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Red-Headed Woodpecker
Never in my life have I seen a red-headed woodpecker — till one day recently when this one showed up at our bird feeder and spent a day or two in the brush beyond our back yard. It was taking seeds and storing the in the bark of trees, so we hoped it might find this a hospitable place to stay for the summer. But it apparently moved on.
My father has spoken before of seeing one when he was 6-years old. It raised young in a dead tree in front of his house. The city cut down the tree the following year, and there were no more woodpeckers.
All About Birds lists them as in steep decline. I guess they are more common farther to the south, but I suspect this is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting. I felt very blessed.
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One last morning view
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Morning Glory II
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Morning Glory
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Last Glimpses of Summer
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A first
We found two caterpillars quite late this year, so we brought them home. This one is Jester, who emerged in the wee hours of September 26. As a caterpillar, Jester was quite plump, and she trudged around the aquarium for a long time before finally forming a chrysalis on a milkweed leaf instead of on the aquarium lid. We taped the leaf up after it dried out and were relieved that the butterfly got off to a good start on a warm day.
The other was a noticeably small caterpillar we dubbed Maverick. Maverick was on a milkweed plant with two spider sacs and a large spider, so by bringing him home we thought we increased his chances. But he formed a chrysalis earlier than expected, while he was still small, and the chrysalis was only about 2/3 the size of a typical one.
It seemed to develop normally, and the butterfly seemed fully developed, but it never emerged. This is a first, and it was a sad way to end the season. The metamorphosis is such an amazing process, and a good metaphor for change and growth. This one was essentially stillborn — seemingly perfect, yet the process didn’t complete.
My daughter helped me remove it from the aquarium lid, and we hung it, by a thread tied around the little black hanger on top, from a bush outside. I couldn’t throw it out. “It would be a great place to emerge,” she remarked. Indeed it would. If only.
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Progress Report
We’ve found just 4 monarch caterpillars this year. Two have successfully metamorphosed into butterflies; two are still chrysalises in our aquarium.
Here are some glimpses of the process.
Emerging Monarch
Prepping for Takeoff
The Great Outdoors
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Monarch Season
We’re going to look for some monarchs to see through the caterpillar –> chrysalis –> butterfly cycle again this year. I’ve seen several articles recently about the butterflies being classed as officially endangered. It’s been a number of years since I did this, and I’d like to help make sure at least a few make it through the earthbound phase of their lives.
This video is from 2012. Before that year, when my daughters and I were immersed in nature study, I assumed caterpillars always formed the chrysalis from outside; in truth it’s a much more uncomfortable looking process of enduring its emergence from within. It’s a good metaphor for other kinds of important change — and one I hope to be able to observe again this year. Maybe I can make another video… though I treasure this one, with its shifting reflections of young faces in the aquarium glass.
Music: Liz Story, “Welcome Home”
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Elizabethan Gardens
My daughter and I recently visited the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, NC. Meant to commemorate the lost colony established by Sir Walter Raleigh 400+ years ago, the gardens are an elaborate feast for the eye that conjure up memories of The Secret Garden, the discussion of walled gardens in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, and the continual emphasis in Wendell Berry’s writings on a cooperative relationship between human stewardship and ecological/agricultural health.
Lush colors, bees and butterflies and squirrels and lizards, symmetry and diversity were everywhere. But I didn’t photograph everything. One tree, an oak thought to have been growing since the colonists’ residence in the 16th century, was so striking to me that I forgot to take its picture. There were plenty of other alcoves and sculptures and flowers that escaped my camera, too.
All the more reason to return.
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Scenes from the Outer Banks
We visited several highlights at the Outer Banks, in North Carolina. This black bear was in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was our second time visiting, and we still haven’t seen any alligators — but the bears are certainly impressive. They can be observed from the car as you travel the roads of the preserve.
We also took a dolphin watching cruise one evening. Though we saw a dolphin or two, the most striking natural phenomenon was the rapid incursion of a cold front that blasted us with wind and a major temperature drop shortly after the cruise began. The sky stole the show.
