nature photographs – In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat

There’s no doubt dear readers, that you are still reeling (perhaps even still reading!) Ms. Jeannie’s EPIC long Mad Men post, so today she’ll keep it short and sweet.

A celebration is occurring, as today marks Ms. Jeannie’s 100th blog post! This image below is a compilation of over 40 images from previous posts that have made up the varied subject matter of Ms. Jeannie’s blog dating all the way back to the very first day – February 27th, 2012. What a time, Ms. Jeannie has had:)

To mark this special day, Ms. Jeannie thought it would be fun to share some unique sightings that she has seen lately around her yard and garden.

Hawks are solitary birds, so to see two together is quite unusual. Normally sightings like this occur only in the spring when they are mating – but since we are now well into summer, Ms. Jeannie likes to think that these two sweethearts are so in love they can’t stand the thought of parting. Either that, or they are on extended honeymoon. These two were seen this morning hanging out on the branches of the dead tree towards the back of the yard. It stands right next to the gumball tree that Ms. Jeannie blogged about back in February.

Could this be one of the butterflies that was born in Ms. Jeannie’s parsley patch? Hmmm…this delicate one was floating just outside of Ms. Jeannie’s window the other day.

Storm clouds bathed everything in a wonderful peach colored glow as tornado watches and warnings swept through the area last week. These skies reminded Ms. Jeannie of the burning of Atlanta scene in Gone With the Wind.

Ms. Jeannie’s kitty Satchem, (or Satchmo as Ms. Jeannie likes to call her) thinks the entire world is one big drinking fountain. Here she is taking a sip from the puddles on the driveway:)

These are pictures of a four foot (4 FEET!) long Black snake that was seen crossing the driveway in route to the garden rockery! Holy toledo! This is a prime walking path for Ms. Jeannie in her bare feet. It’s now rubber boots (tall ones!) for her for the rest of the summer. This snake here might be the owner of the snake skin Ms. Jeannie blogged about last September.

And last, but certainly not least, last night Ms. Jeannie discovered two otters playing the creek that runs along the very back of the property line. Wild otters! It’s like a zoo in her own backyard. She discovered these guys last night at 8:30pm when she was taking a little walk after dinner. She had her camera – but again, like the butterflies, you have to be quick and it was almost dark so all she got was this grainy little picture.

This is what the creek looks like by day.

Creek by day! — It would be a pretty nice home for an otter!

This is the spot (by day) where the otter was seen. Even in the daylight it is still a dark little spot. — This is the spot (by day) where the otter was seen. Even in the daylight it is still a littl dark.

Ms. Jeannie plans to go down there tonight at the same time as last night to see if they are back – she’s hoping they’ll stick around for the summer so keep your fingers crossed!

And a big THANK YOU to you, dear readers, for sharing in Ms. Jeannie’s interests with all your thoughtful comments and contributions over these past 100 posts. She looks forward to 100 more and then another 100 after that:)

Oh the butterflies did not prove to disappoint, dear readers! Three little caterpillars built their nests in Ms. Jeannie’s garden, and they did it, so kindly, right where she could see them!

On Tuesday, she went out to water and noticed that all the caterpillars had vanished. Well, all except one who was still hanging out on the parsley. He had been in that same spot for quite a few days although this day, Ms. Jeannie saw two little spider web like threads projecting from each side of his bright little body. When she checked on him in the evening, this is what she found…

If she hadn’t known exactly the spot to look for the caterpillar she would have missed him completely. He has built a cocoon which totally blends in with his surroundings – an overturned parsley sprig – so he matches the pale underside exactly. Here’s another view…

Would you have noticed him in a passing glance?

You can see the little threads here too that keep him anchored to the stalk. This sort of reminds Ms. Jeannie of rock climbers who propel mountains with their thin little safety ropes.

Knowing that all the other caterpillars might have gone on their search for long grasses or house foundations or dead tree limbs to find their nesting site, she looked in all the areas around the pots. Not sure how far a caterpillar could travel or would travel for such a task, she just looked a few yards around each pot. Guess where she found caterpillar number 2?

Ms. Jeannie thinks this one might be the Einstein of the bunch. That was a pretty good place to nest as it backs up to the side of the house. Here he is…

Notice how he has completely camouflaged himself to match the wood grain. There are even little striations in his cocoon that match the light and dark veins of the wood. Even more amazing is that from an aerial viewpoint, the “belly” of his cocoon matches the green leaves of the gerber daisies down below, so again if you were passing by quickly you would just think it was a leaf or something similar.

Caterpillars build their cocoons to protect themselves during the chrysalis stage. Sometimes the cocoon shells are hard and sometimes they are soft (Ms. Jeannie is afraid to poke at her three in case she breaks the threads, so she hasn’t investigated this aspect further) but they are all made out of silk produced by the caterpillars.

Now knowing that they are such good camouflagers, Ms. Jeannie made one last careful check of the pots to see if she could find any others. That’s when she found this last one…

If Ms. Jeannie was a caterpillar she would have picked this spot too – right underneath the flower petals. Clearly, this little one was all about having a lovely view! She gets an “A” in the camouflage department too…

They create cases that blend in to their surroundings so that hopefully they can go unnoticed by predators such as birds and lizards. It’s amazing to think that they will live in these cocoons for a couple of weeks when all that tethers them are those two thin strings. Hardly, it seems, they would be able to stand up to a wind storm or even a summer rain storm. Ms. Jeannie has even taken to watering her containers down at the base, just so her sprinkler wand won’t interfere! Of course they must be strong little threads, just like the webs of spiders, but still, Ms. Jeannie would hate to be the cause of their demise.

So the next step in the butterfly cycle, if all goes well, will be the emergence of each butterfly in the next 10 days or so. According to research, most butterflies like to emerge in the early morning to give their wings a chance to dry out in the weaker light of the morning sun before flying off. Ms. Jeannie would love to capture that moment on camera so she is crossing her fingers (yet again!) for that experience.

Stay tuned for Part Three of this mini-series!