More Birds, Blooms, Butterflies & Bugs
The Daily Bucket is a place where we post our observations about what is happening in the natural world. Birds, Blooms, Butterflies & Bugs - each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
September 2013
Midway, FL is actually where I live. I think it got this name because it is midway between Tallahassee (here) and Quincy (there). There's actually a City of Midway but thankfully I am outside its purview. It's rather backwards, always broke, and probably corrupt. Like the city manager got arrested over the summer (VOP - he got in fight with firefighters originally.) It gets worse but this is not that diary.
So - I have lots of these Golden Orb or Silk spiders around the yard. These awesome spiders with a 1" body are commonly called banana spiders. Walking into their strong-as-Kevlar web is not fun. Almost always perched with head down, I'm guessing that is for 2 reasons: 1, when it rains the water runs off as they go all slumpy with legs hanging down ; and 2, if disturbed, they can drop down faster. To those who fear these little monsters and freak after walking into a web, they'd rather get away than bother you so stop and calmly pull the web off and give it a second to escape.
Nephila clavipes
Another orb-weaver is the Garden spider. These are not as common as the Golden Orb in my yard. There is a Florida Silver-back but this is a Black-and-Yellow with the typical zigzag center webbing. Looking at the images in Bug Guide there appears to be some variation in the colors on its back. If you look closely, you can see where this one caught a bug and wrapped it in silk before sucking up breakfast.
Argiope aurantia
More photos and descriptions below the orange webbing.
I took this photo of the ant nest because it's pretty. Don't know what kind of ant, but it's not a Fireant nest which is mounded (a couple inches to over a foot high). Mostly I see these with the soil deposited to one side so seeing a concentric circle is unusual --- at least in my yard. Being on a slope may have something to do with it.
How about some flowers? This is a Butterfly Pea. I've seen it referred to as Beaked or Spurred - take your pick. This viney runner with 3 leaflets is a good host plant for caterpillars. Kinda weedy so I pull the ones that pop up in my yard but let them run along the fence or in the woods.
Centrosema virginianum
I love this plant but it's not in my yard - yet. This was growing down the road on top of a bank and out of the reach of county mowers. In the Mint family but I'd have to look closer to see exactly which species. Looks like a touch of purple so maybe Bee Balm (Horsemint) or it's one of the Mountain-Mints.
Butterflies! The Florida state butterfly - Zebra Longwing. I read in the local paper that their numbers were down the last 2 years because of winter cold. It wasn't cold last winter so they are back. This beauty is feeding on Beggarticks.
Heliconius charitonius on Bidens alba
Common Buckeye - also feeding on Beggarticks. Any day now I expect the county will come mow the roadway. They do it twice a year: once during spring wildflower season and then again during prime fall blooming. One of the ladies in our local chapter of the FL Native Plant Society has been working with the state DOT to establish no-mow zones. My backroad is not one of them and the county has been working hard the last few years to domesticate this road. A decade ago it was a red-clay road; that sure kept the traffic down.
Larval food for this common butterfly is Wild Petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis). That may explain why I am not seeing any of these plants that started blooming back in May.
Junonia coenia
Speaking of caterpillars -- FRASS! These golden nuggets are about 3/8" so that must be one big caterpillar feeding on the Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) branching over my truck. The silvery thread is a "seedling" for Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) which favors the big spreading branches of mature Live Oaks.
Pondhawk - One of my field guides says the males are a pale blue and females and immature are green with dark markings on abdomen. "Often rests on the ground."
Erythemis simplicicollis
The circling shadows outside my window got me to go out and look. At first there was one Turkey Vulture, then there were 4 and by the time I got a photo, it was 5. I started looking around and sniffing the air to see why they were circling my house.
That's all folks; just a quick bucket to get things started this week. Still summer heat and humidity here in the Panhandle and no hurricanes so far. There's October and November to get thru tho.
And The Daily Bucket is now open for your thoughts and observations...
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