When I first got to Skillern the first creatures to greet me were the mosquitoes, big ones and lots of them.  Fortunately I brought the mosquito repellant so they didn’t overwhelm me.  As I walked along one of the trails there was this pretty little bird darting up and down from a tall tree.  It was a female Vermillion Flycatcher.  I love these little birds!

Female Vermillion Flycatcher Side View

Female Vermillion Flycatcher Front View

There were also lots of Northern Harriers and these birds are fun for me to photograph.  Since they float above their potential prey, it gave me a good opportunity to get some decent photographs.

Northern Harrier About To Land In Field

Northern Harrier Hovering Over A Possible Meal

At Skillern there were lots of open fields, and I’m sure I missed a tons of birds.  One bird that I’ve never photographed before was an Eastern Meadowlark hiding in the field.

Eastern Meadowlark In Field

In addition I saw lots of Savannah Sparrows.

Savannah Sparrow In Field Of Brown

Savannah Sparrow Resting On Branch In Field

A particular noisy little bird that I saw hiding in the woods was a Winter Wren.

Winter Wren Hiding In The Woods

These are just a few of the many, many birds I saw at Skillern.  I took alot of bad photographs, and missed many opportunities.

Birds weren’t the only creatures I saw.  There were lots of Gulf Fritillary Butterflies (that surprised me) and a few Monarch Butterflies.  I was really surprised by how bright the color was on the Gulf Fritillaries.

Very Bright Orange Gulf Fritillary At Skillern Tract

I called Leecy a few hours into my trip and she said she wanted to see a picture of an Alligator.  I was lucky enough to find one sunning on the shore.

Alligator At Skillern Tract In Anahuac

I really, really enjoyed Skillern Tract of the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge and plan on returning once they weather cools down a bit.  You absolutely have to bring mosquito repellant otherwise you will be eaten alive.  Even though I was well coated at the beginning, apparently the stuff wears off because I was attacked later on.  I re-coated myself and all was well.

I’m assuming this one is a male since it made no attempt to visit the Passion Vine and instead spent its time eating nectar from Lantana and Zinnia.

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Purple Flower

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Orange Zinnia

I remember when I went to the Cockrell Butterfly Center a few weeks ago for their Fall plant sale that Nancy Greig, Ph.D. basically said the same thing.  She had seen very few Gulf Fritillaries this year.  I haven’t read any hypothesis as to why this is occurring, but I’d be interested in hearing ideas from others.

Despite what I said above, I finally did see a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly today.  It was flying around the Passion Vine, but I didn’t notice this one laying any eggs.

Gulf Fritillary On Passionvine Oct 2011

The Butterfly that appeared was a Gulf Fritillary and it showed up right after I was done watering the Zinnia garden.

Gulf Fritillary In Flight Towards Orange Zinnia

Gulf Fritillary On Red Zinnia

Gulf Fritillary On Yellow Zinnia

I also got a chance to take a picture of a bird utilizing my new bird pond/photography blind I built last week.  I took this photo yesterday and it was very cloudy.  I’ve since rearranged a couple of things so I’ll try and take an updated photo tomorrow.

This bird pond/photography blind is not very deep, maybe 4 inches deep at the most.  I also have a small running pump in the middle to circulate the water.  The big Pine tree stump I found a couple of weeks ago in the woods behind my house.  I’m guessing they chopped it down years ago as it has some interesting fungus growing on the side.  I use that to put bird seed on.  One other thing I need to do is lower the front part of the rocks as that tends to interfere with the picture when I’m sitting in my chair blind.  All that “green stuff” in the right of the photo are wildflowers.  Technically, those things shouldn’t be growing right now as I thought I was supposed to plant the seeds in the Fall and the would emerge in the Spring.  I guess it’s been so warm here they decided to sprout a little early, and the occasional below freezing temperatures hasn’t appeared to do any damage.

First Draft Of Bird Pond Photography Blind

My first visitor (that I’ve noticed) to the bird pond was a Purple Finch. This bird first visited my bird feeder (which is in a terrible location for pictures), then hopped down to the rocks on the bird pond.

Purple Finch Standing By Pine Cone

The bird then made my day when it hopped down even further and began drinking out of the pond!

Purple Finch Drinking From New Bird Pond

One of the next visitors, of which we have several, was a female Cardinal.  She was minding her own business on the Pine stump eating seed when along came a male House Sparrow.  I can’t stand these birds.  They’re non-native and mess with the native birds.

Female Cardinal Interrupted By Male Sparrow

Later in the day I went back outside to see if any Butterflies might be around since it was a little chilly, and sure enough there was a Gulf Fritillary.  Many of my nectar plants are starting to go dormant, so it’s become a bit of a challenge for the Butterflies to find a food source.  What I didn’t realize, is that in the other part of my garden, what I call the Butterfly and Hummingbird section, some of the wildflowers are starting to bloom.  Once again, I didn’t think these would start blooming until the Spring, but I’m not complaining.  This is the actual first wildflower that has bloomed, a Purple Cosmos.

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Purple Cosmos

Overall, it was a pretty fun day testing out my new lens.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nothing but sunshine so I’ll be waking up early to take more pictures.

My plan was to place each of the 6 Monarchs on this Cherry Blossom and take a few pictures.  Of course that plan failed miserably as soon as we took the Butterflies out of the enclosure, they flew away.  All but this one, who took a few moments to warm up before flying away.

New Monarch Butterfly On Cherry Blossoms

While I was taking a moments to water our plants I noticed a Gulf Fritillary and a Monarch Butterfly feeding on the Mexican Flame Vine.

Monarch With Torn Wing Feeding On Mexican Flame Vine

This female Monarch looks like she was attacked by something, likely a bird, as a significant part of her wing is missing.  Despite the partial loss of her wing, it didn’t seem to hinder her flying to any degree, and she should have nice weather for most of the week.

Monarch With Spread Wings One Torn

You’ll notice that the tops of the Mexican Flame Vine has some freeze damage.  I’m not sure how low the temperature can be before this plant starts to die off.  We still have quite a few blooms on the lower branches and all Butterflies tends to be drawn to this plant.

Monarch With Torn Wing On Cluster Of Mexican Flame Vine

Monarch With Torn Wing Resting On Flame Vine

Strangely enough, we have quite a few Monarch Butterflies right now.  We’ve been releasing 1-2 Monarchs per day for the last couple of weeks.  In a way, this makes some sense.  In October and November, the Monarchs we saw were likely migrating to Mexico and had not yet mated.  The Monarch Butterflies we are seeing right now have definitely mated, and are laying lots of eggs.  As we find the Caterpillars, we bring them inside and give them fresh Milkweed.  Could these just be local Monarchs that spend much of their time in the warmer climates?  They definitely don’t appear to be as worn as the October/November Monarchs were.  Another little interesting tidbit.  The majority of the Monarchs that we have been releasing have been female.  I’d say the ratio is like 3:1.

Right now we have 2 female Monarchs that we should be able to release tomorrow, and there’s a good chance another 2-3 will become Butterflies by morning.

We also have several Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars, Chrysalises, and Butterflies.  We haven’t been bringing in as many Caterpillars from this species inside as they tend to hide a bit better than the Monarchs (at least in our yard).

We’ve had a few days of below freezing temperatures, but not for very long (typical of Houston).  We have been covering much of our outdoor Milkweed with a clear shower curtain (Leecy’s idea) and that appears to give the Milkweed sufficient light, protects them from frost, and also serves as a nice bit of insulation.

Fortunately for the Butterflies, we still have quite a few Nectar plants (Lantana, Milkweed, Penta, Mexican Flame Vine) that have been providing the necessary food that these insects require.

This upcoming week is also Christmas!  Leecy says she doesn’t want anything for Christmas and wants to do something for a needy family so we’re going shopping tomorrow to buy some presents for whomever we decide to give them to.  There is a family we are thinking about that have 3 kids, so we talked about buying 3 bikes for them.  My idea is just do drop the bikes off during Christmas Eve night and let them think it’s from Santa.  I’d prefer they not know they were from Leecy and I.

Also this upcoming week I’ll be receiving my rented Canon 300mm f2.8 lens.  I’m really looking forward to shooting with this lens.  If I like it, and I don’t end up taking that trip to Mexico, I’ll probably end up buying one early next year.

That’s about it on this end.  I’m going to try and take some pictures of the Monarch Butterflies that we’ll release tomorrow so check back if you’re interested in seeing the pictures.

So today, in preparation for the cold, we decided to collect the Monarch Caterpillars and Gulf Fritillary Chrysalises and bring them inside.  Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why we didn’t bring in the Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars since we have tons of those right now.  Call it old age, or we just plain forgot.  Hopefully they will be okay until tomorrow.

Back to the Monarch Caterpillars.  As you can see from the picture, some are large, some small.  Three of them have already started hanging in the familiar “J” shape tonight.  We seem to find at least one new Caterpillar (Monarch) every day now.

Collection Of Monarch Caterpillars Brought In From Cold

For the Gulf Fritillary Chrysalises, we decided to bring these particular ones inside as they were the ones scattered around the hot tub and pool.  Although we only collected about 7 of these, I’m sure there are lots more out there based on the number of Caterpillars we have seen on the Passion Vine.

Collection Of Gulf Fritillary Chrysalises Brought In From Cold

I wrote last week about how we had all these Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars on our Passion Vine.  Yea, well now these Caterpillars have moved on to the Chrysalis stage and decided that the best place to attach themselves is around my hot tub.

I do have to give them a little credit.  If I didn’t know what a Gulf Fritillary Chrysalis looks like, I would think it was just a dead leaf or something.  I took these photos on Sunday.  Today (Monday) I counted 4 more Chrysalises.  Some of them are just barely above the water in the pool.

Gulf Fritillary Chrysalis On Pool Rock

Gulf Fritillary Chrysalis On Pool Decking

I went outside to see if there were any Butterflies flying around.  I noticed a Gulf Fritillary flying nearby the Passion Vine so I went to investigate.

Holy Cow!  There were tons of Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars all over the Passion Vine. I’d guess there were 50 or more.

I’ve seen the Gulf Fritillaries around for the last few months, but nothing out of the ordinary.  However, even though I haven’t seen an outrageous amount, they apparently have been laying lots of eggs.  Those eggs and now nice sized Caterpillars.

I know other insects don’t view these Caterpillars as very scary looking, but if I was a bird or other animal, this would be the last thing I would try and eat.

Gulf Fritillary Munching On Passion Vine

Gulf Fritillary Crawling Over Passion Vine

As I went around the backyard checking for other Butterfly Caterpillars, I noticed something hanging off of our large Butterfly enclosure.

This particular Butterfly Enclosure is on a completely different side of the yard compared to where the Passion Vine is located.  This little thing traveled quite a long way.

Gulf Fritillary Hanging J

Then I see an example of just why there are so many Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars.

Gulf Fritillary Laying Egg On Passion Vine

The majority of the Milkweed is also in the direct sun so it’s a convenient place to warm themselves.

This particular Butterfly, a Gulf Fritillary, was up early in the morning getting nectar and warming in the sun.

Gulf Fritillary Getting Nectar In Morning Sun

The Butterflies that were really abundant today were the Gulf Fritillaries.

Gulf Fritillary On Milkweed Dark Background

The Mexican Milkweed appeared to be a popular gathering place for both the Monarchs and the Fritillaries.  Sometimes the Fritillaries and Monarchs would share the Milkweed, other times they would chase each other.

Monarch And Gulf Fritillary On Milkweed

If the chasing became too intense, the Butterflies would separate and find another private place

Gulf Fritillary On Milkweed Wings Spread

One plant that I have heard is a wonderful nectar plant for Butterflies but never actually witnessed them utilizing the plant for nectar is the Mexican Flame Vine.

Today was different.  Both the Monarchs and Fritillaries were drawn to this plant, but it was the Fritillaries who were all over it.

Gulf Fritillary On Mexican Flame Vine

Another Butterfly that was flying around the garden today was the Cloudless Sulphur.  Unlike the other two Butterflies, this particular Butterfly was drawn to the Cigar Plant.  It helps that this Butterfly has a long proboscis so it could easily tap into the nectar of these plants.

Cloudless Sulphur On Cigar Plant

Cloudless Sulphur Drinking Nectar From Cigar Plant

I want to include a couple additional pictures for reference.  If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know many of our plants were wiped out during the past winter.

Look at the nectar garden now versus how it looked back in February.  Pretty drastic turnaround don’t you think?

Butterfly And Hummingbird Wildflower Garden

Nectar Section Of Butterfly Garden

L called me today at work today and said that the chrysalis in the house probably will hatch today, so check it when I got home.  So, when I got home, I looked at the container & YEP it did hatch. SO I did my normal routine lately, grab my camera, grab the monarch tags and tracking page. Took a few pics. This was our first MALE raised in captivity.

Tagged Male Monarch NGC 409

I opened the back door and he just fluttered away,,, and I did what i do every time I release a butterfly… wave goodbye and say “good luck.” *smile*

I take the monarch tags, tracking list, camera and net with me to feed the fish in the pond. I ask Sascha (German Shepherd) if she sees any butterflies.  I start to water the new flower gardens and some wilted milkweed and I thought I saw a queen… I tried to watch where it fluttered to  but it went over the bamboo into woods behind us.  All of a sudden…. I see MONARCH!!!!  SWOOP… caught her…  quick tag… DANG… camera over on table… uh oh… she got out of my hand…lucky for me she stuck around our milkweed so I was able to snap a couple photos of her. (don’t know if L thought any of my photos were good enough –I’m still learning settings on my camera.

So back to my watering… I watered the citrus trees & the plants L brought back from Fredericksburg… and there it was… THE QUEEN!!! So, throw down the hose, run for my camera… (no tags because its NOT a Monarch). SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP…. play around a little bit with my settings on my camera (not that I know what I was changing)… and I just LOVED watching the Queen…. it’s my MOST FAVORITE butterfly. *BIG SMILE*

Male Queen Butterfly Taken By Leecy

Since the weather was nice (a bit humid ), I figured I’d sit outside & work on some crafts & let the dogs get some fresh air. As I was zoned into my crafts, I see something fly by…yes there are a few gigantic dragonflies flying around the yard, but  …it was … a MONARCH!!!! … EEEKKKK ,…run back in the house to get all the ‘gear’… I tried to see if it was one I tagged earlier… couldn’t see so ..SWOOP… caught it.   Not previously tagged.  so I tagged her and grabbed this last photo.

Tagged Female Monarch NGC 411

I watched 6 butterflies today float around the yard so carefree and peaceful. I was so zoned into them and felt like I was in their world. I had so many smiles because all of them it made any bad thoughts or times i had today just vanish.

p.s. watch for me on Ellen in the section called “Bad Paid for Photos”…I’ll be the one with the 8ft flamingo.

This first one is a Gulf Fritillary.  These are scary looking Caterpillars.  Notice at the bottom left of the Caterpillar is the skin that it recently shed.

Gulf Fritillary Shedding Skin

This second picture of a Monarch Caterpillar who was still in the process of shedding its skin.  The skin that it had shed is in the top right of the picture.

Monarch Caterpillar Shedding Skin