Birds,  Butterflies & Moths,  Ponds & Streams

Pond Walk

My dad took the girls and me for a walk around a different pond yesterday. These are some of the sights.

Pearl crescent butterfly
Pearl crescent butterfly

Supposedly the underside of the hind wing has a crescent, though I confess I have a hard time seeing it.

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There were LOTS of polliwogs — enough that we ended up taking some home in a goldfish bowl to observe.

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The Wog Whisperer -- my younger daughter
The Wog Whisperer — my younger daughter
This photo shows an adult frog chilling on the bottom while the younger generation swarms over it.
This photo shows an adult frog chilling on the bottom while the younger generation swarms over it.
Feeling watched?
Feeling watched?

 

The fields around the pond were filled with red-winged blackbirds and bobolinks. The bobolinks sang a two-note song, then a long string of gibberish that sounded exactly like R2-D2.

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I haven’t tried to identify these caterpillars yet.

caterpillars

Near the car, Older Daughter spotted this tiny moth — and I do mean tiny!

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When we got home we identified it as an eight-spotted forester moth.

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The day was complete when we pulled into the driveway at home to find some great crested flycatchers. They’ve been around the yard for the last couple of days but they’re hard to get a good look at till they’re on their way out. My youngest spotted this one.

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3 Comments

  • Peggy Siegert

    Try looking @ Gulf Fritillary cats … could be what you saw/photographed (??) Almost for certain IF they were feeding on milk weeds. Milk weeds are the ONLY host plant, at least that I know of, for Gulf Frit cats. Also have found that Great crested Flycatchers are drawn to nest boxes that have the entrance holes greatly enlarged … ones that have been chewed on by squirrels for instance. They return year to desirable nest boxes after year … at least our experience in se Louisiana. Not ‘song’ birds but fun to watch.

  • Peggy Siegert

    Ooooooopppps! Major mistake … I’m so sorry … host plant for Gulf Frit cats is PASSION VINE …. NOT milk weed. Have both growing in our back yard strictly for the flutter bys. Anyway, those cats do look like Gulf Frit cats but the leaves they’re feeding on don’t look like our native passion vine. Native passion vine in your part of the world could be different than ours. I save clear plastic/glass jars — collect Gulf Frit cats, along with some host plant leaves – place in jars – along with a stick – cats hang, pupate, hatch in a few days to the pleasure of grand children and neighborhood kiddos.

  • Janet

    Judging from my caterpillar guide, my guess is that the caterpillars are Baltimore butterfly caterpillars. I think they were feeding on turtlehead — though they’d eaten most of the plant they were on!

    We like to do the same thing with monarchs as you do with Gulf Frits. 🙂

    Good to know about the flycatchers. We do have a birdhouse with a larger opening; we had a downy woodpecker who liked sleeping in it during the cold weather, but no one has nested in it before. Maybe these birds will go for it.