More Misc. Nature, Summer/Fall of 2011

The view from the, uh, Nature Room!

Gray Hairstreak butterfly, July

July 23 storm clouds

August post storm sunset

"Polamalu" the Garden Spider!

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A hazy Terra Alta sunset in August

 Red Spotted Newt and faded Red Spotted Purple Butterfly

found in my In-law's garage, August.

Poor little bald female cardinal at work!

September storm flooding

Surprise late season Monarch caterpillars to butterflies!

Buckeye Butterfly

Just a beautiful early morning moon, Oct 15

A little tiny black spider captured this stinkbug in it's web....kept him fed for days!

Brother Cat....at it again! June 27, 2011

After Brother Cat's misadventure and illness following his disappearance, I vowed he would never be allowed to go outside ever again. Because he is so obnoxious in that he thinks it's amusing to awaken us at any give wee hour of the morning when he spends the night in the house, he spends his nights out on the large, enclosed sun porch, where he can also access the laundry room.

HOWEVER.....he somehow kept escaping!

On this particular morning, just before 8am, I heard all this howling and meowing. At first, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It seemed to be coming from outside the (second floor) window of our bedroom. Opened the blinds, and look who was there!

Turns out the little *^%$$%^&* was getting out through a missing pane of glass in the louvers of the door! Mind you, this pane of missing glass was eye level to me, so about 5 and a half feet from the floor, and the space was only about 5 inches! We have fixed the problem, and he escapes no more. So far.........

Isn't he precious?

Recent Misc. Nature, Summer 2011

Moonrise, June 15

 

Another Snapper Rescue!

June 18

He's not very happy!

 

A young Red Spotted Newt, Big Run, June 19

Wildlife signs indicating I may see a bear. To date, Deer-1,345,999, Bear-ZERO!!

Virginia Ctenuchid Moth, Deep Creek, June 26

 

Polyphemus Moth, Terra Alta, June 26

 

Rosy Maple Moth

on the Flag, Terra Alta, July 2

Luna Moth on the Flag

Terra Alta, July 2

With flash....

..and without flash!

 Storm in Terra Alta, July 3rd

(yucca plant, too!)

Terra Alta sunset, July 3

We found a Robin nest in my In-Laws Crabapple tree!

You can just barely see it!

It started out with 4 eggs, but later, one was gone.

We went back and on July 17, we had babies! The nest was empty about a week and a half later. We missed the fledge.

Here is the infamous Sideling Hill Luna Moth...the one that wouldn't move and we thought was dead, only to find it very much alive when we got home that night!

Common Wood Nymph Butterflies were all over the place on the Field thistle! Terra Alta, July 17

A most famous dirigible! May 21, 2011

SO,this morning...the Goodyear Blimp just flew over the house REALLY low. Seems it was on it's way to the Preakness. I was in the bathroom when Steve yelled from the yard. Ran out the door. Forgot camera. Blimp moving away. Ran back in and got camera. Point, shoot, red blinking light. Batteries dead. Blimp moving further away. Ran back in, changed batteries, ran back out, point, shoot, nothing. Checked batteries, in backwards. Blimp pretty far now. Fixed batteries, point, shoot, the camera wants me to set day and time. Really? The blimp was far away. Camera is in secret burial ground somewhere in Minnesota......

But wait............7:15pm, I hear a sound, a familiar sound.....

and this time, I was READY!!!

See the little dot? Wait for it....

 I waved to it, of course!

 And there she goes....

off into the sunset.

 Very fun to see, even nowdays! I'm still just a kid at heart!

Bluebird Nest 2011

Yesterday, 5/5, before I left for work, I checked on the Bluebird nest. Of 5 eggs, three were hatched, one was half hatched and one egg still unhatched. Of course I didn't have the camera, and by the time I got back with it, Mom was in the box. She let me take her picture!

Mama Bluebird

 And here are the babies! There are four that you can see, possibly five. But only 4 opened wide! Not sure if the 5th egg is under the pile o' babies still unhatched. Or if the baby is under the pile! Kind of hard to tell just yet....

Five days post hatch, you can see the babies have really gotten much bigger! (5/10) Their previously naked wings are now getting some color and the first hint of developing feathers, and their heads are now growing into their eyes and they don't have that bulging eye look so much any more.

 

 Here are the babies today, 5/14, 9 days old! All five are there, and look to be doing well. However, even though I whistled at them, they didn't even look up. They were evidently having a nice nap! You can really see how the feathers have been developing, especially on their wings, and how much bigger they are now!

The babies are 13 days old today, 5/18. You can see the bright blue on the one in the far rear corner. That is a male! The male babies have unmistakable blue color on the wings at 13 days. I think the one in the very front is a female...the others, can't see the wings to know for sure.