Hummer Swarm

I'm only about a year late posting this. It was on my flip cam until today. This was shot September 9, 2013, so it's almost time for them to arrive, if they fly this way again. I think most of these were ruby-throated hummingbirds. I hope they come back.

caterpillar season

Hungry caterpillars everywhere on my sunflower! I've been trimming more and more spent flowers from the 7 ft. tall sunflower in the back yard and thinking how life is slowing down after two weeks of temperatures hovering near 100 degrees. And then I spotted the caterpillars. Not just one or two, but dozens of them, voraciously devouring the leaves on the sunflower plant. Usually when I see a lot of caterpillars they are the "bad" kind, but these particular creepycrawlies will turn into a pretty orange and black butterfly called the Border Patch Butterfly (Chlosyne lacinia). It's also called the Sunflower Patch because one of its favorite host plants is the sunflower. I've seen a few of these butterflies, but they have been too fast for me to catch with my camera.

You can see the ragged edge where this caterpillar has been chomping away at a leaf.

This one chews from the underside of the leaf. You can see from these few photos there is quite a lot of variation in the colors of these caterpillars.  Soon these little guys will attach themselves to the undersides of the sunflower leaves and form themselves into chrysalises, if they don't get eaten by the cardinal who seems to have found them. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to see butterflies emerge in a few weeks.

macarena mario

It's been ages since I played in my moleskine.

cha cha cha.

Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light

  -- Eugenio Montale

And life itself exhaling that central breath!

Top: The seed packet said Maximillian Sunflower (Helianthus maximilianii) but none of the pictures I found on the internet look like this. Plant is about 6 feet tall and flowers are about 5 inches wide.

Bottom: A "volunteer" sunflower, planted by birds, with Western Tiger Swallowtail. Probably a Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus).  Flowers 4 to 4 1/2 inches wide. This plant is about 7 feet tall and has 40-50 blossoms on it, with more on the way.

little mocker

Young mockingbird almost ready to fly. Look at those short little tail feathers! My dog will be a happier puppy when she has her special corner in the back yard to herself again. Her favorite spot is apparently too close to the mockingbird nest (even though it's on the other side of the fence), and lately the adult mockingbirds keep swooping down to peck her on the back.

Charlotte's Web

 

This small argiope spider spun her web in a red rose bush in my backyard.  Google says this is the largest spider most folks in the U.S. will ever see, obviously not written by someone living in tarantula territory. This was a small spider, only about 1.5 inches long including its legs. I learned it is also called "the writing spider" and that its baby spiders disperse on the wind with fine web "parachutes". I suddenly realized this is the spider of Charlotte's Web. Only the female argiopes have this particular pattern and color, and only the females spin such distinctive webs, so I know this is a girl spider, like Charlotte. Maybe she will write me a message one day!

ode to a toad

"That afternoon the dream of the toads rang through the elms by Little River and affected the thoughts of men, though they were not conscious that they heard it."  -  Henry David Thoreau

We had a new visitor on the patio this morning. At first I thought it was a regular Texas Toad, but it seemed it little too yellow in color, so I went a googling.  I found out Texas Toads don't have a stripe down their back, and this one definitely does. It is a Gulf Coast Toad, Bufo valliceps valliceps. Even though we are pretty far inland, it's been so miserably hot & humid lately Bell County might could pass for Houston or Beaumont. I hope the toad stays in our back yard. It's currently taking refuge under the loose end of a bag of potting soil, but I put a broken terra cotta pot upside down nearby in case the toad would like a mini-cave.

See the stripe down the middle of the back and two lesser stripes on the sides above the legs? The other distinguishing trait it the deep "valley" between the toad's eyes.


I'll be listening this evening for toad songs.