CassieBash's Critters Fall 2016

A continuation of CassieBash's Critters Summer 2016, what else? I know that half of September is still technically summer by the equinox/solstice count, but all those pics from summer were bogging my thread down, particularly on my phone. So I'll finish all of August up on the summer thread, and have this ready to go for September. So stayed tuned, and in the meantime, continue to enjoy my summer thread!

I'll be putting up pictures later today; stay tuned!

A few pics of my garden, which is looking like organized chaos or a mini jungle, since we've had on-again, off-again rain. Unfortunately, the on-again, off-again rain has been just "on" enough to give a big boost to the mosquito population, which is back up to the numbers we had last year, when I couldn't stand to work in the garden.

First, the milkweed tire has little in it other than standard, common milkweed and swamp milkweed--but the swampies are doing pretty well and holding their own with the common milkweed.



I like this picture; sort of like I was hiding to take it. To help you orient, I'm standing just behind the plum tree, looking out towards the coneflower part of the garden. The tire with the milkweed is just out of sight on the left; the Jerusalem artichoke behind and beside me in the same direction, the downy sunflowers are right behind me.



The Jerusalem artichokes, including the monstrous 6+ foot tall one in the back:



The downy sunflowers:



Last weekend's garden project was transplanting whorled milkweed plants to replace those crowded out by black eyed Susans and coneflowers. I've transplanted about 20 or so, spread about on the edges of areas where I've already got things planted. These are at the base of the plum, which we're pruning to keep all branches up high and in an umbrella shape now. This should let in some light underneath it.



As you can see by the fencing (to help keep raccoons and the dog from cutting through the garden), I've put these at the edge. I've gone along the edge of the garden where I put the zinnias and let some small volunteer sunflowers come up--basically annuals--so there shouldn't be too much competition from them.



An orb weaver right outside and to the left of our door--I practically ran into it on my way out the door one morning to go to work. It was overcast and a bit foggy that morning, so this was the best shot of it I could get. It's got a little dinner with it, too.



Like a mini airplane, this plume moth that had been sitting on our house siding let me just pick it up and it sat for a few moments on my fingertip.

Today's post is an eclectic collection of nature pictures, because what else do I post, really?

Every gardener loves praying mantises, right? This is mantis one, who has recently gained weight. This was her "pre-expecting" picture.



This is the second one hanging out in our spirea bushes along the house. This one was a bit more relaxed and let me hold it.







Caterpillars galore! Starting with the most puzzling find, if my identification is correct. This may be a sycamore tussock moth. I don't disagree with the tussock moth thing, but I don't know of a nearby sycamore that he'd have come from. At first I thought he was another banded tussock moth, but their heads are black and his is definitely red. This matches a sycamore tussock, but finding him under a hackberry elm doesn't seem right. Other than sycamore trees, the only other host plant I can find for them is plane trees, and the hackberry is definitely not a plane tree.



Gonna try my hand at Juvenal's skippers again--two hatched early, early spring but didn't come out well. I'm thinking this year, especially if it's getting really cold, I need to mist them. Sometimes low humidity can hinder emergence.



White lined sphinxes are all making cocoons, with one that just had. This was taken two days ago; by last night, the pupa had hardened and darkened into the familiar brown color.



Tadpoles! These are green frog tadpoles most likely; they take two years to mature, and I'm pretty sure these are both 1st year taddies. Careful viewers should be able to spot two, though they're well disguised as part of the bog mud.



Colorful fungus is everywhere right now! These two are the prettiest of the lot. Don't know what type they are, but they certainly put the "fun" in "fungus"!







Finally, a sign that the turkeys have been hanging out in our north yard.

>4 CassieBash: sycamore tussock moth
Huh, does look like the one I found, which was when a bird dropped it under my Japanese maple. But I have lotsa nearby sycamores.

>5 qebo: Sycamores don't tend to be common in our area, which is the head scratcher. But on the other hand, he successfully pupated, so perhaps he really didn't need the food by the time I found him.

Speaking of pupation, 3 of the 4 white lined sphinx moth cats I ended up with successfully made their cocoons. I was having empty tank syndrome until I found a lone Carolina sphinx moth (aka the tobacco hornworm, scourge of tomato-lovers everywhere). Instead of finding him on the tomatoes, however, I found him on their relative--another nightshade--known as Jimsoneed. Anyone who's ever had this pestiferous plant get a toehold anywhere knows how difficult it is to remove. Upon further inspection of the Jimsonweed "grove" in our horse paddock, I found several plants with signs that they'd been hosts to these hornworms. While I only have the one caterpillar, it's clear that I need to keep an eye out on these as we uproot them. They eat leaves, blooms, even the ends of the stems, and maybe even young seed pods (prickly things those are--I hope they chew carefully!--on the other hand, they eat horse nettle, thorns and all).

Others in cocoons and chrysalises include all of my remaining black swallowtails, several spicebush swallowtails, one of my five tiger swallowtails, at least one question mark butterfly, both unexpected Cycnias, two of my five monarchs, a few tussock moths, including the sycamore one, a few sooty skippers, and a few miscellaneous cocoons I've collected here and there. I did have a mystery moth hatch...got some pics of him and others to post later. This being the day after a holiday, it might be a bit hectic, so we'll see if posting is today or tomorrow.

>6 CassieBash: successfully pupated
Ah, maybe it was unusually adventurous and far from home.

We spent much of the weekend cleaning our big fish pond; our waterfall has run slower and weaker for some time now, and we're afraid it's not going to be strong enough to run all winter and keep the current flowing and letting oxygen in. So we bought a pond vac and have begun an extensive cleansing. We have several buckets-full of gravel, and a bucket of water and duckweed, which tends to get in the way of the vacuum. We can't lose too much duckweed--our tadpoles eat that stuff! We were too busy working for the most part--we've worked on it pretty much all weekend for two weekends straight, and still need to do more--that I didn't snap too many pics, but I did get a couple.

This is the dreaded backswimmer, a true bug with an incredibly nasty bite. It eats other bugs and even, sadly, tadpoles.



This big "bully" is one of two bullfrogs that I managed to capture and relocate about a half to three quarters of a mile away in a naturalized farmer's field ditch. Hopefully, they'll stay there. To get back to us, they'd have to travel through a decent chunk of woods and cross a road--not impossible but with luck they won't try it.



Of course, I had some hatchings, including the above-mentioned mystery moth. I hatched one of these earlier this year, I'm sure of it. I really need to see if I can track this guy down, because he's obviously a common enough species here. I love his little tufty horns--makes me think of an owl!





Three question mark butterflies hatched over the weekend; here's a pic of the two from yesterday.



A leaf hopper regarding me with curiosity as I fished him out of one of the nursery containers.



Not all frogs hang out in our ponds. This one lives in the yew bushes along the side of the garage, where the nearest water source would be the horses' water tank. Wood frogs like moist environments but don't seem to be necessarily drawn to ponds, streams, etc., at least as adults. I was getting ready to fill the horse tank when he hopped along in front of me; good thing for him I'm careful about watching my feet, as I almost stepped on him.





Finally, the Lady Peppa, sitting atop her "squishing post". "Squishing" involves a lot of rubs and pets, usually two-handed, with some hugs or a kiss thrown in. She will sometimes precede me up the stairs so that she can jump up and be on top of the post by the time I get to the top myself. This invariably means that, unless my hands are full of something I can't easily put down and pick up again, that I have to squish her. Routine "squishes" are morning squish, dinner squish (done right before humans eat, not the cat), and bedtime squish. Any human can call a squish any time they like, though, and she usually responds if she's anywhere close.

More pics!

We have what must be the greenest green frog around. I've called this one "Emerald" and (s)he has the telltale ridges along either side of its back, so (s)he's not a bullfrog. For which I'm glad, because I hope to see him/her for several years yet. I do so love green.



Speaking of green, my newest sphinx, a tobacco hornworm (or Carolina sphinx moth) is a lovely sea-foam green. This is the one mentioned in >6 CassieBash: found living off the Jimsonweed...



...which is apparently high in fiber. I only have the one, and I clean the cage nightly; that's a lot of frass for 24 hours, even from a caterpillar that big. But he's also growing quickly, so Jimsonweed must also be pretty nutritious...if you're a Carolina sphinx moth caterpillar, anyway. I don't think I'll be trying it. It stinks to high heaven when I harvest it for him.



A very healthy and active--too active to get a picture of it--monarch butterfly hatched yesterday. This is a shot of its empty chrysalis case, plus its fellow chrysalis and one soon-to-be chrysalis. I have two more big monarch caterpillars and two smaller ones yet; I just found a couple more two days ago.

>9 CassieBash: Jimsonweed
Sometimes I want your caterpillar host plants, but this time I think I'll pass.

>10 qebo: The Jimsonweed is a pain, and we're trying to get rid of it, but there's plenty of it, and my usual alternate food is the far more dangerous horse nettle, which for us tends not to be as invasive and also has thorns all over its leaves and stems, right down to the ground. (To uproot them, it's safest to dig around the base first so that you've exposed the top of the root, and grasp it there before pulling.) We had a few of them (the Jimsonweed) appear a couple of years ago and they got a toehold and since then they literally have become groves. The horse nettle has actually decreased in population out in the pasture; I think the horses trample it down. Plus, apparently the fruit, which look like little green tomatoes, are a favorite food for wildlife, including turkeys. Maybe our feathered friends have been helping keep their spread in check. Except for the hornworms and maybe the June beetles, I've yet to see anything eating the leaves of Jimsonweed. However, I've seen lots of stripped branches where hornworms have been, so we're getting a little help from them. I feed the outside bits to the caterpillars, using my pruners to cut them off, so that I can get to the trunks of some of the larger specimens (Jimsonweed grows in an umbrella-type shape, so their prickly seed pods keep you at arm's length). For the size of the plant, which can be impressive, they're fairly easy to uproot, though they send out tendrils everywhere so I'm sure more will pop up from roots next year. For Harry Potter fans, note that Jimsonweed is also known as Devil's Snare (I'm guessing from the way the spiny seed pods "snare" you), so now when you re-read the book, you can picture it a little clearer. Though it's a night bloomer, it does seem to like the sun--at least ours is growing in full sun. While Wikipedia here mentions the smell, I don't notice it until the plant is damaged.

>3 CassieBash: what a nifty-looking moth!

Wow, do I need to play catch-up with some photos! I'll try to get some posted later today.

What few monarchs I have all are in chrysalis form. I've hatched a few, but I've also lost a few to parasites. Since I never reached even 30 monarchs, this is sad, even if it's to be expected. I hope the species didn't take too big a hit this year.

Most everyone else has also pupated. All my fuzzies--the tussock moths--are safely in their furry tents, the spicebush swallowtails, with a few stragglers as exceptions, have all made chrysalises just about anywhere they could find space. The only caterpillars I have, aside from the late bloomer swallowtails, are a couple of buckeye caterpillars and a handful of Juvenal skippers. As I recall, they were late to pupate last year, too. Of the four horn worms that I'd gathered from the Jimsonweed, only one--the biggest of the lot--didn't turn out to have parasites.

OK, I have more pictures than these, which go back a week or so, but I'll start here.

One of the successfully hatched monarchs, with a monarch caterpillar:



I'd nearly forgotten about the latest mystery moth to hatch. Don't know what it is, haven't found it yet--but it's got about the hairiest legs I've ever seen on a moth!







And finally, a true garden picture. This is right outside our main door off the unenclosed porch. Rose of Sharon provide the floral backdrop of white and pinkish-red in the back layer, while potted zinnias stand sentinel just in front of them. I believe the vine on the right is vinca; I know I should know what those red-leafed plants are but can't think of them right now, so I trust the gardeners out there will fill in the blank. In the very front, the orange flowers are marigolds. We were hoping for more marigolds, as this year's Halloween party is actually themed for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and marigolds (and monarchs!) are important symbols. Unfortunately, the well issue that coincided with our mini drought kept us from being able to keep a lot of annuals alive.

Very pretty! The red leaf plants look like coleus.

>14 CassieBash: I didn't know that there were vine varieties of Vinca.

>15 tardis: Coleus--yes, that's it. I knew one of you would jog my memory. My younger sister planted the pots and she's a coleus fan. If you look hard enough, you can see behind the coleus on the right another pot filled with possibly more coleus (would you believe I can't remember? and you can't really see the leaf shape from here) and sticking up, those tiny sticks of color are ornamental chili peppers. Again, for Dia de los Muertos....

>16 fuzzi: Not entirely sure it's vinca; it may be something else. But mom has a couple of varieties; I'm pretty sure this is one of them and a Google search revealed more varieties than I'd realized. I'd thought the two types we have, one with variegated leaves and one without, were pretty much it, but apparently they come in multiple bloom colors, too, from a hot pink-red to a white. I've only ever seen the purple. Now I'm torn between informing mom about vinca varieties, because she'll want to collect them all!

In fact, we went to Ginger Valley, a garden store/greenhouse in Granger, Indiana, for pond stuff--and apparently hostas. Mom has been on a hosta kick for a couple of years, collecting as many different varieties as she can. We have a lot of shade and partial shade areas in the yard, so hosta isn't a bad choice. I think perhaps I'll let her get her fill of hostas before mentioning the vinca!

>17 CassieBash: - is it maybe vitis (grape) rather than vinca?

>18 tardis: No, I'm pretty sure it's variegated vinca. For one thing, it has the right type of flowers when it blooms. And unless our dogs ate them (which would be bad for them), they don't bear grapes.

As for the aforementioned Ginger Valley trip, they had a nice tropical pitcher plant for sale.

Oh, have I fallen behind on posting pictures! On the other hand, I haven't taken very many recently, so probably not too hard to catch up. Winter is a'comin' to our area, as the die-back of plants testifies (along with lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s). Pretty much everything but the asters, morning glories (pictures below) and the zinnias are done blooming in my garden. The milkweed are developing their pods and the black-eyed Susans have all turned brown. Time to start clearing out the debris, picking up the garden statuary, and calling it quits for the year.

But here are some pictures from the past month's garden blooms.

Morning glorious:















The native Short's aster, which the bees adore:





And finally, the Jerusalem artichoke, from a week or two ago. They've really died back, bloom-wise:

I still have some caterpillar/butterfly pics to upload and post, but I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the tree frog that spent all day yesterday (according to Mom, who says he'd been sitting there since that morning) sitting perched on the water faucet spigot at the back of the house. Fortunately for him, I tend to look for things on the spigot before reaching for it, so he was in no danger of being squashed. Too many "killer" jumping spiders hang out around there to not look!

I think he was asleep; note the very thin slits for pupils while he was sitting on the spigot. His eye in this pic looks very much like a cross.



Harder to see the cross shape, but still possible since you know what to look for:



Then I picked him up. Notice how much bigger the horizontal pupil is.





It was cool and rainy yesterday afternoon when I took these, and I think he appreciated the heat from my warm-blooded hands. He was very calm and obliging as I held him, and I returned him to his perch after the photo op. Again, you can see the difference in the pupils really well when you compare the first picture with the last. After a few moments, he simply turned himself around, resumed his original position, and his eyes had gone back to the way they'd been before I'd disturbed him within about 15 minutes. He was definitely not bothered by my handling him--maybe it was like a dream to him, being on a soft warm place for a few moments.



I just love frogs.

I love frogs, too. He's really neat.

So before I left for the Renaissance Festival, I released those caterpillars that were most likely to expire without my care--pretty much everyone but the Juvenal skippers, who with feeding on Friday and Monday when I returned were perfectly fine. Oak leaves seem to take a long time in an fairly closed container to dry out. I released all of the remainder, which was maybe a dozen spicebush swallowtails and one of the two buckeye butterflies (the other had made a chrysalis).

Here are some pics of one of the buckeye caterpillars.





Monarchs that hatched after I returned. Mom released one over the Ren Faire weekend. Sadly, a lot of parasites were in my last several chrysalises, and my successful hatching rate dropped. Still, I did have a few hatch:







Finally, Peppa allowed me to capture both of us, a rare feat indeed. Usually, as soon as she sees the camera and guesses what I'm up to, she moves on.



I think I have a few more odds and ends before I'm truly "caught up" with pics, but I'm definitely getting there. :)

And I am woefully behind on reading threads.

I love the Morning Glory flowers, so beautiful, but good that they are an annual. I have a patch of volunteers growing along the back of the house, by the foundation. I've had to rip them off the faucet a few times.

LOVE the frog! His eyes are so different from the Green frogs I've seen, whose irises are glittery-gold.

Nice pic of you and Peppa.

I should be around more regularly...

>24 fuzzi: I am woefully behind on reading threads

And I'm woefully behind on making posts, LOL. :) I will get around to a few more pics, though today at lunch I must update my 75 book challenge post, as I've finished two print books and one audio book since yesterday. We'll see what time is left for sorting, uploading, and linking pictures.

This year's Halloween party is Dia de los Muertos--Day of the Dead--and I hope to have lots of pics to post!

Happy Halloween! I'll try to post pictures of our Halloween party tomorrow.

So our Dia de los Muertos theme was pretty (if a bit treacherous) at night. We created lit pathways but as you can see from this picture (sans flash), it still didn't provide a lot of light.



And the individual prayer candles were pretty.



Actually, you get a better idea from the picture with the flash on though most of the "tombstones" are hidden in the darkness beyond the flash.



Here's a picture of one of the LED-lit tombstones, with the flash:



...and one without the flash.



Daredevil, our life-size horse skeleton, was hitched to the new well's water pump, located between the pond and the "cemetery".



Senorita Kerri is with Daredevil here. We gave him a bucket of water (that was also there in case we quickly needed water to douse any accidental fires).



The ofrenda was supposed to have pictures of deceased family and friends, but it was waaayyy too windy for that. Instead, we used fake florals to decorate "gravestones" in the "cemetery" to honor the dead. This is without the flash; it turned out quite pretty.



The ofrenda with the flash on.



On the porch, our "Uncle Raymond" (as in Bradbury) sits with his favorite pet in both life and death, Kitty Kitty Kitty.



Puppy Puppy Puppy stands guard over the funeral flowers.



Of course, we decorated inside as well. In the dining room, we got out our "Halloween Tree" and decorated it this year with a Day of the Dead slant.



Another part of the dining room.



This plastic banner in the living room looks really nice backlit by the reading lights in our book nook.



We had interior ofrendas as well; this one is in the living room and features my mom's grandfather, I believe. (The only great-grandparent I remember ever knowing was on my father's side.) There are other pictures lying flat and propped up on the other side.



The mantle over the fireplace became a pet ofrenda.







One of the activities we did very late Saturday night was use chalkboard markers on chalkboard skulls to design our own "sugar skulls". The top one was designed by Laura, my boyfriend Derek, and myself; the second was done by Kerri and our friend Candace.





Lastly, because it is hard to really appreciate Daredevil fully if you haven't seen him in broad daylight, here are a few shots of him from yesterday afternoon, when we switched him back on for the night. He's triggered by vibration rather than light, so he doesn't go off every ten seconds.







Next year's theme is Harry Potter, so we plan to get some cheap dark panty hose to cover Daredevil like we did with Ray to mummify him, and we'll get him some bat wings, and voila! instant thestral. Don't know if Daredevil will be out the following year or not; it's going to be a celebration of the 1930s-1950s mad scientists, with robots, death rays, and lots of "technology".

Yes, we plan our Halloween parties two years out; we're that crazy.

Wow! Just, wow!

Wait until I post next year's Harry Potter party pics!

We've kicked other themes for the party following mad scientist around; we're thinking of maybe pirates or maybe the classic haunted house, which often has a sub-theme (last time we did classic haunted house, it was sub-themed for infectious diseases of the Victorian age--I had malaria!). Last year's theme was creepy carnival, and Mr. Bradbury was our "world's thinnest man" in the sideshow. Thus the panty hose. We had based it in part on Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and his stories about the "Autumn People". I think we need to do a literature-based one, where we work in hints and clues to various classic ghost and horror stories (Edgar Allan Poe, Bradbury, Sheridan Le Fanu, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft--that kind of thing--maybe the sub-theme for the classic haunted house?). Other discussed, future possibilities was Scooby Doo/Mystery Inc., zombies/voodoo/swamp witch, and a revisit of the Classic Monster Movie Drive-In. Any other ideas?

I second @ronincats "wows".

Where do you get all those skeletons?

Thirding the "wow"!!!

>31 fuzzi: Kitty Kitty Kitty and Puppy Puppy Puppy came from, of all places, JoAnn Fabrics. So did an owl skeleton (not pictured). I got a fish skeleton (piranha?) from Target; I should get a shot of him, as he's "jumping" from a small fish tank and he looks really cool. (We named that one "Needles".) A lizard skeleton and a couple of scorpion "skeletons" (messing up the science, I know, but they're pretty cool-looking), also not shown, came from Kroger, as did Ray. There's a rat skeleton; don't remember where he came from. The ram skull came from Spirit Halloween, and the jewel of the collection, Daredevil, came from Home Depot. I regret not getting the rather realistic-looking frog skeleton they had at Dollar Tree, and though there were snake skeletons available in a couple of places, I didn't care much for their size, shape, and poses. I've been collecting skeletons and skulls for Halloween for a couple of years; Kitty and Puppy were larger purchases from two years ago, last year we got a vulture, and we've had Ray for about 4 or 5. Animal skeletons are really coming into vogue, so you can find all sorts of species anymore, even ones like scorpions and spiders that technically have exoskeletons. Then again, they include the ears on mammals and the "tufts" on the owl head, which wouldn't be made of bone and therefore shouldn't be part of the skeleton, but I understand they are trying to make the creatures look as recognizable as possible.

Thanks for all the "wows"; we work hard to make Halloween interesting for the neighbors. We've had many slow down to take a good look at Daredevil and the cemetery. You should have seen pictures from several years ago, when my sister's hillside garden hadn't expanded so much; we created a mast out of an old fence post and some old, ripped cotton sheets and strategically arranged rocks to make a shipwreck cove for our pirate theme.

Daredevil will get "stabled" in the barn for the rest of this year. We are going to remove the batteries from his head that gives him the glowing red eyes and the horse sounds, but not disassemble him. I don't really think he's made to take apart; he has those locking pop up tent "pegs" inside the joints and I don't see a way to press the pegs in to release the catches because they're buried in plastic bone. So he's going into the barn, under the loft area where he's less likely to get bat droppings on him. (The bats will be on their way to hibernation spots soon, anyway.) Check out the Home Depot page for the horse skeleton and be sure to view the video to see and hear him in action.

We had our first truly killing freeze this weekend, with temps in the upper 20s. My lantana took a hit, and I was finally able to remove it from the planter, free from guilt. Up until Friday evening, the first night it dropped so low, it had been blooming. Now all my planters are empty and stored for the winter, the garden statuary is long put away, and the only truly still-blooming flower is one brave giant phlox. On Friday, aside from the phlox and lantana, I still had zinnias and morning glories. Winter is truly on its way.

As promised above, I did take pictures of Needles the piranha skeleton, artfully arranged. I don't know if we'll bring him out for next year (Harry Potter), but he and his tank may end up dangerously close to the high voltage box for mad scientists in 2018 because, you know, water and electricity go so great together in an evil mad scientist lab.... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

>36 CassieBash: back atcha!

Hoping everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for all the various turkey postings on this and the 75er's page! Hunters have been extremely active in our area this year, so much of our wildlife, including the turkeys, seem to be laying low. Hopefully this winter I will get more shots (photographic ones, not bullet ones, of course!) of the turkeys that so many of you like to see. Despite our "warm up" into the upper 40s today, I think I can safely say I won't be getting any more shots of big butterflies and moths.

Winter's not quite here yet, going by the solstice, but our snow and current temperatures, plus windchill, say otherwise. Thus, I think it's time to move on to my Winter posting.