Spring Butterfly

Last spring we were inundated with caterpillars. Sometime in the fall we found a caterpillar and brought it inside. It immediately set it's chrysalis. We waited a few weeks past the time we thought it should have hatched. There were a few times that I looked at that old dried out sack and thought about tossing it. My friend, Tammy, said to hold on to it. That it might hatch in the spring.

Ta-da!!!

Fowler's Toad

Calvin and I were talking about the frogs that annoyed us at camp. He wanted to know exactly what kind of frog it was. So together we listened to all of the frog/toad calls on our favorite website Frogs and Toads of North Carolina

We also found another picture he took the second night.

It was definitely a toad, not a frog. We both described the call as that of a "screaming woman".

So we decided the best fit is the Fowler's Toad. The call is almost a perfect match and the picture is similar.

Garden Visitors

I went out to visit my garden and found this guy hanging out in my carrots (he'll become a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly). Unfortunately for him, I am not willing to share this crop.

So I moved him to my cilantro. I have plenty of it, and don't mind sharing. He seemed to be okay with the compromise and made himself at home.

On further investigation of my cilantro, I found these guys working hard at something. I haven't decided if they are friend or foe. I did a Google search and only came up with mealybugs.

They look more spider-like to me...though I only counted 6 legs. It's really hard to see them clearly through all the fuzz. They aren't flat like all the pictures of mealybugs I've seen. I'm holding out for a better id on them before I eradicate them from the garden bed. We don't want another milkweed assassin conundrum.

If you or any of your friends can identify this bug for me, I'd sure appreciate it.

Butterfly Kits Part 3: Release Day

YAY! All five of our painted lady chrysalises hatched. One thing we've learned is that a butterflies kept inside don't fly. They crawl and shake out their wings, but they don't fly. It's a little sad.

The weather was pretty bad for several days, so we continued to care for and observe them.

Finally the storms all passed and the weather warmed up. As soon as we brought the cage outside the butterflies started fluttering around. One of them wasn't wasting time saying goodbye. He was gone as soon as we unzipped the top. I think he was the eldest.

The others were a little more sentimental in their goodbyes.

And now...they are gone. I'm a little sad. The habitat is empty. I'm going to miss them.

Butterfly Kits Part 2

We are finding that the re-birth of the butterfly isn't exactly a beautiful or clean process. Butterflies pass what is called meconium after they emerge. It's the leftover tissue that they didn't need for their transformation. It looks quite a bit like blood, and was very alarming for boys who've been tending them since caterpillars.

The butterflies drink from either the sliced oranges or the flower that has a mixture of sugar and water dropped onto it.

We still find the process to be awe inspiring and miraculous. After I took these pictures another butterfly emerged. There are 2 chrysalises left. We are waiting with baited breath to see if we actually get 5 healthy butterflies.

Common Gray Treefrog

We had a visitor on our back porch this morning. We were moving the deck furniture around to do school outside. We found this guy on the back of one of the chairs.

We love identifying new visitors (poor unlucky sucker that he is). We went to the Frogs and Toads of NC website. It's my favorite because it also has a link to a sound file to listen to all the frog calls.

We put him in a glass jar (no lid) to be able to study his underside. He really didn't like it.

This helped us identify him. The boys identified him as a tree frog by his feet.

He has a yellow/orange color concealed in the folds of his legs.

We decided he was a Common Gray Tree Frog (which are apparently not so common in NC) We've been listening to the frogs in the evenings and couldn't identify the sound. After seeing this little guy and listening to the audio clip, we are sure that's what we've been hearing. We are also located pretty close to the shaded areas on the map.

When we were done with his initial examination, we set him out in the sun to watch his behavior. He has a really cool pattern that looks like his own foot on his back. Also, I'm pretty sure he's giving us the finger.

The pencil is to help gauge his size.

Also of note: when Jeremiah rubbed his back, he shot urine at him. He is definitely flipping us the bird.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Our visitor is back. He and his mate make a lot of racket with all their screeching. We haven't seen them for a while. They live in the swampy creek near our home.

They are gorgeous creatures. I love watching them fly. We almost never get a close up of the two of them together. Mostly they just call to each other.

Nightly Visitor

We have a new friend. He likes to visit us every evening. Once he even came in the house. This caused quite a stir. Especially since Darth Vader (our cat) was on the prowl. Thankfully we got him back outside and informed him that he is not an "inside guest".



Even if he is rather cute.

Baby Duck

We try to be responsible pet owners. We certainly don't want to contribute the the stray cat population here in our own neighborhood. So we had our kitty neutered last week. This meant he needed to be locked in the house for a few days to heal. He's very much an outdoor kitty. He's also a hunter.

While he was recuperating inside, a mother duck moved into our creek to brood and hatch her ducklings.

As nature would have it, when you release a predator back into the wild, he will chase down any and everything he can. Including helpless just born baby ducklings.

It was pretty traumatic. For the kids, for the mama duck, and especially for the ducklings. We were able to catch this little guy and bring him inside. We put him on a heating pad, and just loved on him.

According to GooseMother.com "Baby waterfowl are not like other birds. You have probably heard that you shouldn't handle a baby bird much. Forget it!! This baby wants and needs to be close to you as much as possible. It will run away when you reach for it, but that is only an instinctive survival move. Go ahead and pick it up, but snuggle it close to you quickly so it will feel safe."

The boys waited outside (quietly even) for a very long time trying to get the other duckling. The mother was no where to be found. Eventually we gave up and resigned ourselves to rescuing the one duckling.

And boy was he cute!

We went on with our normal routine, we even went to our normal Cub Scout meeting. When my friend, JacLynn, was leaving scouts the mother duck and the other surviving duckling happened to be crossing the street right in front of her.

She ran over to my house and together we released the baby duckling back to his family.

I'm glad our story has a happy ending. I don't have time to raise children, let alone a cat, bunny, AND a duckling! :-P

I wish I had taken pictures of the kids loving on the little baby duck. We identified our duck family as Muscovy.

Visitor

My friend Jerald identified him as a red-shouldered hawk. He knows a lot about birds. You can check out his blog by clicking on his name.

My pictures aren't great. It was raining and he kept moving his head. So I had to set my iso really high and take it through the window.


He did let me get pretty close. I braved the rain but I still set my iso pretty high. In hindsight I wish I would have set it just a little lower. I was afraid he would fly away.




After he looked at me like that I ran back in the house. I'm a chicken. He's a hawk. No need for me to do the math for you is there?

Wildlife Identification From our Hike

Marbled Orb Weaver


This guy did not look like a typical yellow garden spider. Plus their webs did not have a zig zag. It took me a while to identify him...or her.

Turtle:

It's really hard to tell what kind of turtle he is. Here is a link to local turtles. My friend said she thinks it's a snapping turtle...I'm leaning towards river cooter. We were too far out for a really good look though. Maybe I'll take my picture to a park ranger some time.

http://www.dpughphoto.com/turtles.htm

Blue-tailed Skink

The blue-tailed skink are a whole lot of fun to watch.



They are fast! We seem to have several as the kids go out and count them each day. I have yet to see one pop it's own tail off in self-defense though. That would be very cool.

Bucket Garden and the Milkweed Assassins

What our garden looks like today. We plucked all the red peppers yesterday.
Too bad I didn't get a picture then, it was very pretty.

We have visitors! These are immature milkweed assassins.
They prey on other insects and are as good for the garden as ladybugs.

Earlier in the season I mistook them for some strange species of red ants.
I scared them off by giving my garden a good dousing with my home made bug repellent.
Then I came inside and googled them. OOPS! I should have left them alone!
I'm so glad they are back.

Now that we know what they are (and that they have a good purpose) we have had fun watching them.



They sure are feisty! Go little bugs! Conquer! Kill! Eat!

Slugs and Snails or Blah Blah Blah

We've had several downpours (uneven watering) and so my beautiful tomato cracked. I'm hoping the rest of my crop will be better.

I have also had some trouble with slugs. I can't exactly salt my plants. So I decided to set a trap with beer.

I hope these slugs are German, or at least have good taste in Beer.




Supposedly the slugs will be attracted to the beer and will drown in the bowl. So the bowl will go under my garden in the shade. We'll see if it works.

We have a jumping spider who likes our garden. He doesn't like us though. This is the first time I've caught him on camera.


For the past couple of days I've noticed someone has been eating the leaves on my marconi pepper plant. I think I've found the culprit:


I think he's an Armyworm moth. There wasn't much damage. We got rid of this one. I hope it's not an infestation.