Green chair frog

Have you ever heard of a dog who doesn't like to eat?

Jasmine has to be forced to eat, most days. Otherwise she'll sit and guard her food all day, protecting it from everything except ants. Then she won't want to eat it later either, because the ants bite her nose.

So now we have a game, in which she has to eat her food before a mean old stick gets it. One of us mans the stick, which constantly tries to sneak up and grab her food when she stops eating. She gets annoyed, snaps at the stick, and eats a little more.

Sometimes this game takes a while to finish, so I pull out a chair.

Guess what greeted me the last time I did that?


A green chair tree frog (Hyla cinerea).

I just love how he aligned himself with the green stripe, for camouflage!


His profile.

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For your weekly critter fix, visit the Friday Ark.

Mom's swale

Do you know what a swale is?

If not, look at these pictures. Many nice swales illustrated there.

But if you aren't familiar with swales, you really shouldn't pretend that you are.

What a revelation, when I first realized that people can spout a total line of bull while sounding convincingly authoritative! I had blithely assumed that all the assertive people I encountered were, if not always tactful, at least sincere.

I'd finally reached a point in my college career - after changing majors, dropping out, getting married, starting back to school, changing schools, getting divorced, and changing schools again - where I knew a few things. Not a lot. But a few things.

An older student was was speaking aloud in class, when it suddenly dawned on me that I knew more than he did about the subject at hand. He was wrong. But he sure sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

The proverbial scales fell from my eyes. People who speak in a confident tone don't always know what they're talking about!

Mom's yard has always had drainage issues. Over the years, various fixes have resulted in only partial relief.

In years past, Mom would probably have built her own swale. You may remember how resourceful and independent she is. But she's had some health problems lately, so Mom asked her yard man if he could build her a swale.

"Yep sure no problem," the yard man assured her.


I think he's got his swales mixed up with his trenches.

But he sure sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Softies

Cute Niece #1 has realized that her Nana can't say "no". My Mom excels at anything involving a needle and thread. So even though she'd never sewn things from kids' drawings, Cute Niece didn't see any reason why she shouldn't try. So she did.


"It's a softie!" I told them. I explained about the Month of Softies group craft project I'd read about on the blog Small Hands.


I just love the lopsided ears. "He's not supposed to have a tail," Cute Niece informed me.

Myself, I follow a predictable pattern when it comes to sewing projects:
1) I get excited about an idea for something.
2) I read several books about it.
3) I buy more supplies than I will ever need or use.
4) I take an overly long time making just one.
5) I never make it again.

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Edited to add:
My sister called.
"I can't believe you forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"That your Cute Niece actually designed a three-legged dog. Named Tripod. You didn't mention that part. But you can see it in the picture if you know what you're looking for."
"Whoops."

Hummers R Us

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are on the move again!

Except for the occasional western stray, this is the only hummingbird in Alabama.

A male flashes his ruby throat.

The females seem more demure.

A friend's mother-in-law believed that hummingbirds would sting you, and could not be convinced otherwise.

Pugnacious.

Soggy bottoms

We came through Hurricane Dennis just fine. In addition to weakening considerably, the storm took a more westerly route than expected. Our area was spared all but some heavy rain and gusty winds.

The rain gauge in our yard got knocked over - I believe there was a dog involved. But I don't believe totals reached those of the storm in the spring.

By comparison, Hurricane Ivan last year dropped about 7 inches (18 cm) of rain!

Just before the rain began yesterday, my husband came back from a walk and told me that the Bottlebrush Buckeye was blooming. Since it looked like the bottom was about to fall out, we drove there in the truck to snap a few pictures.


The creek was already muddy from the rain we'd gotten the night before.


Bottlebrush buckeye close-up (Aesculus parviflora).

On the way back, we spotted a couple of small Sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum). There aren't many in the immediate area.


If you've ever bought Gumbo Filé (Filé powder), that's all it is: powdered dried Sassafras leaves.

I also found some Skullcap (Scutellaria sp.).


I need to go back and examine it more closely - I didn't realize there were so many species until I tried to look this one up.

Calm before the storm

Hurricane Dennis is on the way.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Farm report

About a year ago, a friend gave us one male and two female muscovy ducks. One of the females went missing the weekend I was away at the soap gathering.

Recently the other female made a nest in the yard, in a spot where five tree trunks meet.



She tries to stay hidden, but on one side she's fairly exposed.



Yep that's poison ivy.



A glimpse of the eggs. She laid seven of them and then started sitting.

I've been hoping that
1) no coyote or other critter will eat her,
2) the eggs will successfully hatch,
3) at least a few of the eggs will be pure muscovies instead of muscovy-runner hybrids,
4) at least a couple of the pure muscovies will be females.

That's a lot to hope for. But the friend who gave us the ducks has only males left (a predator got the others), and would like some females back, if we can produce any.

So imagine my disappointment yesterday when I found that something had eaten half the eggs.

Guess who was caught red-handed.



Bad dog! Very very very bad dog!

On today's to-do list: fencing.

Frustrating bird photography

Ever since we named our place "Kingfisher Farm" after one of the first birds we saw here, I've been trying to get a picture of its namesake.

They are wary birds. I haven't been able to get near. So a few days ago when one was perched nearby I grabbed the camera. The only shot I had was through a screened window.



Then he ended up looking like some sort of demon bird anyway.

He swooped down to grab some spilled dog food off the workshop porch! Can't say that I've ever seen Kingfishers do that before. Then, frustratingly, he never came back within camera range.

This morning just as my husband was about to leave for work, we noticed something skulking near the pond. From the size and color I thought it might be a Little Blue Heron, but something wasn't right.

I grabbed the binoculars, and wow! A juvenile White Ibis! Talk about your cool yard birds. Quick, the camera!



Ugh. Much too far away. Oh wait, maybe we should try digiscoping! But hubby had to leave or he was going to be late. When he took off the Ibis did too.

I set up the scope anyway, and hoped he'd come back.

He did!



Ta-da! Not perfect, but a lot better than the camera alone. I had to take about 45 shots to get one that was half-way decent. (There is no way to attach this camera to the scope lens.)

A green heron showed up so I tried photographing him too, but he didn't stay put very long.



Still needs work.

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White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon)

Much better picures than mine:
Juvenile White Ibis
Adult White Ibis
Ibis overhead (wow)

Link to site with other great bird pics and digiscoping articles.

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Edited to add: Make sure to read the comments for an interesting discussion on the physics of black vs. white feathers!

White cats

You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to identify a plain white fuzzy caterpillar.



But it is.



I believe it is the white form of Spilosoma virginica - the Virginian Tiger Moth, a.k.a. Yellow Woolybear.

On the BugGuide web site, there are just a few references to the white form. The other forms look so different!

The adult moth is fairly attractive, as moths go.

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES!) offers Identifying Caterpillars in Field, Forage, and Horticultural Crops.

There is an extensive key that goes along with the publication, but having neglected to count the caterpillar's legs, I was lost.

At first glance I thought this might be one of the many stinging caterpillars present in Alabama, which is part of the reason I wasn't too keen on leg-counting.

But after looking through the pictures, I don't think so. (That page would be so much better with thumbnails.)

I have a strong "better safe than sorry" policy when it comes to things that sting or bite. I guess I should have tried to get the caterpillar to climb onto a stick for further ID purposes, but there was Jasmine to consider. She tends to have a strong "stick your nose right on it" policy.

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Edited to add:
More info on stinging caterpillars is here and here. For specifics in your area, try googling the name of your state or province along with the words "stinging caterpillars".

Night crawling

"Hey there's a cool frog, come and get a picture!"



Actually it turned out to be a toad, Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri).



More info is here.

Until I got inside and looked it up, I thought it was an American Toad. But they've only got one or two warts per dark spot, and this guy had up to five. I only got one shot of his back, and it wasn't a great one, but works for ID purposes.



After deciding he was a Fowler's Toad, I listened to a sound recording.

And realized that there must have been another one nearby - we'd heard him calling while photographing this one. Their sound has been described as a bleating sheep with a cold. (I'll bet it sounds lovely to other Fowler's Toads though.)

In other nighttime activities of the week, we saw Barn Owls in Cullman, at my in-laws'. I was surprised that they'd hang around in residential neighborhood for so long, but evidently they've been there a while.

I tried to get a picture, but my camera doesn't really "do" full dark, even with a flashlight assist.



See the owls? No? Me neither.

I did get a sound recording. Despite being able to glide and even flap their wings in total silence (the better to sneak up on mice), they were a pretty mouthy bunch. Their hissing and screeching was almost otherworldly. If you heard it coming from behind you in a barn at night, you'd have no trouble believing a ghost was hard on your tail.

If I can figure out how to post it here, I will.

Holiday cats

I think the cats' names are finally settled.

Turns out that at least two of the three "girls" are more likely boys.

Here's a sleepy roaring George:



And here are Ginger (L) and Dusty:



Because he's so curious.

Because of his color.

Because she acted like a little dustmop, hiding behind the fridge.

I'm trying out Blogger's new "add image" feature to upload the pictures. So if they look different, that's why.

Wayne's world

The other day Wayne at Niches caught a cicada emerging and photographed it.

We used to find the shells (exoskeletons) everywhere as kids, but I hadn't found many lately. So after saying that publicly, of course I immediately started finding them everywhere.

I had told Wayne that we used to wear them around like brooches when we were little. I made my husband demonstrate:



Wayne is about four hours east of us, but at almost the same latitude, so why are his Bottlebrush Buckeyes (Aesculus parviflora) blooming so much earlier than ours? Blog-scooper!


Not yet blooming.

Weekend food blogging again

Grilled salmon, mmmm!

Marinate some salmon filets or steaks in olive oil, a little lemon juice, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and parsley. I was out of fresh garlic so I just used the powder.

The original recipe called for twice as much thyme as rosemary and parsley, but I tend to use equal amounts.

Marinate for about 30 minutes, then grill or bake. (It's much better grilled over charcoal for a smoky taste.) We always leave the skin on while cooking, but usually don't eat it.

I had just bought a 4-rice blend at Publix (white, brown, red, wild). It's fantastic, with a wonderful flavor and texture.



A little salad (with Vidalia onions on top for me) completed the meal. Looking back, a white wine would have been a good idea too. But we live in a dry county, so it's not the kind of thing you can just pop down to the corner to get. Not that there's a store at the corner anyway.

Frogz

Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)

Hiding in the grass of a sunny bank, just as the field guide specified. The guide also says that this species is hunted for frog legs - but those would be some mighty small portions. I believe that bullfrogs would be the more commonly eaten species.


Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea)

Climbing up the back shop wall at night. I wanted to verify for myself that they walked rather than hopped. This one wasn't budging though, except to make himself into as small a lump as possible.

Don't forget to go look at the Friday Ark!