Fiddlin’ Around

On Saturday we took a drive to the lighthouse and found the road had fiddler crabs running all around in great numbers. None of my shots on the asphalt were worth showing: they were running from me!

This pair of laughing gulls were dining on some. I was surprised there were not more birds with the same idea.

“Oh, look, honey! Our supper is here!”

All of the ones I ended up photographing are males. They have the one large claw which they wave, giving them their name. They also use it for combat.

Pretty little purple spot:

This one was dark, almost black on top.

Batman?

Yo! Yoda!

And the gulls just kept laughing!

Mouths to Feed

A Carolina wren has made a nest in the potted plant by our front door. They are all pretty much fuzz and mouths at this point. I have yet to hear the babies, but they are in there and still blind. I counted four mouths open before I got the picture.

Mailbox Monday: Sea Turtle

 

Snuggling Snails

Slow and easy.

In broad daylight, in the front yard.

Going All Squirrely Over Owls

It all started on my birthday when we were sitting in the dark out on the porch and D and K heard the call of a flying squirrel. With all the frogs, crickets, cicadas, etc, neither B nor I were able to hear what they heard.  Of course, we didn’t really know what to listen for.  Sometime after that, we Googled the sound of flying squirrels and got a better idea of what to listen for.

Last week, B went out to get the newspaper in the very early morning and thought he heard a flying squirrel. That night we sat out on the porch in the dark and listened for a long time to the same sound calling back and forth from one  tree very near the porch to one across the yard. We were so excited. The following morning, we called D to tell him what we had heard. He suggested we try to located them with lights, which we tried the next evening, unsuccessfully. I even shared with my students about our exciting discovery.

 

So, now fast forward to Sunday. We took a drive, and along a country highway, we saw the barred owl below perched. It is rather unusual to see them out like this in the afternoon sun.

That evening, we walked around the block and as we returned to our cul-de-sac, we heard the back and forth call of the flying squirrels.  I got the binoculars and, even though the shadows had really fallen, I wanted to see if we might be able to see the flying squirrels. I could see what looked like a hole in the big oak and focused the binoculars on that spot. I was surprised to see a barred owl looking back at me. Then B found the second owl in an adjacent treetop.

It was then that we realized we had been had!

We have lots of barred owls in our neighborhood and love to hear their many calls, especially in the spring when they are mating. Several years ago, we had heard the whistling sound that the juvenile barred owls use to communicate with their mother. But we had forgotten.

So back to Google we went. The sounds are similar, but the Southern flying squirrel is a higher pitched sound.

http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Jerboa_Sounds_music.aspx

http://home.centurytel.net/bobowlcalls/recordings2/21%203%20juves%20p113%207%2019%2006%2022050.wav

We will just have to keep listening. Chances are, we do have flying squirrels, too.

A funny thing is that while we were listening in the dark, we had seen two barred owls flying and kind of worried that they might come for the flying squirrels.

Eggs: Tiny Jewels on a Leaf

We go out regularly to work in our vegetable/flower garden in the community garden.

One evening, I removed a leaf from a tomato plant where an insect had laid these stunning eggs. They looked in the evening sunlight like tiny jewels. The pictures do not begin to do justice to their shining beauty.

I assume they are those of a butterfly or moth whose larvae would feed on our plants, so I removed the leaf. These are the only eggs I have seen….for now.

I was surprised that the eggs were placed in plain view on the top of a leaf near the top of the plant. It seems so exposed to the elements, as well as to predators. If they had been on the underside of the leaf, I might easily have missed seeing them.

Canna Show You a Canna?

I noticed this large canna leaf at school and had to smile. It looked like some kid with a hole puncher had found some way to entertain himself while waiting for his bus. At the time, I  only noticed the one long, straight line of holes. However when  I got back another day with my camera, I noticed there were additional holes in shorter, less tidy lines.

I like cannas, but I don’t grow cannas anymore. The reason I don’t grow cannas is caterpillars. Cannas seem to be a favorite food and I found it impossible to grow cannas that did not have leaves that looked like lace---and not pretty lace.

When canna leaves are new on the plant, they emerge as a rolled tube.

The leaf with the straight lines of holes was chewed by a caterpillar at this stage and one good hole unfurled as the long pattern we see.