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Posts tagged ‘nature’

Apr 20

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Happy Earth Day — Love Your Mother

This April 22nd, help celebrate and remember that Earth has always been, and will always be our Mother — and we’re all here together, sharing her valuable and limited resources. Visit the Earth Day Network to learn more of their goal “to broaden, diversify, and activate the environmental community and make Earth Day a powerful moment for all citizens of the world to drive the movement.” Love and protect your Mother, every day.

Photo by Cherrylynx, courtesy of the “Digital Earth” series via Art-Profiles.com

Earth Photo Manipulation by Cherrylynx

Apr 20

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Nabokov’s “Butterfly of Doom”: The Red Admiral

Or so it was named by the late 19th-century Russians — leave it to them to label a butterfly as such. It’s definitely the first time I’ve ever heard Butterfly and Doom used in the same phrase….

Zebra Longwing Butterfly (Heliconius charitonius)

On our hikes, we often stumble upon areas of flurried butterfly activity, due to Florida’s abundant all-year blooms. The most common encounter is the Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius), found throughout the hardwood hammocks, swamps, and Everglades — and designated the official state butterfly of Florida in 1996. I rely on our natural environs for butterfly shots, and we’ve spied some lovelies — swallowtails, sulphurs, whites, milkweeds, and longwings — but more often than not, they don’t want to pose for the camera. I find myself plowing through beastly (but harmless) banana spider webs, or carefully winding through swamp, to chase butterflies.

But I was lucky with this guy, so much so that I thought he was a moth — especially when I observed his antennae from afar. Obviously they’re long enough to be classified as a butterfly, because that’s what he is — specifically, a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). Found in North America, Asia, and Europe, territorial males can be found in the same location day-to-day — and as a testament, the images below were shot on separate days, in the same clump of foliage. Red Admirals are dark brown, with brick-red bars and white markings on the tips of the forewings. Although known to be quick fliers, they’re also considered a docile butterfly — a perfect companion for gardens, being very people-friendly, and known to perch on humans. It would explain my ideal photographing opportunity (read: no spiderweb activity)….

The Red Admiral is considered the favorite butterfly of author and amateur lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977); it’s mentioned throughout his writings, taking a prominent role in the 1962 novel Pale Fire. When scholar Alfred Appel, Jr., asked why he was so fond of Vanessa atalanta, Nabokov replied: “Its coloring is quite splendid and I liked it very much in my youth. Great numbers of them migrated from Africa to Northern Russia, where it was called ‘The Butterfly of Doom’ because it first appeared in 1881, the year Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, and the markings on the underside of its two hind wings seem to read ‘1881’. There is something interesting in the Red Admirable’s ability to travel so far” (Strong Opinions, p. 170).

According to Pale Fire‘s character — poet John Shade — the original Old English name for the butterfly was actually The Red Admirable, which was later degraded to The Red Admiral. In the novel, Vanessa atalanta appears as Shade’s heraldic butterfly, as seen in the verses:

Come and be worshiped, come and be caressed,
My dark Vanessa, crimson-barred, my blest
My Admirable butterfly… (lines 269–271, p. 42–43)

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), Posing in the Florida Wetlands — (DAY 1)

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), Posing in the Florida Wetlands — (DAY 2)

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), Posing in the Florida Wetlands — (DAY 3)

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Apr 17

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Red-winged Blackbirds… And Their Babies!

Another nearby nest, with hatchlings! Since Red-winged Blackbirds nest in loose colonies, there’s no dearth of nesting activity, if one’s looking closely enough in our dense marshes. This clutch consisted of three eggs — typical for the species. The eggs were incubated by the female alone, and hatched within 11 to 12 days. Red-winged Blackbirds are born blind and naked, but will be ready to leave the nest 11 to 14 days after hatching. Every time the wind rustled the leaves of this nest, the hatchlings were up and chirping for food….

Female Red-winged Blackbird Feeds the Hatchlings at Her Nest

Red-winged Blackbird Hatchlings Wait for Their Meal

Red-winged Blackbird Hatchlings Wait for Their Meal

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Apr 16

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Red-winged Blackbirds… And Their Nests

Red-winged Blackbirds are found in most of North and much of Central America, and are familiar sights in our wetlands. There have been claims that it is the most abundant, and most well studied bird in North America. The males, glossy black with scarlet-and-yellow shoulder patches, puff up or hide depending on their level of confidence. In our marshes, they’re quite brave (or protective, in defense-mode), doing as much as they can to get noticed, and belting out their conk-la-ree songs.

Male Red-winged Blackbird

Male Red-winged Blackbird Sings

The female is a subdued brown, with streaks of lighter colorations — and much shyer than her male counterpart. Her brownish coloring serves to camouflage her and the nest, while she’s incubating. Females stay low in the vegetation, searching for food (eating primarily seeds and insects), and weaving their amazing nests. Constructed entirely over the course of three to six days — with no help from the males — the nests are located in cattails, rushes, grasses, or in alder or willow bushes. Located near the water’s surface, the nest is a basket constructed of grasses, sedge, and mosses, lined with mud and bound to surrounding grasses or branches. I’ve watched for nearly an hour in awe, as a female patiently gathered her grasses — and even longer as another intricately wove her basket-nest. It’s beautifully mesmerizing (and believe me, I’m no birdwatching crackerjack!). Red-winged Blackbirds nest in loose colonies, and their predators include snakes, raccoons, and other birds, even the small marsh wrens — and in our area, iguanas. Males serve as sentinels to guard the nest, using various calls to denote the type and severity of danger.

Female Red-winged Blackbird Builds Her Nest

Female Red-winged Blackbird Builds Her Nest

Female Red-winged Blackbird in the Marsh Grasses

Red-winged Blackbird Nest Under Construction, Green Cay Wetlands, Florida

This clutch consists of three eggs — typical for the species (2 to 4). They’re oval and smooth, of a pale bluish coloring, and marked with brown and/or black markings. The eggs are incubated by the female alone, and will hatch within 11 to 12 days. Red-winged Blackbirds are born blind and naked, but are ready to leave the nest 11 to 14 days after hatching.

Red-winged Blackbird Nest with Eggs

More pictures of the most amazing and lovely Blackbirds:

Female Red-winged Blackbird in the Marsh Grasses

Female Red-winged Blackbird in the Marsh Grasses

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Apr 10

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A Waggin’ Warbler

In honor of a family member who adores the small and colorful songbirds — and who’s been feeling under the weather, contending with hospitals and doctors and procedures, oh my — today’s post is brought to you by the *Yellow* Palm Warbler. We caught this little guy hiding amidst a strand of young cypress trees, in some protected wetlands. Many people are in such a rush — they’re on the phone, or otherwise scaring the wildlife — when they visit our natural spaces (WHY?), and they miss the tiny bright gems right in front of them.

Palm Warblers are common winter residents in our marshy natural areas, migrating in the late fall to the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. The species is comprised of two distinct sub-species, the Yellow Palm Warbler and the Western Palm Warbler. Those breeding in the eastern range are entirely yellow underneath, while those inhabiting the western part of the range are duller in color, with whitish bellies. Palm Warblers primarily breed in bogs — east of the Continental Divide, across Canada and the northeastern United States. A distinctive feature of Palm Warblers is tail wagging, or “pumping.” More than other warblers, this bird forages on the ground for insects and berries.

I’ll miss these guys, these adorable little shocks of yellow in our cypress and marsh.

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