Some days you just got to hide from the rain.

Evidence that animals aren't dumb. The rabbit hides from the rain. She thought about going in the gazebo, but that's too enclosed for her, so this is the best she could find while eating lunch.

Live Green Expo

(This post is local in nature, but I encourage you who do not live in our area to look for similar events in your own home towns.)

With a crack the whip, the Big B lets us know it’s time to go on a fact finding mission. Yes, tomorrow we step beyond our own backyard for a day and venture out to learn more about sustainability and green living.

Saturday, April 16, the City of Plano’s Sustainability & Environmental Services Dept. will be putting on the Live Green in Plano expo. This will be their 5th year bringing a new perspective to North Texans on going green. And Since the B is huge fan of being green, we’d better come back with some valuable info.

There’s going to be some great events and activities relating to urban gardening, renewable energy, crafting swap meets, and composting workshops. Seminars will give us 10 tips to attract birds into our yards and living with urban wildlife. And that’s just to name a few!

Top the entire thing off with some sampling of local cuisine prepared with local foods by the Collin College Culinary Arts Institute. Find out more at livegreenexpo.net.

This should be fun!

Walking on Sunshine

This morning Amy and I were striding down a paved walking trail when suddenly I realized I was walking alone. I turned quickly to see if Amy had fallen into a mysterious hole, but instead found her staring intently at a small lump of mud on the sidewalk. “That’s what I thought,” she exclaimed. “That’s a turtle!” I craned my neck to get a better view. Sure enough, what I thought was a dirt-clod was actually a living thing.

From Mr. Turtle’s perspective, he’s just basking in the middle of the sidewalk, minding its own business when he’s unceremoniously scooped up and gawked at by two enormous creatures that don’t have the decency to let others alone.

The ‘lil guy (or gal; to be honest I don't know the gender) is a river cooter of some variety. Maybe a Texas river cooter (Pseudemys texana) or an eastern river cooter (Pseudemys concinna). Either that or it’s one of the many varieties of slider that someone “set free”. Being that he’s so puny, I’m going to assume that he didn’t find his way here from little Johnny’s aquarium. What an interesting thing have happen!

Now, I admit, normally I’d just admire the wildlife from a distance, but “Turtleboy” here was in a high traffic zone and heading for some smooshing, so we moved him closer to the pond. He hesitated just a moment, then plunged into the cool, not-so-clear water and was gone. Hmph, not even a “thanks.”

There you have it people. Be vigilant and remember to look down once in a while. You might be walking on somebody else’s sunshine!

Dallas Blooms!

Spring is in the air and cities around the United States often celebrate with some sort of flower festival. Here in Dallas, the Arboretum puts on what has come to be called “Dallas Blooms”, which basically kicks off the season, and indeed the rest of the year.

Botanic gardens and arboretums are wonderful destinations to shake those winter blah’s, offering everything from seasonal outdoor festivals and art shows to concerts, dining and more. And the wonderful thing is, every time you come back, there is something else to see! Bring your cameras and binoculars, or just come and enjoy the spectacle.

This year (as with most) I helped the Dallas Bonsai Society put on their Spring Show, so I was there for the opening weekend of “Blooms”. The flowers on the grounds are bursting with color. Our trees looked in good form this year. Next door the Daffodil Society displayed their beautiful flowers. It was a great weekend. I can't wait to get back and spend more time checking out all the new things the arboretum has to offer!

Great Backyard Bird Count - Part Deux

Ok folks. Two days left on the Great Backyard Bird Count. Time to kick it into high gear. Most of the country (according to the plot map on the GBBC site) looks a nice pretty red; that is, lots of submissions. GOOD JOB!

I walked outside this morning and the day is overcast. For me, that means it may be a bit “squinty” out there until the clouds clear out. I snapped the fine picture above of a mourning dove just before its mate showed up and they started preening. Sadly, the follow-up photos were rather blah because the sky is completely blown out right now.

Mourning doves are a pretty common site around most parts, and easily spotted. They have a light brown to buff-colored overall appearance with black spots on their wings, a dusty blue eye ring surrounding a jet black eyeball, pink feet and dark beak. They do a lot of ground feeding, especially around my place, because my bird feeders aren’t large enough to support them.

Check out some more neat facts on these and other birds at the All About Birds website.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

A dear friend of mine (whom I’ve been known to call Mom from time to time) recently gave me the latest issue of Birds & Blooms. This reminded me that a yearly event I like to participate in is almost upon us. The Great Backyard Bird Count is just two weeks away! What is the GBBC you ask? Well, it’s a joint project between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada to create a “map” of bird migration patterns and population sizes, and helps answer questions like how the climate influences migration and how disease and the changing landscape affect populations. You can count birds for as little as 5 minutes or all day long. You submit your counts online, and don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own window unless you’re the adventuresome type.

Counting is fun, easy and is something you can do with your kids! Amy and I have participated a number of times now and look forward to it every year.

To find out more, please visit The Great Backyard Bird Count website.

An Uneasy Truce

Now here is a picture you don’t see every day. I caught this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) perching on top of a swing set at our neighborhood playground. Not that seeing this raptor is uncommon, but seeing it sitting so close to birds that it normally doesn’t get along with is unusual. The weather was blustery and cold, and obviously the hawk didn’t feel much like hunting. Strangely, the crows didn’t seem to want to move him along either. Normally, crows will harass a bird-of-prey to drive it away from the area. I guess everyone was concentrating more on staying warm.

Red-tailed hawks are one of the most common raptors you’ll see in Texas. Their range extends to almost all parts of North America, and they inhabit nearly all types of habitats, including deserts, grasslands, mixed forests/fields and even urban areas. Somewhere along the line they inherited the nickname of “chicken-hawk,” though they don’t actually attack chickens that often. Females are also usually a bit bigger than the males, a condition called sexual dimorphism.

Learn more about this fascinating bird at Wikipedia, and at DesertUSA.com.

Whooooo Are You?

Back in May, Amy and I were lounging in front of the TV, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large object fly in front of our breakfast room window. Knowing it was much larger than your average songbird, I went to investigate. What I found was a young screech owl clinging to our fence. Unsure of what the owl was going to do next, but hoping he’d stay still long enough, I grabbed my camera to snap a few photographs.

It looked like the owl was attempting to fly up into our apple tree, but didn't seem to know how to fly well enough. After a few snapshots, I decided to leave it be and see what happened. As it turns out, our breakfast room window was a perfect observation spot. About an hour later, we found it up in the tree and to our astonishment, a sibling and a parent were there as well! There are two phases—a grey phase and a red phase. These owls were in a grey phase.


With an adult in the area, it's a good thing I retreated when I did. My father has been attacked multiple times by screech owls when attempting to get close looks at juveniles. Both times he took cuts to his head and face. These creatures mean business when they feel their young are threatened. So if you encounter one, do not attempt to get too close, or you may be attacked and injured.

Although screech owls usually nest in cavities, Amy and I wonder if this family might have been in a more traditional nest. There is a nest in the top of the tree that I’ve yet to get up to, but I’m hoping to investigate the nest soon as the owls are now long gone. I never really found any owl pellets around the apple tree, but there is a lot of leaf litter under the tree and I wasn’t too keen about looking too hard with any adults above my head.

The Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) is a smallish, nocturnal owl which mostly inhabits woodland areas. These owls can be found all over the Eastern half of the United States and into parts of Canada and Mexico. Their diet consists of small rodents and mammals, insects, worms, lizards, fish, amphibians, and small birds. Their call is a wavering trill followed by a monotone trill. You can listen to one here. Learn more about these nocturnal hunters at the Owl Pages.

A Friend or Relation?

For the past month or so, we’ve had the pleasure of the company of an Eastern Cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) in our backyard. I’m a bit surprised that our efforts at making our backyard critter friendly have netted us this unexpected visitor. Not that cottontails are an unusual site in suburban neighborhoods—they're actually quite a common site on Amy and my walks—but this one has stayed mostly in our yard for almost a month now. This might be due to the fact that she was so young when we first encountered her (see the photo that my wife took the first evening we spotted her. Look how tiny her ears are!).

Eastern cottontails can be found over most of the eastern half of the United States. They are generally brown or grey of coat and have white tummies and tails that are puffy and white on the underside.

Their preferred habitat provides cover when needed, and since they are herbivores, includes areas with plenty of grasses for feeding. Our rabbit has dined quite a bit on dandelions and the other odd weeds that I can’t seem to remove from our yard. However, I’ve noticed that my tender bonsai tree leaves are also good snacking material when I was foolish enough to leave them at ground level! Many people say that it’s not a good idea to feed wildlife as they can become dependent, and their foraging skills can erode. Although we generally try to let nature run its course, we can’t help but throw vegetable scraps on the lawn now and then to keep her interested in staying.

We almost named this rabbit “Twitchy” because sometimes she just bounces all over, changing directions and hopping in funny ways. If I can figure out how to post a video of it, I’ll try and put one up.

The life expectancy of an Eastern cottontail is relatively short given that they often fall prey to larger predatory animals. This is one of the reasons rabbits tend to reproduce so quickly. However, these rabbits are not without their own bag of tricks. They are very fast and can change direction easily to confuse pursuers and leap great distances (8 to 15 feet) to get out of harm's way. It’s a good thing we have a sturdy fence and plenty of overhanging trees for cover. I guess it’s not so surprising after all that this one has decided to stay so long! Find out more about the Eastern Cottontail at places like Wild Texas and NatureWorks.

Baby Opossum

Unlike what most people think, we think opossums are kind of cute. Especially when they're still little! The word opossum comes from algonquian wapathemwa meaning "white dog".

This one stole our hearts immediately. Its not common to see opossums out during the day, but we watched this one scrounge around our yard for several weeks. This is unfortunately a sad tale. We never did see the mother, but found the remains of a sibling one morning; the result, we're guessing, of a bird of prey attack. Sadly, this little one only survived for several weeks more. Mother nature can be hard to bear witness to sometimes.

Look Into My Eye

A while back I posted some photos of a blue dasher and complained that you couldn't see its eyes very well. That has changed as Amy managed to snap a pretty good one of this dasher. Dragonflies and damselflies are wonderful creatures can be seen around most neighborhoods, but especially around sources of water.

I don't know how territorial these insects are, but I had to laugh a little the other day when we got two males at the pond at the same time. They took turns shooing each other away. We really need to get some new horsetail plant as our last one didn't survive the winter. These beauties deserve a proper perch down close to the water. It doesn't hurt that it'll make them easier for us to spot as well.

Night time is Quiet Time...

...except for opossums! Forgive the quality of the picture, but night photography is not my camera's strength (or maybe it's not my strength). I caught this opossum watching me from the fence top as I emptied the trash. I only noticed him because his white face was illuminated by my garage light.

Seeing these creatures around our house makes me happy. Several years ago, I trapped and had a possum relocated who'd been staying in our backyard under the gazebo. Only after the "offending" creature was forcibly evicted did I bother to look up and learn about these interesting animals. Come to find out, these neighbors provide some very beneficial services.

Didelphis virginiana, or the opossum as it's commonly called, is the only marsupial found in the United States. About the size of a large cat, opossums are mostly nocturnal. Their threatening appearance (they have 50 teeth!) is mostly just for show. When an opossum is faced with a more powerful opponent, they usually play dead, hence the phrase, "playing possum".

Opossums are omnivorous and adventitious hunters, eating things like slugs, snails, insects (like cockroaches, blech!), carrion, fruits and grains and supposedly even rats.

Opossums don't have a strong family bond. Males and females do not stay together to raise the young, and the young become independent fairly quickly. Some of this might be due to the fact that opossums don't have a very long life span.

Learn more about the opossum by visiting Animal Diversity Web or googling them on the Web.

As Pretty as a Painting

I've got a pretty one for you today. This is a Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) that came to my garden as I was watering my plants. As you can see, this particular butterfly is very showy. As with a number of brightly colored insects and bugs, the Pipevine is poisonous to eat, so predators learn to stay away.

The Pipevine Swallowtail is in the papilioninae sub-family and inhabits Central America and much of North America.

The adult butterfly can be identified by its metallic blue to blue-green hindwings above and its 7 highly visible orange spots over a blue background on the underside hindwings. The caterpillar is a nasty looking thing; all reddish brown (almost black looking) with rows of red or black tubercles (tubercles look like little spines) on its back.

A female lays eggs on the undersides of leaves. The caterpillars feed on this host plant when young. Eventually they form a protective covering called a chrysalis so they can survive the winter and transform into a butterfly that emerges in the spring.

The adults feed on nectar from a range of flowers, many of which are found in gardens. Find out more about this exquisite butterfly at such Internet sites as www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me

Every morning I head out to the backyard and water the potted plants and my bonsai. Well, I fill up the 5L watering can and start on the hosta. POP! Out jump two green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). One ran for cover, the other stopped and grabbed a quick drink and decided that the hosta wasn't too dangerous after all. I reached for my camera and snapped a quick shot or two. I believe this one to be a female as she is a bit smaller and has the characteristics of a female—a slightly shorter nose and a pale grey dorsal stripe. I have to wonder what she was annoyed by because they supposedly turn brown when stressed. The other was a bright green, but was gone before I could get a snapshot. Maybe there's a family in there, because I've seen baby anoles around the hosta. I'll get a picture of them at some point if I can.

Learn more about green anoles at the Wild Texas website.

Who was that masked man?

The other night Amy noticed and took a couple of snapshots of this obviously well-fed raccoon (Procyon lotor) in our backyard. Proof that nature can exist wherever the conditions are right. These creatures are omnivores, quite intelligent, and have adapted well to living in close proximity to humans. Meats (such as small rodents and fish), insects, fruits, nuts and grains are all potential sources of food for this opportunistic feeder. That means that fish ponds, bird feeders, pet food/water, those apples on the tree, your auntie's vegetable garden, and even your garbage can leftovers are all on the menu. And they’re just as at home in an attic as a rotted out log. If you'd like to learn more about raccoons, head on over to National Geographic's website or do a search on the Web.

Now, as much as I like wildlife, the thought of another fish poacher at my pond is enough to make me consider trapping/relocating this little scamp should we see him again. Speaking of wildlife removal, do us and yourself a favor and never use poisons to rid yourself of any pests. A good way to be rid of most unwanted guests (under 2 foot tall, that is), is to contact your city animal shelter and see if they offer live animal traps. If they do, they can educate you on its proper use. They'll even come and haul your catch to the nearest relocation park. Isn't that nice? If you can't or don't want to trap intruders, there are several basic rules to discouraging undesirables from sticking around your yard. They are:

• remove any food supply
• remove any water supply
• remove potential shelter

These might be your best options in the long run because if you don't change the environment, more animals are likely to come around and take up the spot you just created by evicting the last renter. I personally don't mind them most of the time.

Time to go count my fish....

The toads are waiting for Spring

Toads burrow into holes and other spaces during the winter to hibernate. I found these two fellows, a large one and a small one, in this access point to our in-ground sprinkler system.

There is a medium-sized crack in the cover to the access point, so I figure they crawled in earlier this winter and are waiting out the remainer of the cool weather. However, the big one I don't think would be able to hop back out, so I opened the cover one evening and waited for him to hop out. At the same time, I actually extracted the small one and placed him in the grass next to the hole. A week later and the large one is still in there. Obviously he knows more about when it's time to leave than I do, so I'll leave him alone for now. I hope I didn't do the small one a disservice by moving him from his temporary abode. By the way, can you spot the smaller of the two toads? He's pretty well hidden.

Yar Matey!

This is a blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) that visited our pond today. They apparently are also called "blue pirates" (no idea why).

He was very forgiving compared to other dragonflies that I've tried to photograph in the past. But after a few shots, he had had enough and flew off. He had beautiful eyes, which sadly are not well represented as the horsetail was waving in a fairly lively breeze resulting in a slightly out of focus shot (that's what I tell myself anyway).

I found some info at the Bug Guide. I hope he sticks around. He'll get to meet the red pennant that is usually found at our watering hole.

Beautiful Moth

I saw this guy today while watering the plants. He's a tiger moth of some sort, but I don't know enough nor did I see enough of him to really make a definitive identification. He could be a Figured, Ornate, Virgin or Mexican Tiger Moth. I never got a chance to see his abdomen or his hind wings. I brought the camera inside to download the pictures and when I went back, he was gone.

The sites I used to look him up said that three were more likely to be found in the Western part of the US. Being in North Central Texas, I have to guess based on current findings that it might be the Figured Tiger Moth. It's the only one I've seen reported in Texas at any of these sites.

I'll probably be interested enough to continue looking into this. I found info here and here. I also went to the local library to pick up some books on butterflies and moths. See kids? You CAN find neat stuff at the library!

The Wren Wreport - So Long And Thanks For All The Fish!

It happened much earlier than anticipated, but the fledglings have left the nest. In fact, it was like the next morning after the last Wren Wreport. Amy noticed that there weren't any mouths in the doorway, but she had to head off to a doctor's appointment. Concerned that they'd flown the coup and Amy would never get to see them, I went looking for them when she left. I found two just feet away from the nest just peeping away. One of them seemed quite a bit more advanced than the others. He was able to fly to low objects and perch off the ground. I heard more peeping from the other side of the fence, so I went around to the front of the house and found the other two gathered together under the boxwood.

Of all the days to pick to leave the nest... it was very windy with gusts up to 30 miles per hour and sustained winds around 15-20. I quickly snapped several pictures as mom and dad tried to warn me off. I then retreated to let them do their thing.

Several hours later, Amy was home and I showed her where they were. By then, all four had moved to the neighbor's bushes and were huddling around together. That is the last we saw of them. The next day they were gone.

We hope the parents will come back to have another family in the wren house. *fingers crossed*

Blechy!

The title is inspired by a friend who had a toad almost jump on her when she was helping my wife move something. She did some hopping herself and exclaimed, "Toads are blechy!"

I noticed this little toad in our pond a day or two ago. Last summer we didn’t have any toads visit the pond. I’m glad to see one back this year. It is probably a Bufo americanus, the common American toad. We’ve heard no calls the past couple of nights, so I’m assuming it’s a female.

A couple of years ago, we had a toad take up a two year (or maybe three, I can’t remember) residence. He's pictured in our profile...a rather similar shot actually. He was a male and boy did he have a loud call. Let’s hope this new resident is a quiet neighbor.

Learn more about the American toad here.