Wild and Not So Wild World

Ain’t the purtiest bug I’ve ever seen.
Cheers

I find the caterpillars and raise them to butterflies as only 1% of caterpillars
make it to be a butterfly in the wild they say.
These are black Swallowtails.
Have released 12 so far this year and have 14 more coming up soon I hope.
Raised 24 Yellow Swallowtails last year to set free.

We also buy Preying Mantis eggs on eBay and set them free.
Set close to 2000 free this year.
This one is 1 inch long.

That's cool that you do that Skip!

Man I love butterflies!
Nothing says summer like they do, remember catching Monarch butterflies as
a kid. (Ok the firefly is top of that list)
Try to find a Monarch now, saw only one this year.
I think the states are planting milkweed all up and down the interstates to
try and bring back the Monarch butterflies.

I even got a kid in our neighborhood into doing this as well, he was really into it I just gave him a nudge and some info.

But these things are going away, we used to have many frogs and even more butterflies
than we do now here.

Plant dill and fennel now to help bring them back.

Here it is.
Project Milkweed
Returning Essential Wildflowers to America’s Landscapes
http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2016-07-23 04:47 ]

I don't know much about bees but this bee was at least inch and a half long, scared me to death.

I love butterflies too and hummingbirds. So much so that my garden is filled with nectar and pollen plants and host plants for butterflies. Michigan summers are short but I try to enjoy it as much as I can. I have noticed the butterfly population in my area this year is way way down. We have had a dry summer which doesn't help matters. I keep watching and waiting.

Beautiful creature

On 2016-08-26 09:58, hiltiki wrote:
Beautiful creature

Jade body. Golden wings. Beautiful.

WOW, love those colors

Ain't they cute. just above our front door. last of the 3rd brood for the season. That's 15 new swallows just this year. Just read thru this whole thread. Nice work friends. Been gone 3 years because I forgot my password HA!

Welcome back Jungle Trader! :lol: Nice swallows

Thanks Mike! Good to hear from you!

Tiny (leopard?) gecko, about 2 inches long

Here are some wild visitors found in my yard here in Michigan.
Here we have a beautiful Ruby Meadowhawk dragonfly.

And uncommon Mink Frog.

A Common Buckeye Butterfly.

And just in case you have heard some bad things about Michigan here is where I spent my vacation. A beautiful getaway in the northern part of the state. A wonderful escape into the wilds of Michigan with no cellphone service and no TV.

Here is a view of the lake from the deck one day after a light warm rain.

Beautiful pics Trav! "No cell phone and no TV", sounds wonderful! :lol: My sister-in-law lives in the UP - ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice.

Another lizard seen at work - Texas Spiny Lizard, Texas Fence Lizard, or Western Fence Lizard.

This one was a juvenile but adults are good sized, up to 11 inches overal. Adult males have a blue belly and a nasty bite. I snuck up behind my brother once when we were kids and held one to his ear, it clamped on like a bulldog on a bone :lol:

2Am this morning. Went out to see what the neighbor's dog was barking at. Black bear in GROG' backyard.

Last weekend went hiking up the fire road behind GROG' house. Saw 8 deer.

Driving to work the other morning. Biggest coyote GROG has ever seen ran across the road in front of GROG' car.

Saw some big raccoons on the Warner's Ranch where GROG work, when leaving work the other night.

Damn GROG! I didn't know you had bears?!

Not my video, but a few miles from my house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLyY3wvM7hA

I was talking with a neighbor today and told her I had a bear in my backyard. She said she's had a mountain lion in her back yard, and a couple of others have spotted them in our neighborhood. I saw two up the Angeles Crest about 8 miles from my house a number of years ago.

My wife and I visited the wild underworld of Kentucky late last month. This was our second visit to Mammoth Cave National Park. We were on the final tour of the year for Great Onyx Cave. Although part of the park the cave does not connect to the main cave system. The tours through Great Onyx are limited to thirty people and are given totally by lantern light due to no electricity in the cave. The entrance is literally in the middle of nowhere. A hair raising bus ride through the hills and woods down some sketchy trails is the only way to get there. The lantern tour was amazing and our ranger guide was great. We stayed in the park in one of the historic cottages on the grounds. The night sky was spectacular. If you have never experienced a truly dark night sky you will be blown away. The Milky Way was splashed across the sky like billions of diamonds spilled over black velvet. There is so much more to these parks than just the main tourist attractions. We already have a pile of maps and are planning next summer's trip to the wilds of Michigan's Upper Peninsula when the warm weather returns. We had fantastic summer this year that has been a long time coming. Thanks for taking a look.

The cave entrance was behind a heavy iron door through this little stone building built into a hillside.

One of the eight lanterns for the tour that I carried.

Some of the amazing formations.

Our ranger guide told many stories about the cave.

There are ten historic cottages facing the woods just a short walk from the visitors center that are very cozy.

Great cave adventure Trav. The UP seems like it would be beautiful in the SUMMER. In the winter it would make a pretty postcard :lol: My sister-in-law lives in Rudyard, I need to go up there one of these summers

The weather here in Michigan has finally started to become more agreeable outside. My wife and I have been taking some long day hikes during the past few weekends. We are trying to get ourselves ready for a trip to Isle Royale National Park up in Lake Superior this summer. Things are starting to come back to life after this past winter. The hummingbirds are back as well as the Tree Swallows and Sandhill Cranes. On our last hike I spotted these Skunk Cabbage plants sprouting up near a small trout stream. They are among the first spring plants to emerge and are about five inches tall. These plants have a decidedly alien look to them and are cool to see in the wild. Seeing the change of seasons always softens the blow of a hard winter.

We also saw this huge tree felled in a recent storm. The part of the trunk left standing was about fifteen feet tall and had been splintered by the force of the break. I thought it looked cool so I snapped a pic.

As a small child at my grandparent's cabin in Northern California I remember them having skunk cabbage but I didn't remember what it looked like or why is was called "skunk"?

Not sure what is going on here..

Found this Camel Cricket inside today. I think it's an Algodones Sand Treader Cricket

A visitor in the garden today

What kind of snake is that?

ERNIE!!!! It's a gopher snake. Harmless (unless you're a rodent) but they will bite if provoked

Wow, Mike, he's a healthy-looking fellow. You have lots of gophers and rats around there? We have snakes around my place, but none are so bold as that guy!

The house is in an agricultural area so we have plenty of rodents.

There's no one living there right now so he has free rein. But he'd better be careful or the barn owl will snatch him! :o

I been planning another escape into the wilds of America this coming summer. Last summer the wife and I made it to three National Parks including Isle Royale National Park. If you want to get away from it all that’s the place to go. This summers main event is a week in
Shenandoah NP. We put a ton of miles on the hiking boots and are looking forward too doing the same this summer. So many wild places to see out there. Can’t wait to get back outdoors. Here is one of my favorite photos from last summer. A view from above Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2018-02-17 05:23 ]

Beautiful! Bet it's beautiful now too but in a different way.

Found this dead two inch beetle on the sidewalk at work today, seems to be a Trichocnemis. I thought they only grew this big in the jungles of Papua New Guinea?

Black swallowtail butterflies.

Have hatched out and raised set free 38 this year.
looks like I will break my record of 39 soon.

But damn it rains every other day now.
Don't see many eggs yet this year.

The ones am hatching now are from last year and started with 61 cocoons.

This is a very new bald face wasp nest and is about the size of a tennis ball.
They get huge.

The swallowtails are very cool! What do you raise them in? You collect caterpillars and feed them until they cocoon?

"What do you raise them in?'

They make these cages for kids to learn the whole butterfly thing.
I find them in thrift stores.

And we plant a bunch of dill and fennel then you go and look for the caterpillars and put them in the cages with dill or fennel to eat.

I mist them every day for water.

In a month or so they cocoon,
and hatch at a later date, if it is close to winter I put them in the fridg so they don't hatch out.

The rate of cocoons that make it to the butterfly stage is 1% so I got a good ratio at this time.

MANY things eat the cocoons, parasitic wasps lay eggs inside the caterpillar and the wasp hatches out after the caterpillar cocoons killing the would be butterfly.
Spiders, birds even those bald faced wasps eat them.

I let one go and he was still wet, their wings are like butter till they dry,a spider came up and stung the butterfly right before my eyes.
So I let them dry in safety before I let them go now.

Even with all that I don't see that many after I let them go.

1%???!!! Wow!

Great job Skip. My flower garden is doing great but the butterflies has been noticeably absent. All the rain and cool temperatures have kept all of the insect populations down here in Michigan lately. I have planted a ton of native milkweed in the backyard and I am starting other plants to place in other areas to help the monarch butterflies here in my area. I have a small urban yard but in years past it has been a way station for tons of butterflies and small migratory birds. It’s not much but I enjoy the yard in the nice weather even though it’s a lot of work. Here’s a pic of the new crop of milkweed seedlings ready to be divided and planted soon.

"I have planted a ton of native milkweed"

The deer here puled up the milkweed when I planted it.
We almost never see monarch butterflies.
As a kid we would see monarch butterflies all the time.

But we used to see yellow swallowtail butterflies but since I cut down a cheery tree we don't see them anymore.

Planting the things the butterflies need really helps.
But yeah the rain had kept them down this year will see how it goes from here on out.

Have been finding more of the caterpillars lately.
Got about nine now.

The bad thing is I'm now seeing more of the things that eat butterflies as well.
Living at the edge of a wooded area really brings all the pests and other animals as they can run back to the safety of the woods if needed.

Ya just can't win.

No monarch caterpillars as of yet. I usually don’t find them until my butterfly weed comes into bloom which should be anytime now. The biggest draw for butterflies is by far the coneflowers followed by zinnias. Yellow swallowtails are the most numerous visitors but I have recorded more types than I can remember in the back of my butterfly field guide that have visited the garden. July seems to be when I get the most butterflies as all of my perennials are in full bloom. No visitors this morning and with more rain on the way today I’ll just have to wait for better and warmer weather for them to start showing up.

The weather here in Michigan has been hot and dry and the butterflies have become abundant. My lawn has gone brown and crispy but my garden is doing fantastic as my water bill steadily climbs. Here are some pics of some recent visitors. My best chance for a good photo is when they land on the coneflowers. I’ve had many more types visit than I have been able to photograph so here are a few.

Monarch with an injured wing but she flew just fine.

A Red-Spotted Purple

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Female Black Swallowtail

And most impressive of all was a Giant Swallowtail. One of the largest butterflies in North America. They have a wingspan as long as a dollar bill!

Earlier this summer I started a small pot of milkweed on the patio. Now I have eight monarch caterpillars happily munching away. Good to see!

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2019-08-04 05:18 ]

After a lot of time and patience I’ve finally earned the trust of the little guys. Had a nuthatch and a chickadee stop by for a snack.

cool pics Trav!

So cute.

Cute! We didn't get that close, but had some visitors here recently. Didn't get a picture of Dad bird, but he was around, too. I think they've moved on already, though, haven't seen any of them for a couple days.

Mom and elusive baby

Bigger baby

bamalamalu I've got a pair of nesting doves in my patio too. So far they've raised 4 babies this summer

Rare Florida tree lobster

Red shouldered hawk, frequent visitor to the back yard

Night bug patrol