Butterflies Are Free

After I retired five years ago, I found myself with lots of free time that I was not used to having during my working years. In trying to find something to do to fill in the dead time, I found myself, among other things, watching the birds that came into our backyard and eventually became interested in bird watching and photographing them. However, after four years, unless I am traveling to other parts of the country or state, I seldom see a bird at my feeders that I haven't already observed or photographed at some point. That seems to be particularly true during the summer months, so lately, as a result, I've turned to butterfly watching which I have found to be just about as interesting, and, at this time of year, easy to do with the many varieties that have been coming to the flowers in our backyard and garden each Summer. I have found that some are difficult to photograph due to their propensity to seldom land on anything for more that a few seconds, if at all. Also making it more interesting is that outside of the Monarchs

and most of the Swallowtails that I can ID easily including the:
Giant Swallowtail,the largest of the Swallowtails,

and female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail which is often black rather than yellow like the male at the top of the blog,

I don't know the names of most of the varieties I see for the first time, so I find myself spending time on the internet where there are a plethora of sites with photos of butterflies that allow me to ID them, and learn something about their life cycles and range. Hopefully, this will keep me busy until Fall migration of the birds when I have a better chance of seeing a new bird or two on their way south to warmer climes. Here are some of the ones I have seen in the past year and was able to photgraph:

Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pagala), a very common butterfly seen throughout the summer months.

Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis)

Questionmark Butterfly (Polygonias interrogationis)

White Peacock Butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) which I photographed on Grand Cayman Island this January, but also found in southern parts of Texas

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) not particularly common to this part of state

Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus), which is one of four butterflies, including Monarchs that lay their eggs on milkweed

and Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)which I spotted for the first time today and get part of its name from being commonly seen over Gulf of Mexico during migration.

With a month long trip planned for Northern New Mexico coming up next month, I'm hoping I'll find a few new ones to add along with some birds that frequent the mountains and high desert that I have yet to see or photograph.

A Weekend With Friends in Corpus & Port A.

Becky and I haven't been anywhere to speak of this Summer other than our lake cabin, and most of that time has been spent renovating the cabin, so when Becky got an invite for us to come down to Corpus to hang out for a few days this past weekend with our friends Debbie and Doug, we decided to take them up on the offer. A forecast for 100+ degree days here last weekend made the decision to go even easier.
We headed down on Thursday morning arriving around 3:30 that afternoon and spent the next three days enjoying the company of our friends and seeing the sights.

That evening, after an early supper, we took a sunset cruise of the neighborhood canals on Padre Island and the Laguna Madre on Doug's boat.


On Friday, the four of us loaded up and drove down to the National Seashore where we spent the majority of the day lounging, wading in the water and watching the coastal birds.





We finally headed back to the house, cleaned up and drove over to the Padre Island Yacht Club where they have $1 drinks on Friday evenings for members and guests. From there we headed to Snoopy's, a popular seafood restaurant on the island next to the intercoastal bridge for supper, but the crowd waiting to get in was so large, that we decided to just go back to the house and grill some burgers and visit before calling it a night.

On Saturday, we loaded up again and headed to downtown Corpus Christi where we toured the piers and walked along the seawall.


Later we visited the Executive Surf Club where we looked at the walk of fame stars on the sidewalk, browsed the record/t-shirt shop and had a beer in the bar/grill.




Finally headed back to Doug & Debbie's to walk next door to visit Bob and Jan Brown, neighbors and friends of Doug and Debbie who we met on one of Larry Joe Taylor's cruises three years ago. After a nice visit, we finally headed over to Port A to see Two Tons of Steel play at the Back Porch. Our friends, Anne-lise and Finn, who are currently camping in Port A. in their RV, joined the four of us at a front row table.

Two Tons put on one of their typical high energy shows in front of a packed house.

Several fans to got up and danced in front of the band with some stepping on my toes a few times by the time the show ended at Midnight.



After saying good by to Anne-lise & Finn we drove back to Doug and Debbie's house, and were all pooped, so said our goodnights and went to bed. Everyone was up Sunday morning by 7 AM and after having coffee and breakfast, Becky and I loaded our stuff and finally said our goodbyes to the Martz's, and were on the road just after 9 AM and made it home at 4:30 PM, tired but having really enjoyed the trip.

The Lonely Guinea

A few years ago, a family that no longer lives in our subdivision purchased a dozen Guineas which they released to roam their six acres or so property, but as Guineas will do when not penned up, they roamed the entire neighborhood from one end of our road to the other in search of food. Other than the noise they made, I really didn't mind them being around, particularly in the summer because they eat lots of insects, particularly grasshoppers, and have a reputation for killing snakes. Of course, they had their own predators including the neighborhood cat population. I can still remember that first year looking out a bedroom window one afternoon and seeing the Guineas all bunched up in a circle like a group of settlers in a wagon train surrounded by Indians which in this case consisted of five or six cats that had them surrounded. Of course, the cats, which themselves run pretty wild around here, scattered when I walked outside, and thus, there were no casualties.

However, over the next several months, their numbers did began to decline. I suspect the cats and/or other predators probably were more successful in other times and places than they had been that day in my yard. Ultimately, I assume through the process of survival of the fittest, or law of the jungle, there were six Guineas left of the orginal dozen, and for a couple of years or so, those six continued to roam the neighborhood without any further decline. They particularly liked to hang out in my backyard during the Winter months because I put out bird food for the songbirds and there was always feed on the ground below the five or six hanging feeders I had out. Over the past year and a half, however, one by one, they have disappeared, and for the past four months or so, only one Guinea remains.


She has taken to spending most of her time around our house probably due to the mixed seeds I continue to put out for the songbirds. Over the past few weeks, Becky has begun to feel sorry for her thinking she has to be lonely, so Sunday afternoon, against my better judgement, we loaded up in the pickup and drove up to Bowie to the Second Monday Trades Day so Becky could buy some Guineas to provide the lonely bird some company.


Fortunately or not, depending on ones perspective, by the time we arrived, the people who were pedaling them were sold out, and we came home empty handed and thus, our Guinea is still a lonely bird.

Seen in My Backyard Yesterday

I found myself with very little to do yesterday (not that those who know me would be greatly surprised) and ended up sitting on back patio for part of the day watching the various animals, birds, butterflies and flowers that frequent my backyard. The day started with Becky and I sitting on patio having a cup of coffee to start the day. While sitting there we saw one of the three new fawns that have been born in the neighborhood in the last week or so. This one was grazing in front of our barn and later lay down in the tall grass to rest and hide.

Somewhat later, the neighborhood squirrels began to arrive to do their usual stealing of the birdfood in my feeders. This one stood outside the fence for a while before deciding to come on in while we sat close by.

Shortly thereafter, these two decided to fight with one another over which of them would use this feeder. With five feeders out, not sure why one of them couldn't have gone to different ones.
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Throughout the day, the birds that frequent my backyard feeders also came and went including this juvenile Cardinal.

Also had Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and a Painted Bunting I took pictures of these and saw several others that I didn't.




I also have a pair of Carolina Wrens that decided several weeks ago to set up housekeeping in one of Becky's hanging fern baskets and the female layed four eggs in the nest.

I checked it last week and there were two newly hatched featherless birds and two eggs that were about to hatch. I took this picture yesterday of the inside of the nest and caught one of the young ones staring back into the lens.

Also had a few butterflies flying around the yard. Most of them fly through and never land long enough to get a photo, but I did get these three.










Becky has planted several different kinds of flowers and so I went ahead and got a few shots of them as well.





All in all, other than it being cooler than normal due to the tropical storm south of us, it was a pretty typical Summer day here west of Decatur.