Late Summer
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Nature
Wasp Nest
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I guess this explains the 100+ wasps we had all over our porch last year. This gigantic nest was revealed when the roofers pulled off all our shingles to replace them.
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Monarchs on a Mission
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Last Wednesday, September 9, I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my school. I noticed three or four monarch butterflies flying past our window in a span of about a half an hour. They were flying very close to the window, so I decided that I would try to take a picture of one. I lifted up my camera to focus it, and another flew past, and then another. I hadn’t been expecting them, so I didn’t get a photo, but I decided I had a good chance of getting a nice picture outside since there were so many. When I was outside, I was astonished by the number of monarchs I saw. There was not one moment that there wasn’t a butterfly in sight.
All of the butterflies were flying southward, except one. He was looking for a snack, which he found on my coneflowers.
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A Toad
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We found this guy in the backyard a couple weeks ago, and I snapped a photo of him before we let him go. He’s the biggest toad we’ve ever discovered.
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Spring Pictures
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A goldfinch high in a tree
Spinach from the garden
Columbine in bloom
Another columbine plant
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Wild Bird Sightings for March
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Early this March, I saw a bird of prey I had never seen before. It was smaller than a red tailed hawk, and had a redder breast than any other hawk I had seen. Later, I identified it as a peregrine falcon. I was exited to have another bird to add to my bird life list. (A list of all the birds I have ever seen.)
Mid March brought a HUGE bird to our backyard. It was a turkey vulture, which I have seen before, very far off. They circle a TV tower in Sioux Falls, and I can see them from my ballet studio, but I never realized just how big they are. (A wingspan of up to six feet!)
This doesn’t quite count as a sighting, but throughout March Mom, Dad, and I have been hearing a Great Horned Owl that has been living in a group of trees behind our house. The great horned owl has the famous ‘who, who’ call, and is the only owl living in South Dakota that does. I am fortunate to have heard it.
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Dull, Drab Winter
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Nothing has happened in the last few weeks that was important enough to devote a whole post about it, so I am going to collect the small events of the past week into one post.
Friday the thirteenth:
I went to the physical therapist and got a bunch of new exercises. I originally went to the physical therapist for a pain in my arch when I walked a little over a year ago. We found a muscle that was very weak and strengthened it, and the foot pain quit except when I have walked long distances or stood a long time. (It is getting better all the time because I am still doing harder exercises.) Now I am going to her for the beginning of tendonitis in my shins, which is caused by the same muscle being weaker than the others and not doing its job when I jump or run. The physical therapist, whose daughter is training to be a professional ballerina in Pennsylvania/New York City, also likes to help me strengthen muscles to improve my ballet skills with exercises, so I got a bunch of exercises for my gluteus maximus to help lift my leg higher in the back. Ooh, my rear end is sore right now.
Friday the 13th-Sunday the 15th:
I counted birds for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I counted: 23 pigeons, 1 red tailed hawk, about 30 geese, a mallard duck, and a great horned owl, which has been around our house for a while. Well, actually Dad saw the owl. I heard it a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t seen it.
Today, Monday the 20th:
I went shopping with Mom and Maria at the mall. I needed long sleeved shirts since I only had a couple of shirts that were long enough for me to move my arms around freely. We went into three stores and found absolutely nothing that fit me, because all the stores were stocking spring clothes. Phew! I can’t believe how long it takes to find nothing. Finally, we found something, but not long sleeved shirts. We found my Easter dress, which is really amazing, because it is extremely hard to find nice dresses for my age that aren’t to little girly. Then it was back to the tiresome chore of finding shirts. Just when we had about given up, we went into a store and found five shirts, just like that!
Then we went to Claire’s, a girly store in the mall, and Maria picked out earrings for herself. (She just got them pierced six weeks ago.) I will have pictures of her with them on later.
Well, those are the only things really worth mentioning. I am getting really tired of winter, it’s so uneventful. If it was summer or spring and I didn’t know what to write about, I could go outside and take pictures of my garden. Sigh. Oh, well, at least the first day of spring is only 29 days away.
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Florida Wildlife
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When I got home from Florida, the first thing I did was look up birds and butterflies native to Florida, for I had seen three types of birds and two types of butterflies and a moth that I had never seen before. I successfully identified five of the new species. The moth I didn’t get close enough to see enough identification marks. Two of the birds I have pictures of, but the others where to fast for me to shoot, (with my camera). I have pictures of these that I did not take so you can see them anyway.
This is the moth.
These are American White Ibises. These birds were almost tame. They walked around Magic Kingdom Park and begged for food from people. I almost got one to eat out of my hand when I was holding imaginary food, but he wasn’t fooled after he got close.
This is a great egret. They also are everywhere around Magic Kingdom. They stand around in flower beds and on poles near to people. They are very still for long periods of time, so they look like well made statues.
This is a summer tanager, a bird I have always wanted to see. This is one of the pictures I didn’t take.
This is a cloudless sulphur. One landed very close to me, and I almost caught it in my hands, but I didn’t think of taking a picture, so this picture isn’t mine. When I saw it, I knew it was a type of sulphur because we have a very similar kind in South Dakota called a clouded sulphur.
This gorgeous butterfly is a zebra longwing butterfly. I saw three of them flying around during our stay, but I wasn’t able to get any on film, so this picture is not mine either. I was able to identify this butterfly when I saw it. When I got back, I read that it is the state butterfly of Florida. I lake that I can say I saw Florida’s state butterfly. More on our great trip to Disney World later.
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Wooly Bear Caterpillar
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Landon found this little guy curled up in a corner of a friend’s barn. His stripe was brown rather than reddish, I was surprised to see. I took it home to take some pictures, but as it turns into a boring creamy white moth after hibernating all winter, I decided to let it go out in the back yard.
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Stinky Sight
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It was dark outside because it was late at night. The little kids had left their bikes outside, so Landon and I went to put them away. When we were almost finished, I noticed something moving in the neighbors yard a few houses down the street.. I thought at first it was a cat, then I noticed the black and white stripes, bushy tail, and unmistakable waddling walk. I knew it was a skunk. I ran inside to get Mom and Dad to come see, on my way in telling Landon that I saw a skunk. Landon was scared out of his skin, and he ran in faster than me to get away from the skunk. When we got back with Mom and Dad, the skunk was nowhere to be seen. It probably wanted to get out of the open and headed for some bushes. Having seen one skunk in the neighborhood, I wonder how many other skunks patrol the streets at night.
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Injured Butterfly
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Landon found an injured male Monarch butterfly. As you can see, the left forewing is missing. I brought it home to show the little boys and feed it. I took these pictures of the butterfly eating peach juice.
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Baltimore Oriole Pictures
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Here are the pictures Dad took of the Baltimore Orioles that stopped by a while ago. We haven’t seen them since, but I did see a few more when I was at a friends house for a birthday party. (She lives out in the country.) Aren’t they lovely little birds?
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Upland Chorus Frogs
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I have always wanted to hear frogs singing, little did I know I can hear them all summer long. It wasn’t ’till I listened on a spring night when there weren’t any crickets or other insects singing that I realized that I could hear the sound of frogs very loudly. I also figured out that the song was from upland chorus frogs. It was a wonderful experience for me to hear the sound of frogs croaking in the distance
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My Birthday and First Red-Winged Blackbirds
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It’s official! I am a teenager! It was a beautiful day today, in the 50’s. I took a walk, and saw both my first robins and my first red-winged blackbirds. (Yesterday I heard, not saw, a robin.)
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