Less than 10 days and this guy is getting big! We changed out his original lead to a bigger one I found and he is chowing down! We cleaned out the frass (poo) today.
Today was hatch day for the monarch egg! The egg took approximately 5 days to hatch. It looked like a little blob and proceeded to eat it’s egg shell. I did have trouble locating it as it moved to a different leaf! My boy and I have taken it and the leaf and placed it in a plastic container to help make sure this guy makes it. This generation caterpillar is gen 4 of 4 for the year and will have to make the migration to Mexico and back to the United States in the spring. With a long journey ahead we want to prepare him/her and ensure it’s survival to start generation one of 2021! Check out his picture taken with my iPhone.
First Picture of the new gourd rack! First picture with the decoys installed. Picture taken from behind the fence. It is not close at all to the utility boxes. (optical illusion) 2020 Martin Season of Drama I'm no stranger to cavity nesters. If you read my intro, you already know I have 20 years experience with Bluebirds and Tree Swallows. Completing this personal milestone I decided to start researching what other birds might be in need of help. Around May 23rd, I had a Purple Martin fly over my neighborhood and I did not have any housing. I decided to go ahead and order a rack of 6 horizontal gourds with starling resistant entrances. I got the rack up on June 4th hopeful to attract some birds. I started playing the dawn song. I had one or two more flyovers that I know of. Little did I know I would have to take down my housing on June 16th after I was reported to the City. I posted the following on a Purple Martin Facebook Group a...
During the month of May 2020 I got the idea to take a couple pieces of scrap wood and screw them together to create an Nesting shelf with 11” x 5.5” of space. I secured them by drilling two holes and running metal wire through them. I removed a piece of Fashia and twisted the wires together and replaced the Fashia. I put one on each side of my house in hopes to attract open cup nesters such as Robins, Cardinals, Barn Swallows, Doves, etc. Again being on .30 acre lot and not much space, this is urban birding at its finest lol Pictured below is nest #1 of Mourning Doves who took up residence on one of the shelves in the month of July, successfully fledgling 2 young. The eggs were touching the floor so I spruced it up with some pine needles. I never expected this at all since for most birds it’s late in the season, but Brood #2 on my shelf is under way with two more eggs! I’m already excited to see what next season will bring for open cup nesters!
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