FlutterBys!

[LadyShea]

Our passion vines and morning glories have been covered in gorgeous Gulf Fritillary butterflies and caterpillars. We have been fascinated by them.

http://www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/biology/zoology/invertzoo-05f/ruffner/Gulf-Fritillary-(Agraulis-v.jpg

Anything pretty in your garden this Fall?

[ITSOZAZ]

that's perdy :)

[JoeP]

Pretty!

Of course, it ain't fall here. We have wisteria blossoming - surrounded by fat bees - and other things budding and blooming.

[Artemis Entreri]

When I turned on the lights at my new house the other night I found a bunch of gekoes on the ceiling of the carport.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Hemidactylus_turcicus.jpg
Well I thought they were cute.

[LadyShea]

Oooh I love geckos! So cute! Please remind me where you live Artemis?

[Dingfod]

Nice pic, LadyShea.

[Artemis Entreri]

A finally found a place just north of Mobile.
It's in the historic district of a small town I'm sure you know.
The nice thing is that now I'm only 10min from the shipyard.

[Pinecone]

OMG!! VM's in ur karporz steelin ur thum!!

[LadyShea]

:( I'm like an hour away and don't have any geckos...we have some kind of rainbow colored lizards though and they're really cool.

Oh and I didn't take the pic, I just found it online. They're awfully pretty butterflies.

Off topic: Mobile has surprisingly affordable historic homes...buying one is a sorta half baked goal of mine and the other areas I am interested in, like Charleston, are too expensive. I just wish Mobile would amp up revitalization of their downtown and bayfront.

[viscousmemories]

I tried to get a photo of a blue bird I saw out back today, but I was too slow and he was uncooperative. I took this picture of a red bird a few weeks ago. Is it a cardinal? I don't know any other red birds. Of course there are lots of deer around as well. I've been seeing a lot of a little family: Buck, doe and fawn.

[fragment]

Like JoeP, I'm below the equator, but here's a nice monarch I snapped last southern autumn:

[LadyShea]

Yes, vm, that's a Cardinal. A beauty too!

[Ensign Steve]

There's a pretty red bird that lives in the park off my balcony. I don't know for sure, but I think it might be a robin of some kind.

[The Lone Ranger]

I tried to get a photo of a blue bird I saw out back today, but I was too slow and he was uncooperative. I took this picture of a red bird a few weeks ago. Is it a cardinal? I don't know any other red birds. Of course there are lots of deer around as well. I've been seeing a lot of a little family: Buck, doe and fawn.

LadyShea is correct; that's a male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). The females are much less brilliantly colored.

If you want to see a really strikingly-colored red bird, you might look for a tanager. Male Scarlet Tanagers (Piranga olivacea) and Summer Tanagers (Piranga rubra) are so bright red they look almost unnatural; photographs just don't do them justice. Unfortunately, they tend to live deep in forests and to forage in the tops of trees, so though they're fairly common, they aren't seen all that often.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/cal_vorn/scartanagerbath.jpg/large.jpg http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/cal_vorn/summertanagerimm.jpg/large.jpg
Male Scarlet Tanager in Breeding Plumage .................. Male Summer Tanager in Breeding Plumage


Cheers,

Michael

[Kevlar]

Some people near us have a Monarch butterfly farm (http://www.all-a-flutter.com/). It's been quite popular with the kids around here.

[Dingfod]

Monarch butterflies migrate south to Mexico for winter, don't they? Smart move, something to emulate. I'm curious though, what is the lifespan of a monarch butterfly?

[The Lone Ranger]

Monarch butterflies migrate south to Mexico for winter, don't they? Smart move, something to emulate. I'm curious though, what is the lifespan of a monarch butterfly?

That's one of the remarkable things about the Monarch migration; it takes longer than the butterfly's lifespan.

The lifespan of a Monarch born in the Summer is usually less than 2 months. Butterflies born during the last generation of Summer enter a non-reproductive phase called diapause. The diapause butterflies live longer -- up to about 7 months.

The diapause butterflies migrate south to their overwintering sites. Then, in the Spring, they begin to migrate north.

The first wave of butterflies may make it as far north as the southern U.S. before they reproduce and die. Their offspring migrate further north before reproducing and dying. And their offspring migrate further north before reproducing and dying. So, by the time the butterflies reach the northern portions of their range in Canada, it's the 3rd or 4th generation since the migration began.


No one knows exactly how the butterflies -- who have never been there before -- find their overwintering sites. It's all the more impressive when you remember that it's only every 4th generation or so that actually migrates southward.

Neat, eh?

Cheers,

Michael

[LadyShea]

That's amazing Michael!

[JoeP]

Blue birds, red birds. You people know an awful lot of science stuff. (Except TLR - it's obvious he's just making it up. That stuff about monarchs. Completely implausible.)

Red bird: the Red Bishop. Photo does some justice to the colour; drawing does more justice to the neat shape. Fortunately these birds are not at all hard to spot - they display and nest in reed beds and have no problem in cities.

http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/image-files/red-bishop_tgr-0711m.jpg

http://www.birdlife.org.za/fieldguide/gfx/species/824.jpg

[godfry n. glad]

I gots hummingbirds nesting in my camellias!

I think.

I've been wondering why I've been seeing so many hummingbirds this year. It's probably been the same two coming and going. I just noticed few days back that they tended to come and go from the camellia towering over my garden shed.