The Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count took place this weekend. On any given day we have six or more bluebirds in our backyard. Sometimes we're lucky enough to get a junko or two as well, and godfinches are not uncommon, either. Our front yard is a popular hangout for neighborhood sparrows, a variety of finch species, grackles, bluejays, and sometimes even a cardinal or two.

Here are our misleading counts for the weekend, though:

Extremely high winds plagued us for the first two days, and heavy snowfall for the second two. At least we had a good time looking for them.

Week-long painting project

We spent all of this past week eating either at our kitchen counter or on the coffee table in the sitting room. Our dining table, far from missing us, has been strewn with painting supplies and projects. We started the week-long process after Calvin expressed interest in the layered look of the art in his book Train Song, by Diane Siebert. All we had on hand to work with was the washable poster paint we've been playing with for years, so no oil paints for this one, but we got out our supplies and covered the table with the wipe-able heat-resistant cover I usually put under the table cloth when we have company. I was worried that our usual art paper wouldn't hold up to so many layers so I cut two sides off a cardboard shipping box, one for each of us, and we sat down to start.

Calvin loved being able to sit down and add something to his art whenever it suited him, and I loved that he spent a week in planning and creating towards one goal.

 We visited our paintings at least once each day the whole week long, even if sometimes just for a few minutes to fix little things. I expected them to be done by Saturday but we had a few finishing touches that we added just this morning, and now we are done. Calvin put more into his than I put into mine, and there were a couple of times that I probably should have let the dishes or the laundry go in order to join him in painting.

It's fun now to look and see bits of the whole week in our paintings, which started as night scenes when we were reading Susan Jeffers's illustrated version of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, were continued with foot prints after we hiked in the field with Crinkleroot, and gained some clouds, and even a little rain in Calvin's case, after yesterday's inclement weather. I enjoy the similarities between our images (both of us included owls like the ones in Jeffers's book) but love even more the differences (Calvin's is flying toward the viewer and is much closer, and he's got such a great house).

This morning, after adding some clouds, we both initialled our work to make it final. Tonight we will eat at our dining table again, but we'll do this again some time, probably sooner rather than later. I kind of liked eating picnic style in the sitting room with a fire lit anyhow.

I am linking this to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic. It's a couple of days late, but art just can't be rushed.

Hiking with Crinkleroot

The temperatures had been hovering in the low teens for what seemed like weeks. It kept our outings limited to visiting other indoor locations or exploring only as far as the yard (which has hosted the Himalayas for equally as long so it's been a good place to explore, especially for my little Panda). We've been playing a lot of games, reading a lot of books, dabbling in  art, flying around the house performing magic; Winter hibernation doesn't have to mean boring.

Now, though, the sun has been out for days, for longer than it seems we've seen it all winter in fact. The Himalayas are starting to look more like the rolling landscape of Vermont and my Panda is increasingly disappointed by his habitat loss. The best thing about this weather, aside from the warm sun flooding our front room every evening and Jon getting home before dark, is the hiking situation: with compacted snow covering what will soon be muddy fields there are animal tracks to be found everywhere, and it's warm enough to go looking for them. There's rain lurking around the corner and with rain the opportunity will be lost, so, with Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracking tightly in tow, we took to the fields adjacent to our neighborhood and discovered far more than just our own hearts thankful for signs of thaw.

We've been tracking before. Calvin's pretty familiar with the tracks of humans, dogs, and deer. He found lots of deer tracks today.

A deer path through the stream.

And a new treat, raccoon tracks.

And we listened for birds.

We found chickadees (and heard all three calls)

And a tufted titmouse.

When we go home he was eager for some hot tea and a chance to get it all down in his journal.

Now we're ready for the rain threatening the rest of the week, and maybe for a return of the rain boots.

I've linked up to Nature Connections, a link party for nature lovers. Come join the fun!

Empty chrysalis syndrome

This is copied from the journal:

Our black swallowtails finally emerged and left. Having read that they remained as chryslids for only 8-10 days we had come to believe that they were planning to winter over with us, since they had gone into that state while we were still up at Walloon, 14, 15, and 18 days ago. We were surprised and excited, then, to find one of hte shells empty on Sunday afternoon. Having missed the take off of Larry, our first caterpillar turned black swallowtail, we were determined to keep a closer eye on Curly Parsley and Moe so as not to miss the great show. to give them more room we had tied their smaller sticks to longer ones and propped them in an open (never used) bird feeder on our deck table.

This morning we were finally rewarded. Right after eclosing the butterfly has a body distended with fluid and wings folded tightly against the body. They then pump the fluid out of their abdomen and into the veins of their wings to spread them open. These two eclosed probably 4-5 minutes apart, although we missed Moe (on the right) emerging. This picture was taken at 8:48am.

Just four minutes later at 8:52 Curley Parsley (on the left) has significantly altered his appearance. The chrysalis is still there on the stick. Notice that it is no longer dark in color now that the black butterfly is out.

A closer look at Moe so you can see the veins running through her wings. Curly Parsley and Moe were both females, a specific that can be determined by the spot formation on their wings—big yellow spots on the male, smaller yellow spots on the female.

Here is Moe stretching out her proboscis, making sure she's ready to get nectar from the plants she finds.

Stretching and sunning. This was right before Moe took off. Curly Parsley (on the right here) wasn't that far behind time wise, but she stuck around for another 30 minutes.

This is pobably best chance we've ever had, and probably will ever have, to take such a close look at a butterfly.

And just two final shots of Curly Parsley before she took off to look for nectar plants and a mate. Good luck Curly.

Awesome.

Rearing Black Swallowtails

This is a repost from the journal:

Two weeks or so ago I clipped parsley from the overgrown plants on our deck and stuck the bouquet in a glass of water, hoping to find use for it over time (the parsley has been very happy this year for sure). Then, on Monday of this week, I decided that we'd gotten as much use out of it as we were going to and went to throw out the remaining stalks. Imagine my surprise at finding a very fat bright green and yellow caterpillar perched right on top of my parsley in my cup in my kitchen. He must have come in on the large bunch nearly two weeks ago and has been munching away ever since (I must say, the bunch did seem significantly smaller, but I hadn't paid much attention).

At his current size and appetite we decided that replacing him on the already pared plants outside would be the end of our parsley crop for the year, and in fact a quick check of the outdoor plants revealed his two brothers or sisters on the now much-munched outdoor plants. Not willing to give up my plants or the learning opportunity waiting to be grasped, we brought all three little buggers inside and made them happy with clipped parsley (organic from the store) and sticks inside large wide mouth Ball canning jars. They could have picked better timing, though—looks like they will have to go on vacation with us next week.

Shall we name them Larry, Curly Parsley, and Moe?

The orange horns are a stinky warning to those who might bug him, but we bugged him anyway and brought him inside. The other two were far more mellow about using the horns, but this guy was feisty.

Here are two of the cats, each in a different phase; the one on the left is much bigger and greener and is in the final caterpillar stage while the one on the right will molt one more time.

Fascinating.

We'll keep you posted on their progress.