Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sunday Pictures

How do insects and flowers celebrate Mother's Day?  In my yard, the butterflies are laying eggs like gangbusters, the flowers are bursting with color and baby birds are everywhere.  I didn't take photos of the baby Mockingbirds, Grackles and Blue Jays, but they are in the yard.  Actually, they are "teenager" birds.  They can all fly, but they still trail their mothers crying continuously "feed me, feed me!" "I don't want to look for my own food!!" - just like human teenagers.  And you know what?  I don't blame them.  If I could be a child forever  - or at least have someone take care of me forever, I'd go for it.  I think.  Actually, God is my Father and He provides for me forever - however, He does require that I actually DO something, whereas baby birds and humans would like to have to do nothing and have all their needs met.

Anyway,  Happy Mother's Day - and here are today's photos:

















A rare red dragonfly flew through my yard late this afternoon as I was watering before the sun went down.  I have Christmas lights draped over the bushes and attached to the trellis and at night it is lovely.
















This fellow - blue and yellow - was beautiful.  I'm not sure why there are so many dragonflies in my yard - I thought they like swamps and watery places and my back yard isn't THAT wet, although we DO have a small pool and fountain.  I'm not complaining - as long as they want to come and visit, I'm happy.





























Closeup on my little friend's "face" - doesn't it look like he/she has lipstick on and is smiling?  He/she also seems to have a small little button "nose", but I know that isn't what I see - it just looks anthropomorphic, just a bit.



















Above are Cassia flowers.  The yellow butterflies LOVE this plant - it is their larval plant.  Yesterday I took some photos of the caterpillars on this plant.





















































Above are the flowers of the Dutchman's Pipe vine.  This vine is the larval plant for Polydamous Butterflies, which are a Swallowtail genus and have black or dark brown wings with a yellow border at the bottom.  Whoever labeled this plant "Dutchman's Pipe" was being very polite.  I think the unopened flowers look more like "Dutchman's Scrotum" - forgive the honesty.  The opened flowers, in the bottom picture, are very unique.


















Above is a Polydamous caterpillar on a fallen Dutchman's Pipe flower.  Once they fall to the ground, the entire flower turns a dark indigo blue color, which leads me to wonder if they could be used for dye, although I can't find any mention of that on the internet.



















Monarch sex.  I wonder if one of these is the female Monarch my husband and I watched emerge from her chrysallis this morning.  Hubby was just about to go in and get his camera - and the chrysallis began to split.  So we just watched instead - beautiful.  She didn't waste any time, evidently.





















A couple more pictures of the beautiful red dragonfly perched on our Christmas lights.  What a treat!!
























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