Monarch Caterpillars

My picture update

I’m not on the feature page anymore but you can find me in September - Week 1.  There is a picture of lightning after mine when you are voting that is just a fraction ahead of me but if you all will vote for me I might be able to beat them.  To vote you will have to scroll through several of the pictures to get to mine and to only way I could get the pictures to scroll was to vote for them.  Save a 10 for me.  You can only vote once unless you have more then one computer.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/voting-machine
You have to click on "Week 1" to vote on my pic now since "Week 2" automatically comes up now.

MY PICTURE IS ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S WEB SITE

After visiting the National Geographic website, a good friend of mine encouraged me to send one of my photos in to “Your Shot”, a place where photographers can send in their own photos, for a chance get to be featured on the web site. So.............on a whim I submitted one of my favorite photos just to see what would happen. Today I was very excited when I received a message telling me that my photo had been selected from the masses and would be featured on the Daily Dozen section of their website.  The photo editor selects 12 photos a day to be featured on the Daily Dozen. You can see it here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/daily-dozen You will need to navigate to Week 1 September 2009.

This is my picture that was chosen.

THE MONARCH CATERPILLARS ARE GROWING

One large one & one small one in the lower right corner.

The Monarch's Are Back

I had a Monarch butterfly spend all Saturday afternoon laying eggs on every one of my Milkweed plants.  I should have lots of little Monarch caterpillars eating my Milkweed plants very soon.

You can see one tiny white butterfly egg on the back of the leaf.

Shorttail's Babies

Here are pictures of Shorttail's babies I took on two different occasions earlier this year.  They would frolic in trees close to their nest.  Shorttail appears to be doing well and her tail finally seems to be healed.  She is a squirrel with a rabbit tail.  I just see her occasionally now and not daily like I did when her babies were dependant on her. 

My Black Swallowtail Butterfly

I planted Parsley this year just to attract the Black Swallowtail Butterfly and it worked!   I actually had so many caterpillars that they stripped my parsley bare and had nothing to eat. I had to go to the grocery store and buy parsley just to feed them. Every day I would put fresh parsley in a very small vase of water just for the caterpillars.

Out of about 15 caterpillars on my parsley I only know where 5 of the chrysalises are. The little cats were very good at crawling off of the parsley and hiding to pupate.

The chrysalis below blends right into the plant is is on and if you didn't know where to look for it you would not see it.

The caterpillar makes a sling to hold it before it starts to pupate.

The chrysalis turns transparent right before the butterfly emerges. The butterfly emerges pretty quickly.

Once it emerges from the chrysalis it has to hang with its wings down for awhile to let fluid run down into its wings and strengthen them so it can fly.

The last picture I got before it flew off.

I'm So Behind on Posts!

I'm sorry I'm so behind on updates about Short Tail & the Bluebirds. I stay out until dark (which is too late) taking pictures and taking care of my flower gardens and by the time I go in and get cleaned up it is time to go to bed.

The baby birds have left the nest and all four must have hatched because there wasn't an egg left in the nest like last time. I have taken pictures but just haven't had time to upload.

I saw Short Tail yesterday and her tail is still a mess. Didn't see her today but sometimes I don't see her everyday. She has built another nest in a pine tree in my yard. I have no idea which nest her babies are in. I do know that the babies are dependant on their mother for about 10 weeks.

I appreciate all the offers to help get her treated but catching her would be almost impossible and she would not be able to stay gone from her babies very long. We are just going to have to let nature take its course and hope for the best.

I will try to get pictures posted soon.

Newest Bluebird Babies

At least 3 of the 4 eggs hatched from the second set of eggs in my Bluebird box last Tuesday.

Reflection

This is one of the baby Bluebirds from the first clutch the pair nesting in my yard had. The second clutch started hatching today.

Click on photo to view larger.

I caught "Short Tail" running across my neighbors roof. Her tail does not look good. Poor thing!

Brown Thrasher

I had a pair of Brown Thrashers nesting in my Trumpet Vine until something got all the babies one night. But before they dissappeared I got this picture of one of the parents bring a nice juicy spider to the little ones

I'm worried about "Short Tail"

I'm worried about "Short Tail". Her tail is a mess and it is a lot shorter than when I first spotted her. I think it must be infected. She is unable to keep her balance when she runs across the light wires and twirls around upside down. I got these pictures from a distance but you can still see how bad her tail looks. Sure wish I knew how to help her.

Click to view larger

The way she is holding her tail makes me think that it is really bothering her.

FOUR NEW BLUEBIRD EGGS

The mama Bluebird has been sitting on these 4 new eggs for the last couple of days.

"Short Tail" Update

Since "Short Tail" the squirrel lost her babies in the storm I haven't seen her much and have only caught an occasional fleeting glance of her doing her funny little hop around the neighborhood. On a recent weekend I caught her repeatedly hopping across the road with something in her mouth so I grabbed my camera and decided to watch her for awhile. That’s when I realized she was moving her old nest from the tree in my yard to a tree across the street mouthful by mouthful. I guess good nesting material is hard to find or else she is a very smart thrifty squirrel. She would scramble up the tree into her old nest, rummage around and then come back down the tree with her mouth stuffed full of old stuff from the nest. She would then do her funny little hop across the street and up the tree to her new nest. She kept this up all morning until I got too close to her old tree and she had to outsmart me. I was waiting behind her tree watching for her to come back across the street from the new nest when I suddenly heard rustling above my head. It was “Short Tail” back in her old nest. How did she get up there without me seeing her? I figured out how she managed to sneak past me when I spotted her on the electric wires strung across the street. She was using the wires to return to her old nest over my head! She is too smart! It was late morning before she decided to take a break and then raid my neighbor’s bird feeder for a snack. That is where I left her until later on in the day. When I went back out it was just in time to see her dig up an unopened pine cone from my yard and run up a tree where she sat eating it for awhile. I guess all the hard work of moving her nest and being pregnant has made her a very hungry squirrel. From some of the pictures I took it is clear that she is expecting again.

Click on photos to view larger

THE BLUEBIRDS ARE BACK!

The Bluebirds are building another nest in my backyard box. I noticed the female flying in and out of the nest box all weekend. A couple of times she had her beak so full of nesting material she had trouble getting through the nest box opening and would flutter at the opening until she was able to force her nesting material into the box. Sometimes her two surviving young would fly to the box with her hoping she had food. They are still dependant on their parents for most of their food but I did notice them trying to find some food on their own.

Click on photo for larger view.