Garden Goings On...

 Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, first instar.

Just working in the gardens...or pretending to work while The Doodles is watching. Then I whip out my trusty (rusty?) camera and shoot some of the creatures that call our home home.

 Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, all grown up. 

Doodles found him when he was about a half inch long living in the fennel.

At this point, he's eaten quite a bit of fennel and has more than doubled in size.

She called him "BS."

As in "Black Swallowtail."

Original.

This is what BS will become within the next month.

We have high hopes anyway.

 Surprise!

The Doodles managed to spot a second  Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar in another fennel plant!

"Jr." has since grown and disappeared.

I found BS crawling towards a small tree that died and I was cutting down.

No worries, I saved him and placed him in another tree where he immediately disappeared.

 Another late arrival.

The Robins have been...uh...busy, and we now have another little one wandering around the garden.

 This is what an American Robin looks like after it has been too busy...

and interrupted during bath time.

 

 Yes, we have PLENTY of bunnies eating anything they can reach.

I once tried to eliminate our lawn and planted clover.

It didn't work as planned.

I now have nice clover...but the grass came back.

Oh well.

 

 New yard bug!

This is a Fork-tailed Bush Katydid that was in a bush and I startled it when I was trimming.

It's now a Fork-tailed Pine Katydid...chirp chirp.

  Our Large Milkweed Bugs have been "busy" as well!...

Aren't they the cutest things?

The Doodles has yet to name them all.

Good luck...

 

 Oh boy!

The Mink is back and The Doodles managed to get of photo.

He likes to play submarine in our little pond.

I seem to be missing a few frogs now.

Hmmm...ya know...most of the chipmunks seem to be missing as well.

Who's a happy mink?

 

Stay tuned for

"Flowers From Behind"...the blog...

Life is Black and White...

 Black-and-White Warbler

Bald Eagle

Black-capped Chickadee

 Downy Woodpecker

 Eastern Screech Owl

 Gray Catbird

 Great Egret

 Herring Gull

 Snowy Owl

  

Trumpeter Swan

Birding in the Future...

 European Robin from the book "The Unfeathered Bird."

It will be your new field guide.

 

The Imperial Woodpecker is officially listed as "Critically Endangered (possibly extinct)" 

by the IUCN and BirdLife International.

I've been very polite lately and trying to stay calm and positive about life and birds. I've been showing you happy photos of happy little birds flying free and living their happy little lives. 

I'm done...

WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE! 

I don't understand how those few dozen people that "run" our state and our lives can have the balls to give away our park land, our wildlife, our oxygen and our future to a few corporations. "Oh, we're creating jobs!" I call bullshit. What they're doing is raping the planet in the name of profit. They don't care about you. They don't care about nature...or your children's future. They need the graft to run their campaigns and get re-elected to an office that they have no business holding.

VOTE!

I've posted before about the Great State of Ohio giving away the rights of our wilderness areas to big business for logging and clear cutting, and now they plan to allow fracking as well. They will poison the ground water and eliminate nesting and breeding habitats for more than just our favorite birds. Think of the hundreds of species of insects, mammals, reptiles and other flora and fauna that will be decimated! 

WRITE!

I have a simple request that may cost you less than a dollar. Go to THIS LINK. Print out that letter and mail it QUICKLY to the Ohio Division of Forestry. IT MUST ARRIVE THERE NO LATER THAN AUGUST 30th!

Contact your representatives...no matter where you live...and tell them to stop wrecking our planet!

 

 In the future you may be able to study rare birds up close.

Your politicians will put a positive spin on that one...

 

 Imagine the action shots you'll now be able to get!

 

 All of those trees just get in the way.

Think of the lives of drunk drivers that will be saved if they can no longer hit them!

 It will be so easy to ID sparrows in the future...they'll all have toe tags.

You can find your Senator here:

 http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

You can find your state Representative here:

 http://www.house.gov/representatives/

The Nature Conservancy:

 http://www.nature.org/

The National Audubon Society:

http://www.audubon.org

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds:

http://www.rspb.org.uk

The Longest Twitch Continues!

Guess where we went?

Oh, you'll never get it!

East Sandusky Bay...duh.

Yes, the Longest Twitch continues. I'll bet you thought I forgot about it...or maybe you hoped. Well, my eleven loyal listeners, I didn't forget and you shall be regaled with the delightful story of a fine spring day walking and birding along the shores of the great Lake Erie...and the Lake Erie Birding Trail. East Sandusky Bay covers a large swath along the shore line and inland a bit, creeks, wetlands and woods...and mud after the rains...nice squishy mud.

Actually, I don't have much of a story to tell, let alone a delightful one. You should know better! The Doodles got out the maps and, once again, told me where to go. And I went. And then, there we were. The place that we went that is, there. And so it went...for hours on end...going and wenting left and right. Seeing the birds that were to be seen and also the insects that were seen to be out letting themselves be seen. Delightful, eh what? Indeed. Look at the photos. There may be a delightful one in there somewhere. Or not. You decide. Let your friends know what you decide and then have them look and let them decide as well. More deciders would be good.

I will stop talking now. You're welcome.

The Doodles only gave them a "2 Bench" rating.

They have benches, but do you really want to sit there?

It's nice to see that the park system in Erie County really cares about habitat!

This is an American Robin skulking like he's not an American Robin.

They like to pretend they're a different species once in a while.

Breaks up the monotony of eating worms.

He's not happy that I told his secret...

Get over it.

Juvenal Bald Eagles...the one on the right is not happy that his sibling has breakfast.

This was along the Cedar Point causeway...we saw 5 soaring over this wetland!

Where's Waldo?

Here's not there...but 9(!) Great Blue Herons are.

I lost count at close to 50 in this area...ran out of fingers and toes...public school...know what I mean?

Baltimore Oriole smelling his armpits after a long hot flight in.

I don't make this stuff up.

Look in Kenn Kaufman's "Lives of North American Birds."

Page 676.

This is a safer bench for sitting.

You can also watch birds from this bench.

Or eat lunch...if you remembered to bring it.

This Black Rat snake was not under the bench.

He was cozy and warm in the rocks along the marsh at Old Woman's Creek.

Also part of the Lake Erie Birding Trail and minutes from East Sandusky Bay.

Did you go to the link?

Why not?

Go.

Now.

I'll wait.

Oooh...pretty color!

Blue Dasher dragonfly...called that because he's blue and very dashing.

It's a soft, fuzzy Bumbley Bee!

And someone else trying to sneak into the pic.

Don't you hate when that happens?

Wow.

A common Whitetail dragonfly.

Ya know how they got that name?

Yep.

This is Common Whitetail Junior.

One day he'll grow up to be just like dad...

Or get eaten by a bird.

Hey look!

It's watery water near the lake that's eerie!

Hey! Wait a second...those fish are up to something fishy in that water!

Eew...don't drink that water!

Not Bobb.

I hope you're sitting down for this one...

It's a Golden-backed Snipe Fly.

No...not Super Fly, SNIPE FLY!

You kids...

A fine pair of Jive Egrets.

Totally cool.

Green Darner dragonfly.

I have no darn jokes for this one...ha!

Get it?

I snuck that one in...

I am one wacky dude.

Mallards...prounced "Mahlahrd."

Ask anyone from the U.K.

Oh, and a Midland Painted Turtle.

They get angry if I don't mention them once in a while.

They have internet in their shells and look at my blog.

I have more turtle followers than humans.

I wonder why?

He's smiling, hard to tell at this angle, but he is definitely smiling.

Mourning Cloak butterflies don't smile.

They're in mourning.

Did you know...they winter over up here?

Crazy, huh?

Another fun fact to share with friends and family.

Peck's Skipper.

I watched him for fifteen minutes.

He never skipped.

Another bad bug name.

Are you still there?

Hello?

This may be a Purple Finch.

Or it may be a House FInch.

What do I know, I'm color blind...and not to bright either.

The Red-winged Blackbirds laugh at my jokes.

At least I think he's laughing...

Seeing that we went on this adventure in the late spring...

this would be a SPRING Azure.

Clever Loopy....very clever.

Lifer dragonfly!

Swamp Darner female.

(If I'm wrong, at least I got a cool photo.)

The Doodles out in the wilds of Ohio.

Amazing that she hasn't tried to lose me in the swamp, isn't it?

I think she's planning something nefarious.

Look at that look in her eyes.

I'm in deep doodoo...

Okay, back in the happy world of odonata...

Ooh...carnivorous bugs!

Twelve-spotted Skimmer.

Count 'em.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 spots.

See?

Have you ever taken a photo and not known why?

This is one of those.

What the heck is that?!

More happy wet water.

There seems to be a lot of that around the lake.

Must be why they call them "wetland."

I'm a super genius.

Pretty flower.

A bunch of pretty flowers.

In a different color.

You can't learn this stuff on anybody else's blog!

Even the birds are flying away from me!

I better go now.

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with this.

*That's a Yellow Warbly thing by the way...