51, 29…same thing. P got me a Chromecast for a little TV I got to put in the kitchen, and of course, he got me a big ol’ birthday cake with pink frosting, and a lot of writing on it. Everyone wanted me to have a happy berfday!

It rained all of my birthday weekend, but we desperately needed it, so I didn’t mind. I didn’t care for the chilly temperatures, but 7″ of rain, I will take!

Apparently, I will also take a third brood of Pipevine Swallowtails, whether I asked for and expected them or not because I’ve got them. I was putting up MLB feeders, when I noticed how awful the pipevine looked. It had been dry, and I hadn’t run irrigation because it wasn’t dangerously dry, so I didn’t think much of it…until I saw the real reason.

After the rain stopped, I decided to “just check” the Virginia snakeroot that had just begun to regrow. I eventually found 18 caterpillars. Yesterday, as I was releasing a White-lined Sphinx caterpillar, I made one more check of the snakeroot. Sure enough, I found one last straggler.

Those flutter-guys had better be finished for the year because I have virtually nothing Aristolochia left!

Yesterday, S brought a caterpillar in for me to identify. It was a fat, healthy White-lined Sphinx, and he asked me whether I wanted it. Of course I did, but this one I released because I’m not sure he’s done eating, and this late in the season, he may choose to spend the winter in his sleeping bag. I tried feeding him several different plants, but he wasn’t interested. I wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t be were he not in a plastic container, so I released him by the Kankakee mallow, where he’ll find both mallow (which seemed to be the most interesting to him, though he didn’t eat more than a couple of bites), and soft, loose soil in the event that he’s done for the year and ready to take a nap.

I found this guy in his little sleeping bag on the south side of the house. Other than being fairly certain that it’s some kind of swallowtail, and absolutely certain that he’s alive in there (and very active when touched!) I don’t know who he is, or whether he intends to spend the winter there, but I’m nonetheless glad to see him!

Speaking of butterflies, though not swallowtails, I’m absolutely awash in Silver-spotted Skipper flutter-guys this year! I don’t know whether it’s the honeylocust (which has been there all along) or the partridge pea that seeded itself everywhere (some places it had to have got up and walked!), but there are sooooo many of these little dudes this year. They’re absolutely welcome, though; all flutter-guys are.

The Bistro looks a bit ragged about the edges, and most of the flowers have done their thing, and are currently very popular with the Goldisox, but the Jerusalem artichokes are making sure the flutter-guys and bees don’t go hungry even late in the season. Asters, too, of course, but these look so summery even though it’s practically autumn.

Too much labour, not enough days, and few things worth photographing, so most of these aren’t even from the weekend, but still worth posting, I think.

I haven’t seen many Monarchs this year (some on the volunteer Mexican sunflower on the south side), and only a couple of caterpillars, but I’m pretty sure at least one of my cats made it to adulthood at Parview because this little girl is very fresh!

Bad photo, bad location, incredibly cute little Carolina boy.

Someone needs to tell these (Small?) Milkweed Bugs that these flowers are Heliopsis helianthoides, not milkweed. They love them, though, and I’m quite sure all I’ve ever seen are Small Milkweed; the Large Milkweed prefers the pods on actual milkweed.

Miracle Grey Stick flower. I love this little guy because in spite of the horrible location that eventually killed its parent, it germinated, survived, grew, and then it bloomed. It seems much happier out front in the sun, though, and I hope it’ll eventually be as much a spectacle as the Grey Stick out back. It does need staking, though; it’s starting to lean a little.

Only one seed head, and it doesn’t look like much yet, but that’s at least in part due to the bachelors button that takes over that area from spring until midsummer. Sorghastrum nutans it is, though, and the seed head is really cool-looking!

I found this guy (dying) when he crash-landed on the patio last Saturday night. I knew it was a cicada, of course, and I’m actually not sure what prompted me to walk over and look at “yet another dog-day cicada”, but I’m glad I did because it wasn’t just another dog-day cicada. It was a cicada that I’ve never seen before in my life, and indeed, it took me some time to identify it as Neotibicen pronotalis, Walker’s Cicada. Among the largest, and the loudest cicada in North America…I wonder if these are responsible for the insect noises almost (almost!) loud enough to drown out stupid Balloon Fest? Anyway, it’s not a great picture because it was dark, and although I brought him inside so I could take a photo in daylight, by the next morning, he had died, and I don’t like pictures of dead insects. Not even loud, clumsy-flying, annoying as hell insects like cicadas.

I’m not as far behind as usual, but I do have a few things that I’ve meant to post.

Just a very pretty flower after the last time it rained. Not hard to tell why they’re named, ‘Bright Lights’, is it?

Bad lighting because it was getting dark, but a flash would’ve ruined it. Big fat bunglebee in an early-blooming aster (these ones were either not sheared, or were sheared only once).

I was sitting in my rocking chair on Sunday when I felt a tickle on my arm. Thinking it was a fly, I swooshed it away, and (unfortunately) I killed the poor little guy. Had I known he was a newly hatched Leptoglossus, I wouldn’t have killed him. After a few more strolled onto me, I found the source; a strip of eggs on the side of my chair cushion. I moved all of the little dudes over onto plants, and although there appeared to be only 18 eggs, I’d swear there were 50 bugs, given the number of times I thought I was done, then discovered another one.

They’re so goddamned cute at this stage.

Again on Sunday, I happened to be walking by the front flowerbed after we’d finished mowing/trimming the yard. I’d been thinking that my Heliopsis and Rudbeckia out front were looking like shit, but it’s been dry, and I don’t water unless I have no other option (water bill is already high enough). Since it was getting dark, I got to see the real reason for the defoliation of my flowers…dozens of Silvery Checkerspot caterpillars. I know I have the butterflies, but they’ve never eaten the flowers out front before, so I didn’t suspect them. They aren’t out much in bright daylight, which is why I hadn’t seen them. I guess I can add these to my list, too, since that species is listed “special concern”, and indeed, believed to be extinct in the state of CT. I have Near Threatened red-headed woodpeckers and ornate box turtle babies (hopefully, at least), and a bunch of Special Concern caterpillars. Oh, well…I don’t care if the flowers look like shit; they’re for butterflies and bees anyway, not for people to look at. If my sole concern was what people see, I’d have a concrete yard that I’d just clean with a leaf blower once in a while and hose down once every few years.

Fish Bait gets his own post because he spans days. Plus, he’s pretty cool.

I was coming back from the Post Office on 11 July when I noticed a big, fat caterpillar strolling across the sidewalk. I recognized it right away as one of the big sphinxes, but wasn’t sure which one. I brought him in the office, and quickly looked him up. White-lined Sphinx–woo-hoo! He most desperately wanted to find a place to pupate, and he was very active in his attempts to get out of the Office Bug-Catching Cup, but I had to keep him in there until I could go get him some stuff at lunch. The ground was hard, and there’s no good, soft soil around, so I bought a bag of cheap potting soil. Cheap because that means they haven’t spent any extra money to add fertilizers or pesticides or anything like that; it’s just potting soil. I also got a big food storage container to put it in. Dampened the soil with bottled water because our water has enough chlorine to kill an elephant, let alone a caterpillar, and dropped him in. This image shows his head buried because I didn’t have time to reach for my phone between the moment I dropped him onto the soil and the moment he started to dig in (nanoseconds!) I was showing him to the guy who owns the business next door, and he said, “Looks like fish bait”, which is kind of true, since Catalpa Sphinx cats are frequently used as fish bait, and there is a resemblance because they’re sort of cousins to the White-Lined Sphinx. So…Fish Bait he became.

I took him home with me after work, and set his container on the table outside the door, out of direct sun. I had to keep it covered because of raccoons (which actually did get into it once when the cover wasn’t on all the way, but they didn’t find him), but every few times I’d go by, I’d take off the cover and let some fresh air in. I made sure it stayed barely damp, and just left him alone. Okay, so the second day, I did carefully move soil away, but he startled me when his pupa jumped, so after that, I left him alone.

When I came home on 02 Aug, there was someone waiting for me. He’d just eclosed; his wings weren’t droopy, but they weren’t hardened enough for him to really fly.

I couldn’t leave him there (well, could have, but didn’t want to in case he was still there at dusk when curious baby raccoons overrun the patio), and I wanted a picture of him on my hand to show his size.

I put him over on some surprise lilies; I have these guys at my house and know they love those lilies, so I wanted him to be very near a nectar source that he likes when he was ready to fly. Over there, he’d also be away from the large birds because that’s hummingbird and goldisox turf.

I checked as the sun was going down, and he hadn’t gone yet, but I’m sure that shortly afterward, once it was truly dusk, he took off. Perhaps he drank some surprise lily nectar to fuel his flight. I don’t know. Good luck, Fish Bait–I hope nothing eats you!

Again, these will be out of order because I’m still (always) catching up, but whatever–at least they’ll be posted.

I saw this big guy fly under the patio, and I thought he was likely some kind of underwing, but I still had to go and look because there are sooooo many underwing moths, and so many look alike. I think this one is Catocala retecta-luctosa, AKA Yellow-Grey Underwing / Hulst’s Underwing. Apparently, the two species are so alike that they cannot be distinguished from photos, so there you are.

None of the crocosmia did fantastic this year, but I was surprised to see even the few orange ones that I did have. I think I like them enough to have more, but I also think they need to have their own spot somewhere. Not sure where, but it’s got to be somewhere that drains well when it rains, but is easy for me to water when it doesn’t. Anyway, they’re pretty even if they are few.

The trash pandas have finally discovered that I keep hummingbird feeders over on the west/south side of the house. I know it’s the young ones, gone exploring, but I don’t give a shit why; I just need them to stop. After they pulled one feeder down, and emptied three more two nights in a row, I’d had enough. At first, I was going to use Tanglefoot, but then decided to have a little pity on them, and just used cooking spray. Not that much pity, though, because the powder stuck to the oil is ground ghost pepper. I couldn’t tell for sure, but the third night after I did this, there looked to be swipe marks on the pole of the Man Cave feeder, so I think one of the trash panda kids got curious in spite of the smell. Good…I hope the little bastard has hot paws for a week, and learns his lesson, because if one more hummingbird feeder gets pulled down, that ghost pepper is going on with Tanglefoot, and that won’t wipe off!

Just a pretty flower on the Cliffie bush. I really need to move that; it blooms where it is, but it would have more if it was in full sun. Perhaps next spring.

The jewelweed behind the pond is doing better this year than it has in the past, but the very clever jewelweed around the waterfall that actually put its roots down into the pond is a veritable jungle. I can’t actually see the Babbling Brook at this point in time, but the jewelweed is blooming now, and I love to watch the MLBs, booping their way methodically through every flower.

These are probably out of order, but I’m so goddamned far behind at this point (like a month behind!), I’m not sure it matters that much. Anyway…

So, in spite of how difficult it is to determine the gender of a goldfish, and especially a lone goldfish, I can state with authority that Sprize is indeed a girl. A very egg-bound girl that I honestly thought would die because there were no males around to get her to expel the eggs, but that picture was taken quite some time ago, and she’s still alive, so perhaps she’ll make it after all. Anyway, I had told C how big Sprize was, and I don’t think she believed me, but here’s one with my hand for scale.

This enterprising ‘pider picked a perfect spot over by the outside light, under cover of the patio, and scored a nice, fat moth.

I haven’t seen it since, so I’m going to guess something ate it, but I did have one Monarch cat. I’ve seen only four (possibly five–couldn’t tell from the distance) adult Monarchs this year. Poor guys; at this rate, they’ll be extinct in a few years.

With no chance of ever becoming extinct…large milkweek bug nymphs. I don’t kill them; they do feed on milkweed, but take nothing from potential Monarchs, and cause no real harm because I don’t care if the seeds are viable or not.

Wandering bullfrog over by the patio door. I got to it just as Onje noticed it, so I scooped it up and put it in the pond. Onje did not follow it.

Horrible picture–phone + digital zoom as far as it would go–but the red-topped blob is BR, and the blob on the opposite side is BBBR, who has learned to eat from the feeder.

Considering I had 90-100 caterpillars this year, I don’t see very many adult Pipevines. This one is either brand new, or at most a couple of days old; he was perfect!

Little…checkerspot, I think. They nom the crap out of my coneflowers in spring, but don’t do any damage that bothers the plant. This little dude was just perched on morning glory vine, hangin’ out.

Carolina mantis nymph, over in Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Flowerbed. That flowerbed is such a jungle; I’m sure I have more manti-dudes than the one or two I’ve seen, but I’m sure they’re all in that flowerbed because no one will disturb them there…because no one can get through it!

So yeah, I’ve been lazy.

Phlox from 07-07

Cool looking black pods on Baptisia, also from 07-07

Cliche frog from 07-08

Very fat, eggbound Sprize, 07-07. Still looks much the same, but at least she’s not dead. Oh, and I guess she’s a girl. 🙂

Flowery flowers, 07-09