Birds, Otters, and More

The Bailey Tract yielded photos today, instead of Ding. We came across a mother river otter and her two young ones. I wasn’t prepared for how fast they appeared and then took off. So, the photos weren’t the best, but it was fun to try to catch the photos.

The swallow-tailed kites have been back for a few weeks, but today was my first glimpse of one this season. It was quite a distance away, though. I love to watch their peaceful soaring and look forward to seeing more of them.

You can always see a little marsh hare at the Bailey Tract.

This young gator can often be seen near the entrance at the Bailey Tract.

Back at home, this female red-bellied woodpecker stopped long enough for me to get a photo. The grey on the top of the head indicates this is a female.

This osprey was in a tree near our home.

Butterfly sanctuary at a neighbor's home

Our neighbor down the street invited me over to photograph the monarch butterflies hatching out of their chrysalises on her screened-in deck this morning. This lady is absolutely incredible. She does so much to help increase the butterfly population on the island. She works tirelessly every day to make sure the butterfly’s eggs make it into caterpillars, then the caterpillars make it safely into the chrysalis stage, then watches them carefully hatch. She makes sure they are safe while their wings dry and they get strong enough to fly. Then, she carefully helps them out of the screen deck to the outside world.

She has released almost “40 butterflies in the last 2 days”. And there are more that will hatch tomorrow.

To start, below on the left is a chrysalis that is close to hatching. If you saw my blog from a couple of days ago, this chrysalis was a light green. In the photo on the right, you’ll see the monarch butterfly beginning to break out of the cocoon at the bottom left of the chrysalis.

Following is a video of the hatching process of this chrysalis.

The butterfly on the left is maybe 30 to 45 minutes older than the one on the right.

And then a while later, they are closer to the same size.

After a few hours, she moved them to the patio screen near the door. They were able to dry their wings more and get energy from the sun. One at a time, we held them up to the outside until they were ready to leave and fly away. Some would fly immediately and others would stay on our hands until they were ready to go. It was a fascinating process.

The butterfly above is a male and the one below is female. How can you tell, you ask? That was my question to her, too! Do you see the black dot just below the center of the inner wing on the orange line? That means it is male. Below, the female does not have those little black dots.

As I was leaving to go back home, she showed me a newly hatched teeny tiny caterpillar on a plant in the front yard. She plans to move it to the screened lanai to protect it. She showed me another caterpillar eating and getting ready to create its chrysalis and also a small chrysalis on the underside of a plant leaf on her lanai. The whole cycle starts over again. She loves helping these beautiful creatures in their process. I cannot imagine how many butterflies she has added to our beautiful island, but I was honored to share the process with her today. It was just so fascinating!

Birds, butterflies, and an iguana

We took a drive through the Ding Refuge this morning and just saw a few birds. Then, we took a quick walk through the Bailey Tract and only saw a couple birds there. I’m not sure if we were too early or too late this morning! We did see a couple of Great Blue Herons, though, which is always a nice treat.

A cormorant in the top of a tree caught my eye, since we usually see them in the water or on the bank with their wings out to dry.

This guy was in my back yard a few days ago. The photo isn’t great, but I’m fascinated with all the patterns and colors on this green iguana. His head is sort of tan, then he goes to green spots, then to light green and black stripes, to darker green and black stripes, and last to brown and black stripes on the end of his tail. He has orange spikes on his back and orange on his legs. He definitely blends into the background.

He wasn’t amused with me stalking him!

A neighbor down the street from us has worked hard to give butterflies the perfect conditions to thrive. She provides the caterpillars with the plants they need, as well as plants for the butterflies after they emerge from the cocoon. She even moves the chrysalis if the caterpillar builds it in a space too tight to be able to open its wings when the butterfly comes out. She will hang the chrysalis somewhere safe, using dental floss to secure it.

The moth below was a mystery to us until she identified it as a Tersa Sphinx. It looks like a piece of wood and blends into the plants.

And from a different angle.

The chrysalises were fascinating. They look as if they have little shiny lights on the sides. If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you can see the wings of the butterflies, especially on the darker chrysalis. The darker one is close to releasing a beautiful monarch butterfly. There were so many chrysalises hanging everywhere on her deck.

Nice drive through Ding

We had a nice drive through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge this morning. There were many photographers and bird watchers with the same idea!

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron below was hiding in the tree limbs. It’s not a great photo, but I thought I’d share anyway.

The Spoonbill below was either doing the Hokey Pokey, some Yoga, or maybe a little ballet practice.

The Osprey below caused a frenzy of cameras clicking away as he swooped down and grabbed some material for the nest.

Another Osprey was circling overhead, too.