Garden Critters

Category: Garden Wildlife | Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 1:50 pm

My husband suggested using these old bird dishes as mini bird feeders. They seem pretty popular with the "locals". It is nice way to have little feeding stations hanging on the fence.

THIS is the larval host plant for my frittilary caterpillars. I planted this with high hopes of attracting my favorite zebra longwing butterflies, but have still been lucky enough to attract the pretty frittilaries.

My inside caterpillars appear to be getting ready to molt to the next instar. They are hanging out at the top of their cage--last time they did this they shed their skins.

~UPDATE~
One caterpiller DID shed it's skin. It looked like this one before:

And now looks like this:

If you notice the head is different. This is kind of funny, but I was horrified at the time. I moved him and his head FELL OFF! I felt terrible and then I noticed he was moving along just as usual, even eating, so I looked closer and saw he had a new larger ORANGE head...whew! So basically, the caterpillar in the first picture will lose his head soon, and right behind it, below the surface of the skin you can actually see where the new eyes are developing....it is so very alien!

My family got me this lovely faux bois bird bath for mothers day. It was kind of an ordeal to get it, he special ordered it from Home Depot and they kept selling it by mistake. Finally they called another store and luckily THEY had it so we could pick it up. Somehow I think the store needs to order MORE of this style because it is obviously very popular.

I was very pleased to see blue jays getting a drink from it the other day. I do hope the squirrels will use it because it really worries me to see them drinking out of the pool. I dread finding one that has drowned.

I feed a stray cat that I think belonged to the people who lived here before we bought the house. I am hoping that if I feed her enough she will leave the birds alone. She hasn't been hunting them, but she and the squirrels have some kind of crazy game....they chase eachother. I used to worry that she was terrorizing the squirrel, but now I can see that HE likes it too. The blue jays and woodpeckers LOVE it when I feed the cat, they impatiently wait for her to finish and then descend upon the bowl like a bunch of vultures. They are quite bold and I think it is a little unsettling for the cat.

When we moved we trapped her, got her spayed and vaccinated. She was totally wild, but now lets me pet her. Other cats come to visit, but she seems to be here 80% of the time.

Last edited: Thu May 24, 2007 6:44 pm

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eileen wrote on Thu May 24, 2007 2:23 pm:

A lovley set of photographs Hummingbird. I especially like the blue Jay as our jays are entirely different to yours.

My passionflower hasn't started to bloom yet this year so it's nice to see yours in flower. By the way - love the bird bath!!!

Frank wrote on Thu May 24, 2007 2:24 pm:

So you raise butterflies Hummingbrd? I'd be interested to hear more about this if you get the time. Sounds really interesting.

The birdbath is eye-catching, I can understand its popularity.

bethie wrote on Thu May 24, 2007 2:40 pm:

You lucky thing. We get zebra swallowtail but no longwings. Love to see that you're feeding the birds.

hummingbird3172 wrote on Thu May 24, 2007 2:53 pm:

Thanks Eileen, Frank, and Bethie!

Eileen, sometimes I get frustrated with our Florida heat and humidity because I have such a love for a lot of cottage types of flowers. My biggest consolation is my vines!

Frank, my butterfly raising is on a very small scale, usually one or two at a time. I like to bring them in so the kids can watch the cycle.

Bethie, I am a total sucker for the birds, and they know it! ;-)