I am an amateur photograper, with an intense interest in
Nature and Wildlife. My backyard is my personal sanctuary, a place to
get away from it all. Being in Nature is not an easy thing to do in a
big city, but it does wonders for my state of mind. No stress, no
worrying about tomorrow, just soley focused on the moment and what I
see or hear.
Although they are not wild by any stretch of the
imagination, I also share my life with some domesticated critters,
including Maggie
(Golden Retriever), Sascha (German Shepherd, Coco (African Grey
Parrot), Chloe (Leecy's mixed breed Cat), and Madison (shaded-blue
Persian Cat).
Through all of this, Leecy is the queen of my
roost. She shares my passion for Butterflies and Wildlife and puts up
with my frequently yelling at her when I am outside telling her to come
and look at what I just saw, or took a picture of.
About the Blog.
This is a constantly updated blog all about Butterflies and Wildlife in the Houston, Texas area.
Through
this site you can gain an understanding about how to attract
Butterflies and Wildlife to your own backyard, or just browse the
different pages and look and the different photots.
While you are
visiting this site, expect to see lots and lots of Butterfly pictures,
along with a variety of backyard wildlife.
For example, you may see Monarch, Spicebush, Polydamas, Sulphur, Queen, Pipevine, Skippers, and Giant Swallowtail Butterflies.
During
the Hummingbird migrations, you'll be able to see lots of pictures of
the Hummers that come by to visit and drink some nectar before
continuing their migrataion.
You will also have the opportunity
to view the smaller backyard inhabitants, like lizards, snakes, bees,
wasps, caterpillars, and fish.
All these creatures visit for
a reason. Some visit because their host plants are available to lay
their eggs on, while others visit because the plants provide nectar.
And yet, there are other visitors who come to prey on those who visit
as they are part of the cycle of life as well.
I always welcome any questions or comments about this blog, my pictures, or videos.
Since I update this blog several times per week, I highly encourage you to sign up to receive email whenever the blog is updated. Your information is never shared, nor sold. Just click on the "Subscribe By Email" on the menu bar above.
Above all, thank you for allowing me to share my sanctuary with you.
Leecy and I have had this collection of Eastern Black Swallowtail Chrysalises since October 2009. I had previously read that occasionally some of these Butterflies don’t hatch out of their Chrysalises until the following Spring. That seemed like an awful long time for these Butterflies to stay in the Chrysalis stage, but what did I know.
Before I share the picture, take a moment to think about this wonderful thing of nature. How the heck do these Butterflies know in October, when it’s still quite warm in Houston, Texas, that they should stay in the Chrysalis stage until March? Heck, it was 80 degrees today, the hottest day of the year so far. When I stop and think about this it just amazes me. Anyway, just some random thoughts. Now on to the picture (taken by Leecy). Oh, and we had two of them hatch today!
Eastern Black Swallowtails Hatching After 6 Months
I’ve had the Purple Martin house up for about a week now but I saw no sign of any Martins. I was starting to wonder if I put the Martin house up too late.
I was outside tonight testing out my new bird cam (more about that in another post later this week) and as I was walking back towards the house I heard them. The unforgettable chatter of Purple Martins!
I started scanning the sky trying to locate where the Martins were, and then out of nowhere a male and female landed on the bird house. They then just sat there, them staring at me, me staring at them. I’ve really missed these guys. I used to love going out in the backyard when I got home and listening to them chatter. Hopefully this couple will hang around and attract some more of their friends.
I bet I’ve got something y’all haven’t seen before! Let me back up and explain.
Over the last two weeks, I’ve probably bought 100 bags of mulch, 50 bags of topsoil, and 50 bags of potting soil. Needless to say, my back is getting a workout and I’m not getting any younger. Today, I purchased another 10 bags of mulch, 10 bags of potting soil, and 4 bags of humus peat. I dreaded unloading this from my truck, wheeling it to the backyard, then spreading it around the yard. I tried to call my neighbor and see if his 12 year old son was interested in earning some extra money. Nope, his son was busy. So I wondered what I could do to make it easier to unload all this stuff and transfer it to the backyard.
Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. Sascha (my German Shepherd) is a working dog (both of her parents were working dogs in the Czech Republic) and she loves to have some type of task to do, so what if I put on her harness (previously used for protection training) and had her pull the mulch and soil into the backyard for me? Sure, each bag of this stuff is 40lbs, and Sascha weighs around 80lbs, but it’s worth a try isn’t it? I normally load 4 bags in the wheelbarrow so surely Sascha could pull a couple of those right?
I’ll now let the videos mostly speak for themselves.
In this first video I just put two bags of mulch in the cart since I wasn’t sure Sascha would even know what to do much less pull her entire body weight.
Okay, so on the first try Sascha got a little excited and ran over some rocks which knocked the cart over. Did you notice her tail wagging? I think she was starting to enjoy this. Of course, so was Leecy who was laughing in the video.
On this second video clip, Sascha seems to be getting the hang of it. She seemed to be real excited doing this work (as you can see when she jumps on me). However, I made a slight mistake. I should know that when Sascha is in “working mode” that is NOT the time to lose focus, or let her lose focus, which is exactly what I did and what she did. If you watch the end of this video, as soon as Sascha jumps up on me, she (for whatever reason) took a little nip at my arm. That’s the first time Sascha has ever bitten me and I view this instance as my fault. She just got a little too excited and I didn’t keep her focused.
In this last video clip, you can see that Sascha is in the groove. Her tail is wagging, her ears are down and she is very focused. I don’t even have to really say much to her. That’s Leecy at the end of the video clip saying “she must know where the divots are” as Sascha avoids the drainage line in the grass and instead goes around it.
During the last trip, Sascha was actually pulling 3 bags of mulch which is 120lbs.
Linda -Parker loved the pictures of Sacha–he wants to help and also what does the job pay; by the load or by the bag?March 7, 2010 – 12:23 pm
joshua-DUDE ! ! No need to vist yer chiropractor this week,,aye?
heheh, VERY COOL ! ! I see a WHOLE NEW line of “GARDENING PET PRODUCTS” on your horizon ! ! ! REALLY ! ! why not? it has NOT been done yet ! ! hehe ,, JoshuaMarch 9, 2010 – 6:08 am
Shannon -Make her a sign and hang it from her neck saying “I will work for food”
I love the video. She did great. Put the word out around the neighborhood and maybe you can hire her out for a little extra money. It’s the perfect time of year for planting and remulching. LOLMarch 9, 2010 – 1:40 pm
I confess. I’m starting to get a little excited with each passing weekend. If it hold true that we will no longer have freezing temperatures, then those of around Houston can start finally taking a tally of what plants may survive, and which plants may have bit the dust. Since I have so very little patience, I’m already beginning to do some light planting of new nectar plants.
I’ve got a pretty good supply of milkweed that should get me through the first wave of their (Monarchs) migration through Houston. I look every day to see if I might have an early visitor, although realistically I expect it may be a few more weeks.
The same is true of two of my bird friends, the Purple Martin and the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, I can sit for hours just listening to them and watching them interact.
On both Birds and Butterflies Leecy and I are going to make a real effort this year to catalog what we see.
Just a few more plants and I should be good to go, I may need another passion vine, and I’m not sure my current one survived, My Pipevine did survive, but just barely. It’s poking out the smallest of leaves at the bottom of the base, but at least it’s alive.
So note to self for this weekend.
Clean up the Martin House and put it back on the housing pole
Buy a few more nectar plants (firecracker plant)
Consider buying another Passionvine.
Mulch the part of the yard I no longer want to mow, and make that area yet another Butterfly habitat.
Clean filters in Pond so the Koi can start interacting with their mates again.
isaac-More passion vine? The one single plant of the native Passiflora incarnata already turned into about 10 as it spread it’s runners. And even then, the gulf fritillaries kept it completely devoured.March 6, 2010 – 8:17 pm
texdr-Well only if it doesn’t come back from the freeze. For whatever reason, mine never got completely devoured by the Fritillaries even though it was constantly full of caterpillars.
Those runners are kind of a pain, as I had the stuff growing in my bamboo and up my queen palm tree:-)March 6, 2010 – 10:03 pm
I always hate seeing something like this. This is a bird that I’ve seen feeding on the bird feeders over the past week or so. From a distance, I could see there was something “unusual” about this bird, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was.
Today I managed to get a couple of pictures of this “unusual” bird. Sadly, it appears this bird is missing the top part of its beak. It is able to eat from what I can tell, but I’m sure this bird is struggling.
I have no idea what kind of bird this is, so if someone knows, please share with me. Also, if anyone has any idea what may have caused this bird to be missing the top part of its beak (disease, another animal, etc) I’d be curious as to the answer.
In the first picture, you can see something is wrong with this bird, but you can’t necessarily tell it’s missing the top part of its beak. In the second picture, you can clearly see the top part of the beak missing.
by texdr
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