard Fencerow bed.

While flying the pattern, he would veer off and (try to) chase away other flyers — other Monarch males, Tiger Swallowtails which are bigger than Monarchs, carpenter bees, even hummingbirds! :roll: Most of these attempts are only temporarily effective, if at all. :lol:

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TomatoNut95
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Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 11:11 am
Location: Texas Zone 8

I will see a monarch on rare occasion. Mostly I have the gulf fritillary, Tiger Swallowtail and the black/black one... either a pipevine or a spicebush. Or is it a limenitis artemis blue???
I know tomato hornworms turn into large, gorgeous moths, however, I have not given a single worm I find a chance to become a moth.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Not exactly “backyard” but ... I went to a garden center today, and after loading the purchases in the back of my suv, noticed a TINY tree frog or a peeper tucked in the depression next to the hatch door rubber seal. I had already opened AND closed the hatch once, so I considered going ahead and closing it, but just then, the frog must have sensed my gaze and shifted position enough that I wasn’t sure if wouldn’t get hurt any more.

It was above my head but within reach, so I coaxed it out of the door seal channel and tried to get it onto my hand.... so OF COURSE it jumped onto my shirt collar, nearly under my chin. :shock: Ha. Good thing I’m not type to freak out.

But I ended up losing the frog onto the parking lot asphalt, and had to coax it to climb onto my hand. Then realized I had put down my bag on the open tailgate — couldn't walk to the back of the garden center where they have a landscaped area and a pond. Because I was trying to keep contact to minimum, the frog escaped my cupped hands and jumped down twice more, forcing me to crouch and patiently coax it back onto my hand until I was able to walk it to the front of the car where there was a table of potted butterfly bushes swarming with insects.

...Relieved to have found a decent place for the treefrog, I looked up and realized the store employee that had helped me choose mulch earlier was standing a few feet away, watching... who knows for how long? :roll: :>


...Later, on the way home from picking up DD at her piano lesson, she told me a black butterfly (Swallowtail? Red-spotted Purple?) had flown in via an open back window while we were stopped at a traffic light, then flew out again. :D



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