the bark tree

Late season Lepidoptera

We observed a few butterfly species we don't regularly see in the garden well into December this year, due to lingering fall temperatures.  The Queen butterfly looks like a smaller brown monarch and also feeds on milkweeds.

A Varigated Fritillary takes nectar from a self-sown Echinacea purpurea.

 

I recently purchased this wonderful butterfly field guide by well known bird author Kenn Kaufman and lepidopterist Jim P. Brock.

 

Also check out this interesting butterfly website:
www.butterfliesandmoths.org

Please forgive these two horrible iphone photos of the Gulf Fritillary and the Buckeye butterfly.  If you run inside for the better camera, the lovely butterfly will be gone by the time you return.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting to show the range of visitors and remaining fall nectar sources.

Mourning Cloak

From a pile of wood brought indoors for a fire, something flew from the underside of a log.  A Mourning Cloak butterfly had flown over to the window!  

He seemed rather sleepy and confused so Brandon carefully captured him, brought him back outside and snapped a few pictures. Mourning Cloaks prefer tree sap, especially that of oaks, only occasionally feeding on flower nectar.

Barn owl

August and I were out in the yard chatting with our neighbor when we witnessed a large group of crows in pursuit of a larger bird which looked to us like an owl.  Could it be?

Inside, Brandon heard the commotion, ran out and jumped into his jeep to follow them where they appeared to have flown a few streets over, verifying the barn owl sighting. 

Hooray for spontaneous early morning events!

Compost completed

With almost no effort, my first batch of compost is ready!

Using my lazy method it took about a year.  I simply dump yard debris and kitchen scraps as they accumulate.  Last fall, I saved two large brown paper bags of leaves so I layer them over mushy kitchen scraps to keep a decent carbon/nitrogen ratio.

This pile was turned just once when I moved my first bin farther back in the yard, but otherwise it has broken down on it's own.  I added a second bin so I could leave one alone to rot.  The lazy process would be somewhat faster if I could keep the pile moist.  I occasionally leave a sprinkler on the bins, but they are generally out of sight, out of mind.

In all my flower beds around the yard, I dumped about six buckets of mostly finshed compost.  At one point, I noticed an anole lizard on the wall of the house watching me as I spread.  He jumped down twice and gobbled small beetles that were mixed in with the other organic matter.  To make plants and other creatures happy with what once was unwanted debris is very satisfying indeed!

Summer bird feeder

The record breaking summer heat brought many visitors back to our bird feeder which was quiet through much of spring.

Visiting several times daily is family of house finches who drain the feeder rapidly. 

Possibly two families... at one point I counted 15 of them. Only a few of them have the "sparrow dipped in raspberry juice" coloring.

Safflower seeds are my preference since they hold less interest for squirrels, but I've also used sunflower seeds which are cheaper.  Keeping shallow bowls of water around and occasionally running the sprinkler also brings in visitors.

The house finches are the only new species to visit us.  Cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmice, wrens, blue jays and doves are return visitors of whom we saw quite a bit in the winter.

To diversify, I added a hummingbird feeder.  So far it's been patronized by ants and the hummers drink from the nearby flowering abelia shrub, but it might be worth it to occasionally see this hairy woodpecker up close.

Spring butterflies

Behind on posting as usual, these are pix of butterflies we saw in the spring: Giant Swallowtail.

In August, the Dallas Morning News ran this interesting article about the effects of the record-breaking hot summer on butterflies.

Pearl crescent.

Not a great photo, but I had to include this shot of one of my favorites, the Buckeye butterfly in the left, middle.

I never cared much for Hackberry trees (Celtis occidentalis), but when I learned about the Hackberry butterfly (above) which uses the tree as it's host plant, I decided they weren't so bad.

By no means an expert, I got in the habit of calling all of these small gray butterflies Hairstreaks, but the family called Blues/Azures has similar markings on their outer wings.  A commenter on an older butterfly post recently corrected me.

Hairstreak visits salvia

Before I even planted this little Salvia (S. nemorosa 'Caradonna'), a little hairstreak butterfly was already partaking of it's flowers.

That's my kind of plant!

Snow in TX

This was our view for days on end in early February.

When we moved back last February to Texas after 10 years in Brooklyn, I hardly expected to return to a snowy winter.  Admittedly, one week of snow days is nothing for the NYC area, but around here it's downright unusual.

On our icy porch, a pine (Pinus densiflora) stump I claimed from Wave Hill when we had to take a beautiful old tree down.

This might be the last time we see snow for a long time. Of course we had to get out in it for a little while.

With temperatures in the low 20s and teens, it wasn't comfortable for long.  The snow wasn't holding together very well so our obligatory snowman was dashed off quickly and was therefore quite small.

Inside, we entertained ourselves by building fires and watching the birds.

Chickadees and tufted titmice were frequent visitors to the feeder as well as a pair of cardinals.

A ruby crowned kinglet found a morsel on this cage I hung to hold a suet brick. We quickly realized that the squirrels were devouring most of it.

Here you can barely see the kinglet's little ruby "crown."  Roger Tory Peterson's last word in his description is: Inquistive.  We agreed.

In the warm days before the snow, this little carolina wren was singing his heart out each day on our fence, perhaps believing spring was already here.

Even when we can only hear him, we are always pleased by the presence of the lovely red-bellied woodpecker who, along with the smaller downy woodpecker, finds food in nearby dead tree limbs and occasionally visits our feeder.

An unusual vistor for this area was what we believe to be an ovenbird.  Two of them hopped around in search of food in our yard while the snow was on the ground and presumably winged it to warmer environs soon after.

All in all, we've counted thirteen different species in our yard including crows, mockingbirds, sparrows, blue jays and white winged doves.

We certainly enjoyed them all during the long days spent mostly indoors.

Ouch

In Texas, it's inevitable that a baby who loves to play in the dirt will get stung by fire ants.

Mississippi Kites

A pair of Mississippi Kites have set up a nest in an oak tree next door! 

We are enjoying watching these small, graceful hawks which are somewhat uncommon migratory residents of Texas.

Sitting outside playing with August one day, I heard a scuffle in a nearby tree.  I looked up to catch the two birds in the act of procreating! 

I yelled for Brandon to come see.  It all happened rather quickly, but in the afterglow the two birds perched in the tree for a good while.  We're looking forward to seeing the babies in the nest.

 

 

 

 

Hummingbird feeder

We visited our friend's family ranch near Gainesville, TX around Memorial day and Brandon took some good shots of their hummingbird feeder.

 

 

Wildlife update

The squirrel population appears to be exploding. 
Brandon photographed 5 babies near this hole in the tree.

Earlier in the year, he fussed at some ladies for feeding huge amounts of store-bought nuts to squirrels in the park.  Those varmits buried thousands of nuts in our tiny yard making little holes everywhere.  Later they chewed through wires in our neighbor's truck, leaving him stranded and nearly causing an explosion.  Looks like next year will be equally challenging.

In other alarming wildlife news, we found 2 dead birds in our yard.  They appear to be migratory warblers. We also found a cat collar which might belong to the culprit.  Sigh.

Labor day excursion

Over Labor Day weekend we took a little trip upstate to Olivebridge, NY to stay in the cottage of some friends.

We saw lots of fascinating wildlife including this incredible wasp nest.

A skunk munched on a previously dropped slice of avocado one night outside our door and a group of wild turkeys passed one morning.

 

Out walking, we were excited to spot this Kingfisher near a reservoir.

 

With the help of binoculars, we were thrilled to see two bald eagles and their nest.  One is soaring and you can see the white head of the other perched below.

On another little trek, we appreciated some beautiful moss on rocks in a creek.

 

It was a great little get-away. Thanks again to Stephanie and Matt for having us!

Black squirrel

Until I moved to the northeast, I never saw a black squirrel so I still find them vaguely fascinating.  This is the first one we've seen near our house.

Neighborhood musings

After picking up our fruit and egg share on Saturday, Brandon I and were walking home and heard a woman scream.  Turned out it was only because she saw this huge dragonfly dead on the ground.  Another man picked it up just as we got to it and said, 'finders keepers', but we got a photo.

Earlier, we passed by the beautiful Greendome community garden in McCarren Park and I took a couple of quick shots of their summer blooms.

In other neighborhood news...
I know I mentioned this last year, but it always baffles me how every summer the folks at White Castle think it's a good idea to spruce up with a pathetic display of annuals, transforming it from this (above) to this. Compared to this effort, last year looked downright pretty. Budget cuts, perhaps?

Butterfly season!

We spotted a new butterfly species in the garden! 
From this ventral view it looks very much like its relative, the Hairstreak which we have seen here before.

 

This tiny Summer Azure (Celastrina 'neglecta') showed it's blue-gray namesake coloring when flying ...or at least we never saw it rest with its wings open.  Brandon patiently took these photos in the few moments when he did pause on our bush clover (Lespedeza sp.) which hasn't begun blooming. 

According to my butterfly book, there is a great deal of variation and therefore confusion in this group called Azures or Blues so hopefully we have correctly identified it.  Anyway, we were excited to see a new species finding something of interest in our small garden.

Another (or perhaps our resident) Tiger Swallowtail visited the echinacea, which has seen a good bit of insect action lately.

 

These sweet visitors are so charming I can't help photographing them repeatedly.

Nearby bird sightings

We've had some interesting bird sightings lately.  We spotted this V-shaped formation of ducks or geese outside our window.  Brandon thought to grab the camera and he took these shots.

















From our succulent-filled bedroom window, we noticed these two baby doves waiting for their mother to bring them food on the rafters of our neighbor's deck.  I observed them getting fed the day before which is how I knew they were babies, but Brandon had the wherewithal and patience to photograph them.







Lastly (and leastly), there is a large crop of noisy starlings everywhere this year.  Here's a mother and baby squawking at each other.

Chickens for a day

Brandon watched one night last week as a woman dumped three live chickens into the park across the street. We speculated that they were easter chicks that had lost their cuteness upon reaching the awkward teenage phase.

Some neighbors of ours had a similar experience with chickens in our park several years ago and other friends found a bunny in Prospect Park.

Brandon brought them to over our yard and the next day called Animal Care & Control of New York City, who picked them up and took them to a place called Farm Sanctuary. Hopefully, they'll have a nice life now.

Worm winter

The worms in my tumbling compost bin have survived the winter! I sifted a batch and found lots of them wriggling about. Thanks to them, I have a little more room in the bins for debris.

Bird feeding bust

We tried out our new bird feeder for the first time using a seed mix for finches. It was immediately inundated with sparrows by the dozen who drained the whole thing in a day, pooping everywhere in the process.

We were hoping to attract some other species that we know are around such as cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, house finches, mockingbirds, etc. Perhaps another type of food would be better. I've heard that sparrows won't eat Nyjer thistle seed. Like starlings, pigeons and seagulls, these birds are already so numerous in this area that they need no extra help.

At this point, I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. How to promote bird diversity in the city? I've read that sometimes sparrows will alert other species to the feeder and perhaps their poop could be nutritious in the compost.

Do we continue allowing the crazed barrage of sparrows? Try a different seed mix? Save the food until a better time for different birds? I'll have to do some more research.