turtle power

Last week we had frost.  Today, it was 93 degrees.  In a few days, it will be back in the 30s overnight.  It can be challenging!  But the cats love the sun.

And I love the sun coming over the hill, which I can see every morning from our living room.  It's even more beautiful now that the leaves are coming in!

The rain...

...has brought out the flowers.

grackle in apple tree

prairie trillium

Japanese anemones

peonies, daylilies, euphorbia

hostas, columbine, lily of the valley

I make up small bouquets with the "nibs and bibbets" in the yard...whatever small flowers and greenery that I can find.  I take this conglomeration and break it into small bouquets that I put in various cat-friendly places around the house.

Claudia is by my side when I pick.

Turtles are moving in the front pond...

...and those April showers brought the flowers, which in turn brought the butterflies!!  So many!

both eastern tiger swallowtails

pipevine swallowtail

black eastern tiger swallowtail

Because of our weather and my sore shoulder, I am woefully behind in the garden.  I've tried to put in a couple hours a day, pulling weeds and prepping beds.  With some company...

chestnut slug

The back annual garden is an absolute disgrace.  None of last year's stalks have been pulled out of the ground, and it's not even close to ready for May's flowers.  I just have to work a bit at a time, when I can.

It's slow going, but I guess I don't mind if things are a little bit late this year.  It's nice to just be outside, watching the bluebirds dart in and out of the birdhouses that Todd just installed...

...and the maple leaves unfurling right in front of my eyes.

The trail cams are yielding more in warmer weather, too.  A happy couple!

I love watching the deer come up out of the woods in our back pond, too.

Although we're wilting from the heat in the moment, we're still loving this most active of seasons.  Hooray for spring!!

Trees all greening up behind the white barn!

Have a great week!

oh baby

I'm loving our new habit of daily morning walks.  Even the humidity has a silver lining:  the hazy air is beautiful in the sunlight!

At home, the ducklings may be nearly grown, but it's quite clear that it's still very much baby time for many others.  So much activity!

Sarcophaga Flies

Squash Bugs

"baby" Squash Bug

Skippers

Milkweed Bugs

flirtin' Spicebush Swallowtail

Twice-Stabbed Stink Bugs

Tiger Bee Flies

Squash Lady Beetle Eggs

Everyone is hurrying to mate, lay eggs, and for those young who won't be overwintering in eggs: a chance to live their brief life before winter comes.  Those recently born are doing what they can...

...like this Cecropia moth.  The pulsating body told me that it had recently hatched.  It has no mouthparts and cannot feed...its brief two-week life will be spent mating and/or laying eggs.

A group Tiger Bee flies, too, just "hatched" on the front porch. I've been absolutely fascinated by their mini drama!  I kept finding these strange shells dropping from our porch ceiling:

It turns out that these are Tiger Bee larval shells.  

These, too, kept falling.  They seemed to be immature carpenter bees:

I kept an eye on things, and was soon rewarded.

Tiger Bee flies don't sting or bite.  They're great pollinators, and they also have been helping us in another way:  they lay eggs in carpenter bee holes.  Their larvae hatch and devour carpenter bee larvae, which is why I kept finding those bee corpses.  We definitely have a excess of carpenter bees so this is a great development!  

Strange, though, that all of the new adults were dripping a white liquid. 

It turns out that it's meconium!  In their pupal state, they don't excrete.  When they emerge, they pump the liquid through their wing "veins" to help harden them.  Once they are fully filled out, they simply drip out the excess.  So interesting!  

Caterpillars, like this Tiger Swallowtail, are eat, eat, eating to prepare for their pupal stage.

This little guy was on the dill that I'd potted up on our porch steps, and I checked his progress every day.  Yesterday, though, he was gone.  Maybe he's made a chrysalis somewhere nearby!  

In other baby news, our young "chogs" have finally grown and left the nest.  We've gone from seeing them multiple times a day to a complete absence, and it's about time...it only takes about 44 days for young groundhogs to mature and leave the nest!  We're worried that a fox has moved in, though, judging from the smell and the increased digging.  A trail cam will be set up soon to verify!  

Phew!  It's been busy, but I'm loving it.  We're getting things done despite the suddenly-hot weather...

...but a little time to relax, too.

Have a great week!  

Elementary, my dear Watson...

There are, I think, two keys to successfully observing wild creatures in their native habitats.  One is patience.  Many times I've taken my camera to a place with no visible activity and sat quietly.  Insects start bustling about within five minutes, then come the butterflies, and next the birds and squirrels.  Another important key, though, is being able to spot clues that creatures leave behind.

I saw this dessicated cricket caught up in the fern fronds on our front porch.

Instantly, my mind was racing.  What eats crickets?  Well, birds, snakes, reptiles, spiders, frogs, and fish.  But since this was on the front porch, it would have to be a spider...or a mantis.

Sure enough, a praying mantis was lurking nearby.  It seemed smaller and more delicate than the big mantises I'm used to in Indiana, with a stubbier abdomen and beautiful lacy wings.

Of course, it had the characteristic of all mantises, who are efficient killers:  those long, serrated forelegs.

They never stop watching you.  Insects are so unbelievably aware of our presence, all the time.

Here's another example.  We've had many fine sunny days lately, and I've been able to spend more time outside.  Last week, I saw some droppings on a canna leaf.

The size told me it was too big for an insect, and it wasn't runny enough for a bird (TMI?).  I suspected it might be a lizard, and I found him before too long, hiding on the same plant.

I haven't seen many anoles this summer.  I wonder if they're more prevalent in the fall here?

Despite the black aphids, those chives I'd feared lost earlier this month bloomed nicely.

They drew all sorts of attention.  Bees...

Ants...

And even butterflies, although they mainly stayed with the butterfly bushes and lantana.  Black tiger swallowtails and eastern tiger swallowtails are the most common.

The air is filled with little red fluttering things, but they aren't ladybugs like I initially thought.  They're related to leaf hoppers and look very similar, but they're actually (two-lined) spittle bugs.

They can be disastrous to lawns, feeding on the turf grasses that are common here in the South.  We haven't had any trouble, but we'll have to keep a close watch!

Speaking of lined, a huge striped fly landed on one of our windows recently.  He had what I call "Halloween legs" and must've been a full two inches long.

I was never able to figure out what he was!  If anyone knows...

Anyway, I encourage you to grab your magnifying glass and put on your deerstalker (that's the type of hat that Sherlock Holmes wore!), and see what you can find in your own yard with a little deductive reasoning and patience.

Have a great week!