Pictures Of The Week 4

Despite its name, the Common Buckeye is not a common butterfly in our yard. On the few occasions I've seen one, I've never been able to get a picture because it didn't stay in one place for very long. This morning was overcast and drizzly, and the temperature was much cooler than it's been lately. I think this made the butterfly less active, and it stayed in this spot for a long time without moving. I've seen several host plants listed for the Common Buckeye, most often Plantain and Snapdragons. The only plant we have in our yard that I've seen listed as a host plant is verbena, but I've never seen any caterpillars on it.

In the photo on the left, you can see how the Thread-Waisted Wasp gets its name. Adults eat nectar, and this one was feeding on the flowers of a brown-eyed susan bush. They're considered beneficial insects because they help control caterpillar populations. These wasps will sting and paralyze a caterpillar, then carry it back to a nest/burrow in the ground. They lay an egg on the caterpillar and then cover the nest/burrow. After the wasp larva hatches it eats the caterpillar. The wasp pictured was about two inches long, and was not aggressive at all (or else I wouldn't have taken these photos).

This is a female Common Green Darner dragonfly. As you can see, it perches vertically and hangs underneath the branch. The marking on its forehead is usually described as a bull's-eye, but it looks like a cyclops eye to me. This is a very large dragonfly -- it won't go unnoticed when it flies by you.

This is the only Gulf Fritillary chrysalis I've found in our yard, even though I've seen dozens of caterpillars on the host plant, Passion Flower. Branches of our Serviceberries touch the Passion Flower vine, and the caterpillar crawled over to the Serviceberry branch to pupate. It's easy to overlook it since it looks so much like a dead leaf, an effective defense mechanism.

This is the fruit of the Strawberry Bush, Euonymus americanus, also known as Hearts-A-Burstin' or Hearts-A-Bustin'. In the fall, the fruit which resembles small strawberries splits open to reveal bright orange seeds. This is the first year we've seen the fruit open, so we'll find out if it's true that birds eat the seeds. Strawberry Bush is native to North America.

Damselflies are generally smaller than dragonflies and have narrower bodies. Also, when they perch their wings are held together; dragonflies typically have their wings spread open. There are several other characteristics you can use to distinguish between the two. This is one of the Bluet Damselflies, and according to Stokes Beginner's Guide To Dragonflies, there are more than 30 similar looking species of Bluets in North America. From the photos in the book and the range listed, my best guess is that it's a Familiar Bluet. But I'm no expert on identifying dragonflies/damselflies. The damselfly in these photos is feasting on a very, very, tiny insect.

This is a plant that I'm surprised isn't in more yards. It's Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius), sometimes called Narrowleaf Sunflower. It's native to North America and does best in the East and South. It grows to 5-7 feet and is covered by 50-100 blooms. The flowers are about 3 inches across. They don't have the sunflower seeds in the center of the flower that a "true" sunflower has. I planted this in the spring in an area I planned to be a wet area, but this year's drought didn't help. Still the plant thrived. It prefers moist locations in full sun, and you'll probably need to stake it. Mine bloomed in early October. They're still blooming, but I can't say how long the blooms will last since this is the first year I've had them. Unfortunately, since it's a native plant you'll probably have a hard time finding it in most nurseries. (Do you think nurseries in Asia carry mostly North American native plants?) I ordered one online from a good nursery based in East Tennessee that specialilzes in native plants called Sunlight Gardens (www.sunlightgardens.com). Technically the one I ordered was Helianthus simulans, which is a larger version but is limited to more Southern areas.

This week we have lots of Painted Lady butterflies in our yard, more than we've ever had before. Our white Butterfly Bushes are in full bloom and the butterflies are really attracted to those. They're also feeding on the Lantana that are blooming. These butterflies look very similar to the American Painted Lady (which I've never seen in person), but they can be distinguished by the "eyespots" on the underneath side of the hindwing. The Painted Lady has four small eyespots along the edge of the lower hindwing when viewed from below. The American Painted Lady will have two large eyespots there. I included multiple photos because the Painted Lady, more than any other butterfly I've seen, can look like different butterflies depending on the lighting and angle of view.

Viceroys and Monarchs look strikingly similar. The Monarch is bigger, but the easiest way to distinguish them is that Viceroys have a horizontal stripe on the lower wing running perpendicular to the other stripes. The photo on the left is a Viceroy; on the right is a Monarch. Viceroys mimic Monarchs because Monarchs have a defense mechanism against predators. The milkweed that Monarch caterpilllars eat is poisonous to other animals, so predators learn not to eat them. And unless predators are reading a field guide to butterflies, they probably can't tell the difference between Viceroys and Monarchs.

Most of the plants in our yard are going dormant for the winter, so we have lots of unique seedheads right now. These are photos of the seedheads of Tall Ironweed, planted for the first time in our yard this year. The photo on the right shows a seedhead and a receptacle, what's left after all the seeds have fallen out or been pulled out. The seedheads are about as big around as a dime, so you can see how small the receptacle is.

On Thanksgiving Day, the temperature dropped about thirty degrees from the previous day (in Tennessee, these drastic fluctuations are common). These Mourning Doves are doing two things to try to stay warm. One, they fluff up their feathers and compact their body for more insulation, which makes them look a lot bigger than they really are. Two, they sit on the rocks we use as edging for our flowerbeds because the rocks soak up the sun's heat. Before we had these rocks, mourning doves would congregate on our rock patio in the morning. In the picture on the left you can see the remaining berries from an American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana).

The Dark-Eyed Juncos have returned for the winter. They eat from the seedheads of dormant plants (like the swamp sunflower in the photo above that has fallen over), and they forage on the ground for seeds and insects. In our mulched flowerbeds, they kick the mulch out of the way and look for food on the ground. You can watch video of this HERE.

Last weekend I came across these lichens (a type of fungus) growing on a dead tree branch in a brush pile in my yard. I was really drawn to the intricate patterns on them. I still haven't been able to identify them, but I did come across this interesting WEBSITE. It has lots of great photos that illustrate the tremendous diversity of lichens across North America. The photo on the left is one of the first four images I'm selling in large framed prints through CafePress.com.

In Tennessee there's a saying: "If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute." On Tuesday we hit a high of 78 degrees. Saturday we had a chance of snow. These major changes in temperature must make it difficult on plants and animals, like this green tree frog that came out of hibernation Tuesday, only to have to go right back to sleep for the winter.

We have an evergreen bush just outside our kitchen window, and unfortunately it's become home to many House Sparrows. When we walk out the back door it looks like as many as 20 fly out of it. House Sparrows are an invasive species in North America, having been brought here from Europe. They are reducing the populations of many native North American birds, and for that reason they are one of the few songbirds that can legally be killed. Starlings are another invasive bird species from Europe that can be killed legally. I've never done that, but I considered it earlier this year when House Sparrows killed a Barn Swallow fledgling that was in a nest over our front door. House Sparrows seem to violate Nature's laws. All animals will kill other animals 1) to protect themselves or their offspring, 2) for food, 3) in a battle for limited food supplies. But House Sparrows (and Starlings) seem to be "programmed" to kill simply for the sake of killing, without being threatened and with a plentiful supply of food. They're especially destructive towards Bluebirds -- adults, fledglings, and even eggs. They'll work in teams to destroy eggs in other birds' nests and then leave, with no apparent benefit. For this reason, we took down our Bluebird box because we worried we would just be attracting Bluebirds to their deaths.

This morning something white caught my eye on our Strawberry Bush (Euonymus americanus, also called Heart's-a-Burstin' or Heart's-a-Bustin'). I went outside and found this empty chrysalis hanging from one of the branches. I'm pretty sure it's the chrysalis of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly based on its appearance and how close this Strawberry Bush is to a Passion Flower vine (Passiflora incarnata), the host plant for Gulf Fritillaries. After devouring the Passion Flower vine, the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars look for a place to pupate (form a chrysalis), and this must have looked like a good spot. It's probably been on the bush for months, first hidden by the leaves and then easy to overlook unless the light hit it just right. Finding things like this in your yard can have as much to do with timing as anything else. I also learned something new from this photograph -- even though I've had a Strawberry Bush in my yard for almost a year, I never noticed that the twigs are rectangular.

The Mourning Dove is one of the more common birds in our yard and in North America. But unless you've seen one up close, you've probably never noticed the light blue eye-ring they have. They also have what looks like a splash of paint on their necks. On the Mourning Dove in this photo that spot is yellow, but I've seen other colors like turquoise also. We'll have as many as forty Mourning Doves in our yard at one time, usually foraging on the ground for birdseed that's been knocked out of hanging feeders by other birds.