Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A Second Look--July 24, 2013

As I sat down to write this post, I just saw a fox trot across the yard. That is a somewhat unusual occurrence for daytime and it got all of the cats on alert. I'm glad there is a window between them.

The days continue to be warm and humid with an occasional thunderstorm. On my way inside one day as one of these storms began, I discovered both tussock moth caterpillars and monarch butterfly caterpillars on the milkweed. I hope that we will eventually see a monarch emerge from a cocoon, but it's not looking too promising right now. Despite our best efforts, the tussocks outnumber the monarchs 100/1. Also, there have been two more eggs added to the sparrows nest and the mama is sitting on them. The day lilies and tiger lilies continue to bloom as well as the marigolds and daisies. (And the beetles continue to feast on them.) Many butterflies are fluttering by-especially around the tiger lilies. It's a beautiful time of year.

Here are a few of the things I saw this week during a Second Look.

Day lily


Black swallowtail on tiger lily



Hibiscus buds



Tiger swallowtail on tiger lily



Marigolds



Day lily


Left: Monarch caterpillar eating from behind. Right: Tussock caterpillars eating, eating, eating.



Sparrow's nest. Two eggs and more feathers have been added since last week.



6 comments:

  1. I love the brightly coloured catapillars :)

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    1. The brightly colored orange and black ones produce a dull gray moth. It's interesting how that works.

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  2. I love your second looks. My hibiscus has holes all over the leaves, I'm still waiting to see if I will get any flowers.

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    1. There seems to be more bug activity on everything this year. I don't know if it's because we've had more rain or not. Hope we both get hibiscus flowers.

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  3. Tiger lilies are my favorite! My husband gets them for me almost every year for my Birthday:)

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    1. There are very pretty and showy flowers. I like them, but the best thing is that the butterflies love them.

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What do you think?