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Cool Cats
“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.” Bradley Millar Caterpillars are cool. I have been fascinated by these diverse and sometimes outlandish creatures for decades and have found them to be one of the best gateways for introducing people to the Read more
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Hummingbird Habits
The past few weeks have been amazing in the garden – a daily display of aerial acrobatics from the remaining group of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. There are four birds feeding on various wildflowers and the three feeders I have out in the garden. Every time I am out there I see and hear the squabbles as Read more
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The Encounter
“The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” Hippocrates I take a break from the caterpillar posts to share a truly incredible moment with you. A friend and I traveled east over the weekend to search for caterpillars for the upcoming museum event I have mentioned in Read more
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So Many Green Things, So Little Time…
There has been a spate of caterpillar sightings the past few days, especially of the big green kind. I know this is just to get me overly hopeful that some of them may actually still be around for use at the caterpillar tent this coming Saturday at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences big special Read more
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My, What a Big Rostrum You Have…
Okay, maybe not the best pick-up line, but if the nose fits…This is another strange insect I found this week, a Scorpionfly, (Panorpa sp.). One morning I found two females out back in a small patch of ferns and False Nettles. They were perched atop some leaves and, in what is typical behavior, would allow Read more
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Can’t Touch This!
Well, it isn’t really a good idea to touch this, even though I have a few times. This is one of my favorite caterpillars, the Saddleback. It is the larva of an inconspicuous brown moth, Acharia stimulea. The larva is named for the saddle-like pattern (green around the middle “saddle blanket”, with a brown oval Read more
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They Grow Up So Fast…
It seems like just yesterday they were just a gleam in their parents multifaceted eyes, and then, before you know it, they are off to pupation college. I reported on some egg-laying of butterflies and moths in recent posts and decided yesterday to go out and look for the young ones out in the garden. Read more
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Power Line Patterns
The past few mornings I walked down the power line looking for potential subjects to photograph or something to learn more about. I’m always curious about plants I haven’t seen before or some interesting behavior of an animal. But often it is the simple beauty of something that catches my eye. The low angle light Read more
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Chrysalis Camouflage
I blogged last week about the Cloudless Sulphur butterflies I have been seeing down east and in my Piedmont garden lately. I included the photo above of a fresh chrysalis. I have only seen one other chrysalis of this species and it was much more colorful, but the field guides said their color can be Read more
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Little Spike
On a short hike through the neighborhood a week ago, I saw a Snowberry Clearwing moth (I posted a blog on these day-flying moths on July 29) hovering near the ground and briefly touching leaves of various plants. This is classic behavior for female moths and butterflies searching for their host plant in order to Read more
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Roads End Naturalist 