sitting in the birdbath.
- Curious about something you saw while walking in the woods? Spot the coolest bug ever? The prettiest flower and butterfly? Stumble on a rock and found a fossil? Or was it? This is the place to show your discoveries and share in the knowledge of the natural world right outside our doors. Join in the fun everyday at The Daily Bucket.
End of July 2015
Sure am happy to show y'all a photo of my big morning event. It happened about 10 minutes ago so I'm still excited. Actually I'm more struck by 2 days in a row I see something unusual at the birdbath.
Previous with Red-shouldered Hawk.
Today I had the camera ready - sort of. I never use the "automatic" setting on the old Fuji S2000 and prefer to fiddle with shutter speed and aperture settings using the built-in meter (auto is always over-exposed.) Since I had been taking pictures of a Golden Orb outside the window, the exposure was not too far off - only threw out 2 of 5. Had I actually used the camera's advanced features, there'd be burst shots of it flying up and off.
Here we are zoomed in a bit - the Barred Owl perched on the arm of the old satellite dish.
I know it was looking at me thru the window!
Zooming out, I took a photo to include the dish which filled up since yesterday when we got .6" of rain in the early evening. Guess the hole plugged itself up too. Anyways, with all the recent rain I don't know why the owl gets water here, but there ya go.
OK - mistakenly published last Friday so now this bucket is updated below with even more cool nature stuff from my backyard.
This Golden Orb (Nephila clavipes) is also right outside my window. I spend a lot of time gazing at them. Note the smaller male just above and on the other side of the web, the safe side I assume. Much time is spent waiting for a good pic, like yesterday when the camera died while the lady had a big beetle and the male came down hoping for leftovers. I settled today for this shot in the mid-morning sunlight.
Update 8-7 -- it's gone, no sign of web so I assume it gathered it all in and moved on, him included. The Silver Argiope that had been entertaining me on my walkway outside the door has also moved on to a better spot over in the tomatoes.
And second update - apparently another is moving in. There's a smaller Nephila out there starting its web. Still floating gossamer threads and getting anchor points. It's dangling at the end of a thread outside the window right now.
Wildflowers
Elephants Foot - Elephantopus. I have hundreds of these. A FL native but "locally abundant." Named I guess for the size of the leaf. There are 4 species native to FL and I think, based on basal leaf, that this is commonly called Devil's Grandmother (E. tomentosus) and no idea why.
I didn't know the common name of that one but since we are on to devils, here's another one - Devil's Walking Stick - Aralia spinosa.
It's blooming now and I'll probably cut them down before seeding since I have so friggin' many of them. They spread by runners an inch underground so it doesn't need the seeds. And the birds that might eat these seeds? Tough, go eat some Beautyberries...
That's it for this bucket. It's cool to have proof, photographic proof, that I've been getting odd visitors to the birdbath. Well, there was a really big beetle crawling around the lip but I was too lazy to get a pic. I kinda knew what it was and appreciated that I saw one out and not in the larval stage under dead bark. Hope to see ya in the comments with your nature observations, but I don't know how much I'll be around today. I'd do some yardwork but dang it is humid out there.
One more update - effing Fireants! It's August and they have invaded the house just like they did last year and the years before. Only the tiniest ones here and there exploring but if they find something, more will follow. This old mobile home was extensively restored, lots of time spent on the floors and walls filling cracks. I'd say about 4 buckets of joint compound and a few cases of caulk - no matter. One finds a speck of food and the big boys follow building a superhighway. At previous places I have lived in FL, even site-built homes, I've seen them eat thru caulk to get in.
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