Things that fly….

caterpillars

Great Blue Heron

I posted this in my “Project 365” page as my photo of the day.  He did not appreciate the paparazzi!

Here’s the rest of the story.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

I didn’t scare him away for long. He came back the next day.  And the next, and the next.  Fishing is good on our canal!

I was trying to get a good photo of this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail as it flitted from blossom to blossom.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Then came across this one that was happily posing for me.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

I know that this is a “skipper”.  I did some research in my Audubon book and on the Internet and I think it’s a Long-Tailed Skipper.  There are a bunch of them on this bush right now.  Must be a good time for them!

Long-tailed skipper

Long-tailed skipper

Long-tailed skipper

My Audubon book calls this a Palamedes Swallowtail. Although I think I’ve seen it referred to as a Eastern Black Swallowtail.

Palamedes Swallowtail

Palamedes Swallowtail

And then I found three caterpillars on the milkweed.  I’ve always assumed that they are Monarch caterpillars. But this year I discovered that the Queen butterfly’s caterpillar also uses the milkweed for it’s host plant and we had a few of them this year. So I did a little research.  According to the Texas Butterfly Website, the Queen caterpillar has one “set of antennae and two sets of filaments, while Monarchs have one set of antennae and one set of filaments.”  These guys definitely have three protuberances.  Queen?

caterpillars

caterpillar

I never find the chrysalis.  But I do know the difference as butterflies. Hopefully I’ll be there to get some snaps!

Manatees in the Canal

Manatees in the canal

We’ve seen manatees many times in the canal behind our house. I often spot the “manatee footprint” which looks like a giant figure eight on the top of the water.  Usually it’s not a “kodak moment”–the water is too dark and when the manatees surface it’s either just a snout or the back which just looks like a big gray rock.

But this time, it was high tide and a mama manatee and her calf were feeding on vegetation that had grown over the banks and seawalls on the canal. I was able to go out on the kayak ramp and have an up close and personal experience with the two.

Mama Manatee

The manatees usually have scars on their backs from boat propellers but I thought this was an odd mark since it was on her head.
The manatees usually have scars on their backs from boat propellers but I thought this was an odd mark since it was on her head.

Manatees in the canal

Manatees in the canal

Manatee Calf
Then her calf came up to me to say hi and it had the same markings. Numbers? Tribal tattoos?
Manatees in the canal
I know that FWC microchips them when possible. I didn’t know about this type of ID. Or maybe I’m just imagining it.  Anybody know?

It was a thrill to have them this close and being able to get some good photos of them!  They weren’t afraid of me and only left when they moved on for more food.

Friday Meanderings

flood debris

flood debris

That’s the debris in front of the house three doors down from us.

And that’s what is in front of every house that is sea level on both sides of the river. And most of the entire Nature Coast.

I was at a “happy hour” last week which was more like a “get together and commiserate hour” and one of the women said, and I paraphrase, ” it could have been worse.  it’s a car.  i’m alive.”  and then she said ” but i might have lost my roses.”

My house is 8 feet above sea level.  We had minor minor minor damage.

But I did lose my purple coneflowers and blue salvias.  They don’t like to be immersed in brackish water for 12 hours.

My roses are fine.

A lot of people have “storm flu” around here.  Probably partly from exhaustion, having storm water touch bare skin, taking cold showers, total stress of losing more than you thought you would.

Just want to make one more statement before I finally get beyond this whole hurricane storm flooding total life changing fiasco.

Like I said, we lost very little.  But those that lost a lot keep hearing, “Why didn’t you prepare? Why weren’t you ready?  You live on the water.  Didn’t you know better?”

No.  We didn’t.  We watched the weather forecast that this storm was approaching for TWO WEEKS!  The day of, we got a reverse 911 call from the Sheriff’s department in the early afternoon that there would be NO mandatory evacuation.  If we were worried about flooding, that the local storm shelter was open.

Then around 8 pm, we got another reverse 911 call saying “Whoops, looks like we got a storm surge coming.  Possibly 8 feet! Sorry.  Hope you’ll be okay!”  No, that’s not verbatim, either. Totally made that up.  But that was the message.

Okay.  Like I said, last post about the storm.

Moving on…..

Terry and I have been to many meetings this week.  Getting ready for the Festival.  Monthly meetings of the groups that we are in.

But we also had a talk from the Citrus County Mosquito Board.

We mainly went because friends of ours asked us to set up the meeting at the Civic Club.  So we had to open up the building anyhow!  But it was amazingly informative!

Mosquito Control Board

Can I bore you with some facts?

There are 84 different mosquito types in Florida.  47 in Citrus County.

Zika has already been here–travel related. But, if that travel related victim is bit by a mosquito, it travels all over the place.  When they have a report of Zika, they do not know the exact location because of privacy issues.  But they do know the cross roads.

So they fog one mile around that location.

For three days. And go door to door.

There was so much interesting info.  You would not believe.  Like, all the bromeliads I have are just mosquito breeding chambers.  I have to flush them out every three days with water.

I need to put mosquito dunk thingees (yes, totally technical term) in my four rain barrels. Even though they have lids, if we don’t put silicone around the pipes and net across the top, it’s a mosquito breeding ground!

And I must scrub out my bird baths every three days.  (Okay, I already knew that and have been trying to keep on that schedule)

So….

What’s going on?

There’s a scallop festival this weekend.

Next week is the “Party with a Purpose”.  (Instead of the Homosassa River Raft Race–still don’t know why?)

But Terry and I will be at the Old Homosassa Heritage Council Booth with raffle tickets for a Golf Cart and we will have some really great t-shirts.  All money goes to painting the Old Homosassa Water Tower.

Scheesh. Everyone wants to get beyond that whole Water Tower thing. It’s been rebuilt. We need to get this thing painted so I can quit talking about that project and start on a bigger and better one.  Yeah, we have other things to save!

Okay.  That’s it for this week.

Have a great weekend!

Kathy